Sianne Hussey – Business Continuum

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.

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.