Business Continuum

Menu
Linkedin Facebook X-twitter Instagram

Tag: Business Continuum news

Categories
Blog

Business Continuum 2022 Company Update

Business Continuum - 2022 Company Update

2022 Business Continuum Team

After an unexpected couple of years of lockdowns, our team is ready to ramp up again in 2022. We have had several fresh minds and experts join our passionate team in recent times, positioning us to offer more capability for clients across a broader range of industries and solutions.

With over 7 years of delivering software advisory services across Australia, we have enjoyed moving more businesses to the cloud to cater for the work-from-home movement. More than ever, we are dedicated to assisting Aussie businesses develop smarter solutions to allow them to do more with less resourcing and double-handling.

 

Partnerships:

With the never-ending evolution of digital technologies and processes, businesses have learned over the years that without change, we stand-still. As the old saying goes, the only thing constant is change, and our ability to proactively adapt to change has repeatedly proven to assist us in offering a valuable competitive advantage. We are lucky enough to have an array of dedicated software partners committed to providing innovative ways to improve business processes. It’s no secret that we are constantly expanding our relationships with partners.

New Software Partnerships:

Trusted by companies of all sizes, Business Continuum continues to partner with solutions that expand our clients’ capability to digitise and streamline their workflow and client engagement.

 

Our Team:

At Business Continuum, we strongly believe in fostering a workplace culture that empowers individuals to develop professional technical skills and work collaboratively to develop solutions for our clients. Our diverse team brings different perspectives and expertise to our business which directly translates to the end-to-end business transformation support we provide. The new members to join our team include:

Yesha Sahu – Product Specialist

Joel Krish – Product Specialist

Carter Handby – Product Specialist Intern

Hannah Yao – Product Specialist Intern

Nethmi Irugalbandara – Marketing Intern

Business Continuum Interns

We are conscious of our role in engaging and maturing local talent who are interested in our cloud and advisory space. Thus, the recruitment of our interns provided us with the opportunity to welcome these students into the Business Continuum family and give them a chance to advance their skills while building a network of mentors. Through our mentorship, we want to create a talent pipeline that will add value not only to our business but also contribute to the individual skill sets of our interns.

Moreover, Minal De Silva, who has been a dedicated employee since 2018, has been appointed as the primary Business Advisor for all our inventory and SAP Concur projects. Connor Reich, our Senior Product Specialist, is now enrolled in a Master’s degree in teaching, which has also made him a valuable pillar of support for our new interns. In addition, the team has been instrumental in inducting our new interns and teaching them all aspects of our project delivery methodology and technical solutions we provide to our clients; they have demonstrated great initiative, and their capability is proving to be well beyond their years of experience.

Our goal for this year is simple, we hope to continue embracing the changing needs of businesses within Australia as software change agents.

Finally, we’d like to express our gratitude to everyone with whom we’ve collaborated over the last few years. Our business is built on the relationships we make with our clients, thus we are extremely grateful to everyone we have had the pleasure of working with.

To stay updated on all things Business Continuum check out our Linktree.

Categories
Blog

2018: A Year of Growth, Transformation & New Challenges

2018: A Year of Growth, Transformation & New Challenges

With 2018 quickly drawing to a close, we thought we’d take the time to reflect on the Business Continuum journey this year. We’ve forged new partnerships, seen a major business transformation and grown our client base – and that’s just scratching the surface.

Tackling new challenges and developing partnerships

Since our humble beginnings as a one-man operation back in 2014, we’ve always loved a challenge. That’s why solving real-world problems for businesses is our bread and butter. This year, we’ve been fortunate enough to work with a more diverse range of businesses than ever before – from SMEs right through to ASX-listed companies.

As always, our ethos has been to provide end-to-end business transformation support. There’s no shortage of cloud integrators on the market, but our aim is to be an ongoing partner to our clients before, during, and after service – something that’s often overlooked. We like to think that it’s this dedication – along with our diverse range of industry experience – that has seen us entrusted with designing solutions for a growing number of businesses all over Australia.

Being able to solve bigger, harder and riskier problems is a huge motivator for the whole team here at Business Continuum. Strengthening our partnerships with software solutions like Concur and Scoro has enabled us to provide even more sophisticated solutions to drive operational excellence for businesses in a wider range of industries.

A month of milestones and transformations

October was a big month for us in more ways than one. Firstly, we reached a milestone of working with 500 businesses as of our 4th birthday early in the month – an amazing achievement that we’re incredibly proud of.

