2018 has been a BIG year for Lancom. As we wind down for the holidays, we look back at the year we had and share with you some of the highlights from the past months.

Starting off right

We kicked off the year taking a look at the core of who we are: our culture, values, mission and goals for the next decade. We dug deep! and took the time to distill our beliefs arriving at a set of 5 values which drive us each and every day: talent, continuous learning, humility, perseverance and creators. 

As the first and second quarters of 2018 went along, we saw ourselves gaining a stronger voice in the market, participating in large events, and doing what we love: sharing our knowledge and learning from others!

From discussing Cyber-Security at the monthly Auckland University MBA breakfast event series, through to taking the stage at the AWS Summit in Sydney; we have made it our mission to raise the tech IQ of the community and are making tangible progress towards it. 

Our customers' success

We have seen fantastic results from the work we have set ourselves to do for our customers, enabling those who trust us to experience the outcomes of our promise to deliver leverage through technology.

Whilst not all of our successes are documented, we are extremely honored and thankful to the customers who took their time to voice the benefits of the work we have passionately delivered. 

• In Good Company stood behind the camera and spoke about the impact  automated data models and Power BI have provided to their business, and their customers businesses.
  
  
• Workbench discussed how our ability to optimise their AWS environment has resulted in savings of up to 400 hours per year for repetitive work that would have otherwise been performed manually.
  
  
• HRV discussed Lancom's role in enabling their business transform through technology for the past 15 years and the successes achieved through our partnership.
  
  

More recently, we have set ourselves to deliver a full transformation project to Barwon Health, a state owned hospital based in Geelong Australia. The year long project aims to modernise and re-develop the document management system of Barwon Health, enabling the hospital staff to find information as needed, ultimately providing the business assurance that polices and procedures are available so staff can focus on providing the best care for the community.

David  Morrison from Barwon Health walking us through the importance of Lancom's role in creating software solutions that enable Barwon Health to progress as a business.

But we are not stopping here.

We are on a mission to help businesses achieve leverage and we are sticking to it. So keep an eye out for the stories we have coming in 2019!

Our People Growth 

Recognising the need to add to the talent  we are extremely fortunate to have, we have expanded the team, hiring fantastic experienced talent to solidify our growth goals and continue adding value to our partners.

In 2018 we saw our team getting in front of the camera speaking confidently about Lancom, our customer engagement model, and what it's like to be a part of the Lancom family.

We have celebrated individual growth by featuring our team, their stories, learnings and recommendations on our blog, putting a spot light on the talent that makes it all happen often behind the scenes.

Putting our culture at the forefront of our priorities, we have launched "Social Fridays", a monthly event which enables proximity and allows us to stop and celebrate successes. We saw our staff getting enthusiastic about making these events fun, going for themes and using these to help the community too!

September Social Friday & "Loud Shirt Day"

We took our value of continuous learning further by running quarterly learning sessions with our staff, aiming to up-skill our engineering and development teams on the latest technologies that will equip them to provide leverage for our customers into the future.

Our team grew not just in numbers but also in quality, we couldn't be prouder!

Software Development team quarterly training session on Serverless Technology

Knowledge Share & Continuous Learning

We had the privilege to speak to thought leaders and discuss topics of interest on Lancom TV, from Cyber-Security through to Digital Transformation, we covered what the market was asking us - therefore sticking to our purpose of providing relevant, helpful content that raises the tech IQ of our customers and readers.

Royden Burt, National Azure Specialist & Lancom TV guest.

Internally, we have spent countless hours improving the Lancom Button, our tool for IT support efficiency; ensuring better transparency, customisation and easier engagement in our service delivery models. 

We have challenged our service delivery models, redefining our service level agreements (SLA's) to be focused on Communication Level Agreements, and got closer and closer to our customers by inviting them to speak to us each week, to broaden our understanding of the impact that technology has in their business and lives; ultimately looking to improve the service we deliver to those who we partner with.

Shortland CA presenting to our team at our "customer weekly session".

We turned 30!

In October we celebrated 3 decades in business and took the opportunity to look back and ahead, celebrating the successes achieved to date and what is to come.

Turning 30 allowed ask our clients"why Lancom?". The responses wowed us, providing re-assurance that our long lasting partnerships enable our customers to grow through a technological journey that adds value to businesses, people and society in general.

Stephen Van Wonderen, CFO of Attwoods summarised his why Lancom in a way that surprised most of us, so we couldn't help but share his story: 

"Another fantastic day in Whāingaroa I think as I walk across to my desk at home carrying my first Raglan Roast coffee of the day. I start up my laptop and connect to the servers in Sydney. My first email is the list of Office 365 users we have, that I get every month like clockwork. Later as I Skype one of my team in East Tamaki, I’m informed that they have a question on the use and functionality of Exchange. I remind them to log a ticket via the portal for that to be answered. Another email arrives, an update on the Citrix upgrade which is all going to plan, and that Mount Maunganui is now being cutover. We will soon be able to shut down the old instance. I pick up my iPhone and see that the Christchurch Branch Manager is available and not on a call, so I contact him through the cloud hosted phone system. As I relax in my La-z-Boy that evening admiring the sun setting over Mt Karioi, I review the sales report. Another good day of orders being despatched, so obviously the systems are running smoothly. I yet again, think of the contract signed with Lancom some years ago, and reflect what a great decision that was. We have been taken on a successful technological journey, and I will sleep peacefully again tonight." 

Here's to 2019!

We won't give much away about 2019, other than it is going to be a big one. To all of our customers, strategic partners and those who follow us close or from the distance: Thanks for partnering with us and supporting our team and vision.

We are excited and looking forward to a fantastic new year!

Till next time.