The brief history evolves with Managing Director Doug Brooker founding Systems Advisory Services (SAS^IT) in 1974 in Auckland. In the early days SAS^IT was involved in bureau based processing using IBM mainframes and System/3 computers. In 1981 the business started hosting applications in an Application Service Provider (ASP) style environment using the IBM System/38 as the core infrastructural base system.

The business has expanded over the years to encompass application and software development, application integration, facilities management, networking and outsourcing as well as system sales and support.

SAS^IT has developed many core applications for organisations with unique needs that cannot be catered for by packaged application software. These developed systems have included waste management, membership and membership rewards, process manufacturing order entry, fraud detection software for the insurance industry, manufacturing, financial systems and much more.

Business continuity has been a key driver with the Last Minutes® service. Last Minutes® has been developed to provide for the protection of data in the event of a systems crash. In the event of a failure, SAS^IT can reapply these changes to the most recent backup, bringing the systems back to just minutes prior to the systems failure, saving extensive time delays, and associated cost in money and brand damage.

In the area of technology procurement we understand buying appropriate technology can be challenging, and often the reliance on the business partners, or vendor is significant. Choosing a partner who understands the business as well as the technical requirements is extremely important.

As SAS^IT is in the business of outsourcing we buy and implement as much equipment and software for our own use (to provide outsourcing based solutions) as we on sell. That means we get to live with our decisions, and therefore understand how important making the right decision is. Our customers include Waste Management, New Zealand Automobile Association, New Zealand Insurance Council, Alsco, InterCity Group, Wickliffe, and Summit Quinphos to name just a few. In all cases we provide outcome-based solutions - not just hardware and software. It is fair to say that we know what it takes to manage an ERP system and core financials, because we do just that for quite a number of our customers. In addition we also manage networks and other infrastructure on behalf of our customers, and as such have an extremely good understanding of the entire IT systems environment.

SAS^ITis an independent company. This status gives us the ability to work with a number of vendors for the supply of component pieces of a solution that are most appropriate, through price and functionality, rather than be directed in a course of action by a parent organisation.

Ownership

SAS^IT was started by Doug Brooker, who along with his wife Anna, owns 100% of the company. Doug remains Managing Director having appointed Phil Martin CEO in May 2004. Phil has worked in senior positions at Data General, Telecom, and latterly on a Senior Executive of IBM in New Zealand. We are a profitable company with a strong balance sheet.

Staff

All staff are full time employees of SAS^IT. We seldom hire contractors preferring to employ people - we value the ongoing understanding of our customers that full time staff develop, which would not be the case in a contractor driven model. In addition this focus allows SAS^IT to build a team approach to supporting our customers, as we believe having history can often make the difference at critical times.

Relationships with other organisations

As SAS^IT is an independent organisation we have vendor relationships with a number of multinational companies, including IBM, SUN, HP, Cisco, Citrix and ORACLE. We have supply and support contacts with Ingram Micro(Techpac), CellNet, Telecom and Vodafone amongst others. We have developed significant capability in networking, security alongside our core technology areas, requiring us to deal with a large number of vendor organisations due to the nature of the solutions we architect.

SAS^IT summarised

• New Zealand owned company that has been in this business since 1974.
• Cost effective and cost conscious - saving you money where we can for the benefit of our customers
• Focused - providing a well architected solution without being distracted by other priorities dictated by a parent or alternate business unit
• Development company - involved in application development and systems integration for many of our customers should you have the need to take advantage of these skills and capabilities
• Robust and Trusted Partner - we are used to partnering with organisations, rather than just supplying solutions to them. In many cases we have identified areas of savings through our knowledge and capability that has benefited our customers
• Culturally a good fit - we are large enough to have the skills and capabilities required, yet small enough to know and understand all our customers very well