Late October also saw departures from Directors Greg Harrison and Chung Hui as they moved on to new business opportunities. We’re immensely thankful to Greg and Chung for their invaluable contributions to the business. Business Continuum wouldn’t be where it is today without their client-first approach and decades of expertise.

2019: New hires and continued growth

Looking forward to next year, we’ll be expanding our team of seven to around a dozen in line with our plan for continued growth. We’ll also be moving to WeWork offices in Melbourne and Sydney so we can be even more accessible to our clients and leverage the great community of talent in the co-working space.

As far as tech is concerned, we’ll be growing our existing partnerships with leading software providers, and we also have some customised app development in the works. Stay tuned for more info on that in the new year.

As a final note, we’d like to say a big thank you to everyone we’ve worked with this year – and here’s to a prosperous 2019. We look forward to seeing you next year!

Categories
Blog

2017 In Review: Helping Our Clients Achieve More in the Cloud

2017 In Review: Helping Our Clients Achieve More in the Cloud

We’re celebrating a year of growth: offering clients more solutions, more capability and more expertise.

It’s been a fulfilling year for the Business Continuum team. We’ve broadened our service offering and attracted many new clients, whilst continuing to deepen numerous loyal and longstanding existing relationships. We’ve also diversified our offerings by adding several talented experts to our team. It’s important to take time to reflect and celebrate, so here’s a few highlights from 2017.

Merger with Realtime Business, appointment of Greg Harrison

In April, we merged with Realtime Business, and founder Greg Harrison became a Director of Business Continuum, alongside Matthew Peng and Chung Hui. Greg’s arrival signified a combining of forces between our two teams, giving our clients access to his many decades of experience in the IT, business management and project management industries. Greg’s approach is pragmatic, process driven and client focussed, making him a perfect fit for the growing Business Continuum team. The merge empowers us to more efficiently service more clients, and increase the breadth of the services we provide.

Appointment of Tim Dowling

In July, we further strengthened our team with the appointment of Tim Dowling as Client Director. Tim’s focus on understanding the client’s overall business objectives and his extensive, in-house knowledge of Xero Practice Manager and WorkflowMax make him a valuable asset to our team. Since his arrival, he’s delivered many successful projects, particularly those that require expert configuration of Xero Practice Manager to help modernise workflow processes for accounting firms.

A bigger team means more expertise for clients

In 2017 we welcomed several new staff to the Business Continuum team. This has allowed us to offer more services and increased capability to more clients. Our new team includes:

  • Sianne Hussey, Client Manager, bringing inventory management expertise with products such as Unleashed, Cin7 and DEAR
  • Ben Harrison, Client Manager and our resident Scoro guru (more on that below)
  • Connor Reich, Graduate Analyst and our data configuration go-to guy
  • Tejas Chandra, Client Manager and specialist in Scoro and Xero SMB sales expert
  • Shelley Foster, Client Manager, with expertise in Concur and business system implementations

We’re also thrilled to announce that we’ve hired our first Sydney-based team member. Rikki Phillips joins us in January with a strong background in XPM and other cloud-based applications.

Partnerships with leading software providers

During 2017 we continued to build partnerships with leading global providers of cloud-based software platforms Concur, Scoro and Unleashed.

Our Client Manager Ben Harrison recently spent time in Estonia, taking a deep dive into Scoro’s capabilities, and he came back impressed with the team and the technology.

We’ve also been delighted to announce our official partnership with Concur. The commitment Concur is delivering to the Australian market, with significant investments in local servers, events and tech development ensures its offering is competitive, diverse and reliable.

We’re also excited to be working with Unleashed. Expanding our suite of services to focus on inventory management is a logical step for us, and a move that has been welcomed by clients looking to get their cloud-based operational systems working as effectively as possible.

Working closely with these new providers as well as others enables us to develop a deep and intricate understanding of their software and capabilities, and which clients may benefit from it the most. As a cloud integrator, working alongside a variety of different software providers empowers us to be channel agnostic: we prescribe the right solution for our clients, not just the only solution we know.

We’ve also cemented our position with SuiteFiles—the content management solution for XPM environments—having been awarded “Partner of the Year” for the second successive year. We’re delighted to extend our relationship with the team at SuiteFiles and we’ve been impressed with the product enhancements they’ve released in 2017.

Events: APIntel, Xerocon and Xerocon Roadshow

Alongside industry peers, we hosted a pre-Xerocon event that offered insights on how to achieve growth, efficiency and productivity using Xero Practice Manager. Our Client Director Tim Dowling spoke alongside AccountKit’s Paul Murray and SuiteFiles’ Andrew Sims at Accounting Practice Intelligence (APIntel). His presentation encouraged firm Principals to focus on profitability by driving more engagement with current and new clients.

