Established: 17 years

Location: Auckland

Contact Name: Debra Ryan

Website: www.integratedautomation.co.nz

Business mission and vision:
Our Mission is to solve real-world problems using technology and innovation.
Our Vision is to be a leader in providing world-class innovative automation systems.

“We innovate solutions to a customers problems to make things better, faster, safer and smarter. We think outside the square to help imporove a customers business through automation, robotics, systems, mechanical engineering and safety. ”

We are a full service offering – from mechanical design all the way through to electrical and automation. But I think what sets us aside apart from our technical offering is our people. We have the most incredible minds that work in our team. They have an ability so think so far outside the box it is incredible. We still have the small family business feel so it’s like working with a group of friends. This flows through into how we work as a team and with our clients.
Firebrand award for Ignition systems from Inductive Automation.
Donovan and Debra moved to Auckland and Donovan couldn’t find a business that was the right fit for what he envisioned a great business to be. He had his contacts ask him to work as a contractor and it went from there. The desire to create something that felt different was really important and to have a creative space for incredible people.
Staff shortages and competition would be the big ones. There are always going to be other bigger players trying to cut you out but we use our approachability and inginuity to come up against them.
When the lockdowns happened we had to reinvent our customer base as the majority of our work was unable to be done as it had a large overseas component. It was really important for us to keep our staff on board and paid as we felt responsible for their families as well as the business. As such we had to find local work and new customers in really difficult economic times. Through our hard work we did this and have since been able to grow our team to help service these new clients in NZ.
I think having a small business that had weathered the GFC, economic downturn and then COVID lockdowns is proof that you can overcome adversity and have the flexibility to pivot and change the market. Pre Covid we were sending team members overseas every month. Our customer base was 80% off shore installations. When Lockdowns came we were unable to do any of this and had to completely pivot in the market to find local customers.
Aside from the above in being able to continue despite the global conditions and pandemic, we have been at the forefront of techonology and inginuity continuously. We are bringing to NZ cutting edge technology that has never been used here or in Australia and building one of a kind solutions for our customers.
Our team. We have the most amazing people working for us. Yes it enables us to win work and service clients but it’s the people that make us so proud of the company. Without them we would be nothing.
In addition to job related training such as Robotics, Software, SCADA, Electrical Registration, we have also felt that it is important to develop leadership within the team. We partnered with The Icehouse and have put all of our senior team through their comprehensive leadership courses and our Director has completed the 6 month Owner Manager Program.
We get fantastic feedback from all our customers. Some of which you can see on the main page of our website and our google reviews. We are often acknowledged for our professionalism, workmanship, attention to detail and the end result.
Flexibity and the ability to make a difference. We can have much more control over the type of environment we want to work in. The culture and the type of work we do is much easier to influence when you are a business owner. It also gives Debra the flexibitily to work school hours and work from home during school holidays. This has been a really important part of the lifestyle they chose for their family.
We have recently sponsored community sports teams by purchasing netball uniforms for the local school. We also purchased EPRO8 kits for the school which enabled students to learn about engineering and electronics and teams of students have gone on to compete at national level using these kits.
No set in stone ways. It’s more ad hoc by getting involved in things like Movember or supporting charity events as they come up.

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