And of course, who can forget Xerocon, the granddaddy of industry events for cloud-based integrators like us. Our Director Matthew Peng presented at Uni Day, a range of in-depth sessions designed for accountants and bookkeepers, showing them how to upskill their Xero knowledge to improve profitability and efficiency.

At Xerocon itself we learned of many new announcements, including the relaunch of expenses, the lifelong learning platform, and Xero Projects. (By the way, if you’re weighing up Xero Projects or WorkflowMax for your business, here’s our take on both.)

Business Growth

Our team has more than doubled in size to a total of 11 staff this year. What all of this growth means is more scale in the business to remove bottlenecks of access to people, more specialisation, and more options we can bring to the table for clients. We’re in a far better position than we have ever been to help clients scope out and execute change at a business process level. Our goal is to be a more capable and comprehensive business partner every year, so there’ll be no slowing down in terms of growth.

We’re also pleased to report that we’ve diversified the size and types of our client base. While continuing to work with smaller businesses, our increasing expertise has attracted larger clients as well.

No matter what part you may have played in our achievements this year, we thank you, and look forward to seeing you in 2018.

Categories
Blog

Business Continuum Announced as Scoro’s Exclusive Integration Partner for Australia and New Zealand

Business Continuum Announced as Scoro’s Exclusive Integration Partner for Australia and New Zealand

It’s packed with features, easy-to-use, and the most comprehensive new project management tool to hit our shores in a long time. Meet Scoro. We’re thrilled that Scoro is now available in Australia and New Zealand, and that Business Continuum has been announced as the exclusive integration partner for this region.

So, what is Scoro?

This cloud-based software solution is considered to be the Salesforce equivalent in the project management software space. It’s seriously impressive and packed with features, and it’s customisable for any business with project management needs – like creative agencies, design studios and other professional service businesses. Users can get more work done, organise multiple projects, track timesheets, invoices and payments and manage the entire business within a single cloud solution.

Effective immediately, Business Continuum will be introducing Scoro’s broad spectrum of services to Australian and New Zealand businesses that need advanced project management support.

Ben Harrison, in-house Scoro expert

To ensure Business Continuum has advanced in-house knowledge of Scoro and all its features, we recently sent our Client Manager Ben Harrison to Estonia for an intensive two-week immersion course with Scoro’s founders. Ben spent time working with the Estonian founders of Scoro, learning all facets of its impressive features and enjoying the sights of the Estonian capital Tallinn.

“Because I was concentrating on my deep-dive into Scoro as much as possible, I didn’t get much time for sightseeing,” said Ben. “But I did enjoy getting around Tallinn. Estonia is a beautiful country with an ancient history that is visible with the walled city in the centre of Tallinn which I enjoyed exploring. It’s a fascinating contrast of different styles of architecture from significantly different eras.

A great welcome from Scoro.

“The Scoro team was really welcoming. What’s impressive about Scoro is how seriously they take improving their product—they average five major releases a year, all with 20 or more significant updates. They are very open to suggestions on how the features could be improved and they are keen to understand the unique requirements of the Australian market.”

Project management features for complex projects

“Scoro is a modular product, one of its core strengths. It does very specific things and yet it remains very customisable. If some features that are not applicable to certain types of business they can easily be switched off. And, it offers great ways of assigning tasks within teams or offices. Because it provides customisable views, users can create a dashboard showing who’s doing what as part of the project.

“Now that I’ve learned it intricately, I am looking forward to helping Business Continuum clients get the best out of its project management features.”

Attention to detail and speedy responsiveness

“This (the Scoro team) is a young, diverse and enthusiastic team,” says Ben. “It was great to be part of such a positive and enthusiastic organisation. To me, it’s a brand that feels more human and authentic now that I’ve worked closely with them. They’re really dedicated to quality and continual improvement, so if an issue is raised, it’s corrected within hours or days. They move fast. There is no defensiveness. If a user or a partner raises an issue, they take it on board and do their best to fix it rather than pushing back. I’m convinced that’s part of the reason for their phenomenal success and quick uptake around the world.”

A typical day in Scoro’s Tallinn office

“For the fortnight I was there, I would set myself up in a meeting room, and check in with emails from the Business Continuum team back home,” says Ben. “I would then typically have meetings with the team to talk through the processes and features of Scoro in detail. At lunch time, like clockwork, everyone would take a break at the office ping pong table. Actually, plenty of good ideas got their origin at that ping pong table! Of an evening, I would join up with the team to enjoy the dining scene of Tallinn, it’s right on the Baltic so it’s famous for its seafood dishes.

“Being there for two weeks allowed me to really immerse myself with the software and actually use it for applications. I can confidently say I know Scoro inside out now and have built some great relationships into the heart of the business.”

Party like an Estonian

“I was lucky enough to be with Scoro during their annual summer get together. The Scoro office from Riga in Latvia joined the Tallinn team for a weekend retreat in a stunning lakeside cabin in Latvia. And, they did not hesitate to let their hair down! There were plenty of team building games and drinking. All terrific fun, and I was honoured to be invited along.

Want to know more about Scoro?

Contact us for a chat about how Scoro can help improve your project management workflow.

Categories
Blog

We’re Partnering with Global Industry Leader, Concur

We’re Partnering with Global Industry Leader, Concur

The Business Continuum team is thrilled to announce its partnership with Concur, one of the biggest names in expense management software.

Director Greg Harrison says the company was drawn to Concur’s growth, truly global presence and their world-class partner program, which will all contribute to Business Continuum’s ongoing move into the mid-market enterprise space.

So, what exactly is Concur all about?

Concur specialises in expense management and accounts payable automation, and its software can be linked to almost any back-end finance system, including Xero. It is also a global leader in streamlining travel expenses.

The Business Continuum partnership will initially focus on expense management and accounts payable solutions, with the longer-term intention of becoming a full-service provider for Concur.

What this means for Business Continuum’s growth

Greg says Business Continuum has always set out to solve “cold hard business problems”. Expense management and accounts-paid automation are two critical functions that many companies struggle to streamline.

“We’ve done our research, we believe that Concur is an awesome solution and we’re delighted to stand alongside them,” he says.

“We’ll be able to add strength and value to the Concur offering, so it’s good for us, good for them, and even more importantly, good for clients.”

How will existing clients immediately benefit?

Business Continuum’s current small to mid-sized clients will have the option of integrating their expense and accounts systems using Concur’s software. The fact that both tie in with Xero makes Concur a natural fit for these companies.

Meet your Concur expert, Shelley!

Business Continuum is pleased to welcome Shelley Foster to the team, to ensure clients achieve the optimal outcome from implementing Concur. She comes armed with strong credentials in IT implementation, having worked as an IT manager, trainer, project manager and business analyst. So her role as project manager and trainer for Concur solutions is a perfect fit for her.
Greg says Shelley’s experience working with diverse business applications ­– from time and attendance, to accounts, payroll, asset management, HR and CRM – will be extremely valuable to the work Business Continuum carries out with Concur.

More about Concur’s offerings

Manage Expenses With Ease with Concur Expense

Automate your expense management from receipt capture to employee reimbursement. Submit and approve from any mobile device. This streamlined process gives business leaders insight and control over compliance and costs. Lose the paper and get back time with Concur Expense.

Process Invoices Faster with Concur Invoice

Simplify your business by automating accounts payable. Get full visibility into spend, before it happens and as it happens. Easily track invoices, manage exceptions and speed up vendor payments. Approve from anywhere on a mobile device. Catch duplicate invoices before you overpay. Concur Invoice saves you money and time.

Simplify Business Travel with Concur Travel

Let travellers easily book flights, hotels and cars in the way they want while capturing all travel data in one place. Concur TripLink helps you get full visibility into travel spend while encouraging compliance. And with more information about supplier spend available, companies can negotiate better rates.

Contact our experts to find out how Concur’s expense management and accounts payable features can integrate with your cloud software. No matter where you are in your business journey – starting out fresh, rapidly expanding, or well-established ­and steady – Business Continuum can help you select the best cloud software solutions for your needs.

Categories
Blog

Meet the Newest Members of the Business Continuum Team

Meet the Newest Members of the Business Continuum Team

Over recent months we have expanded the Business Continuum team, bringing more expertise and service capabilities to our clients. It’s time to introduce our newest team members.

Sianne Hussey, Client Manager

Sianne is our inventory management guru, working with clients to create inventory management systems to save time and improve efficiency for clients.

“Many clients are pleased to eliminate pain points they have been struggling with for years,” says Sianne. “I love to go further by finding problems they never knew they had, and create systems that improve their stock flow and productivity.”

Sianne starts by finding out as much as she can about the operations of the client’s business. “Even the smallest detail is interesting. Only then can I create the right solution for their needs,” she says.

Certified in many inventory management programs, Sianne recommends the solution that is the true best fit for her clients. “The idea is to find the right solution so that stock isn’t languishing on shelves, but moving quickly through the sales channel. With that sorted, the business can then find it easier to identify new sales opportunities.”

“Many clients have grown as a business and (are) using outdated systems that worked when they were smaller,” she says. “I recall one client who used a manual sticker system to control stock. Transferring the stock control to a cloud system created a huge saving in time, and increased profits.”

Born in South Korea, Sianne was adopted and raised in Warrnambool, Victoria. She started her career working in a caravan park whilst studying, where she wrote a how-to guide on the software they were using at the time. Shortly after this, she found herself working for that particular software company and thus was the beginning of her career in software consulting. Before joining Business Continuum, Sianne was the Director and Principal of The Rype Group – Melbourne. Prior to this, her role was Solutions Specialist for Unleashed Software (inventory management).

While not at work, Sianne enjoys cross stitching, hates cooking and likes online window shopping for all sorts of bits and bobs she doesn’t really need (but wants).

Ben Harrison, Client Manager

Ben says there’s no typical day at Business Continuum – and that’s just how he likes it. He often spends time on the road, travelling to clients to create a bespoke cloud solution, or deliver training to the team on using new software.

“We can create the best system in the world, but if the client’s staff aren’t using it, engaged with it or using it to its full capacity, it can be ineffective,” he says. “It’s essential that any cloud solution integrates fully with existing programs, and that staff are very comfortable and happy using it.

“After delivering our solution, we spend a lot of time making sure it’s working to its full capacity.”

When he’s not on the road, Ben is creating and designing WorkflowMax and Xero systems for his clients, who include accountants, architects, creative agencies, designers and engineers.

“Anyone who charges money for their time can benefit from our services,” he says.

Ben completed a degree in accounting and finance before moving into a bookkeeping role. He quickly identified the opportunities that Xero and WorkflowMax offered bookkeepers and moved to cloud solution roles with Realtime Business, which recently merged with Business Continuum.

Over his four years of working in the industry, Ben says that identifying new solutions for clients is always rewarding. “It’s great to be part of a team that helps clients grow their business, identify new revenue streams and increase profitability. We are employing more experts and diversifying our services, which helps us deliver even better results for our clients. It’s rewarding to be part of the Business Continuum growth cycle,” he says.

Ben is a long-suffering Richmond fan and enjoys overseas travel. When he’s home he prefers a quiet night on the couch with a book.

Connor Reich, Graduate Analyst

Connor is the go-to guy for any data input, configuration and administration support for the Business Continuum team. He’s getting stuck into Xero and WorkflowMax with gusto, quickly learning the ins and outs on the job.

“I’ve not considered myself a techie person but I do take pride in learning quickly,” Connor says. “As a millennial, people sometimes assume I know a lot about cloud integration, but I have learned plenty more in my three months at Business Continuum. There’s always a sense of achievement and a job completed. I appreciate the variety of working on different client projects and helping see them to completion.”

Connor holds a degree in history and international studies. When not working, he enjoys all kinds of horror movies, and honed this love while working in a video store as a teenager. Connor has attended many music festivals, including Falls Festival and his favourite, Splendour in the Grass.

Categories
Blog

A New Era for Business Continuum

A New Era for Business Continuum

We are pleased to announce that Business Continuum has today merged with Realtime Business, marking an exciting milestone for both organisations.

The two businesses will operate under the Business Continuum brand, offering clients a wider range of cloud integration solutions using Xero and WorkflowMax.

An experienced team

The team at Realtime Business, headed by Greg Harrison, brings impressive skills and expertise to Business Continuum.

“This merger brings together two like-minded companies that share a commitment to quality, innovation and customer service,” says Chung Hui, Director, Business Continuum. “It enables us to quickly achieve significant growth and improvement in expertise, quality and capabilities.

“Greg joins us as a director, bringing with him 35 years of IT and business experience. His comprehensive knowledge of Xero and WorkflowMax is a major asset. He’s strong on process, pragmatic in his approach and passionate about achieving the right outcomes for clients.”

More services, more expertise and more insights for clients

The merger of the two businesses creates a significant growth in capacity and scope – effectively doubling the operational size of the business.

“Our broader scope of services will enable us to offer comprehensive consulting services for inventory management, strategic solutions, Xero tax training, document management and many other services,” says Greg Harrison. “I’m looking forward to working with the Business Continuum team. Their depth of experience is considerable and their holistic approach to their clients is first-rate. Due to the market presence and strength of the Business Continuum brand, it was an easy decision to continue operating under the Business Continuum name.”

For Business Continuum clients, operations will continue as normal. Realtime Business clients will be seamlessly transitioned to become clients of Business Continuum. Abacus, another brand established by Realtime Business, will also cease operation.

Contact us now

Get in touch