Company-X Contributes To The Government’s Carbon Neutrality Goal

Company-X and the Road Efficiency Group (REG) collaborated on the closing keynote at the Roading Infrastructure Management Support (RIMS) Forum.

Jeremy Hughes, left, with fellow Company-X co-founder and director David Hallett.

In the keynote on Friday (July 29), entitled People First – Higher Competency Leads to Lower Carbon, REG sector excellence workgroup chair Roger Brady and Company-X co-founder and director Jeremy Hughes will share how the Asset Management Competency Framework (AMCF) could help the transport sector contribute to the Government’s carbon neutrality goal.

The New Zealand transport sector needed to ensure it had the right teams of appropriately skilled and experienced people to plan for and deliver great service under extraordinary pressures. An objective scorecard was needed that could be applied to teams working in diverse organisations across the sector, from city and district councils to Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency and contractors. Developing an approach that worked sector-wide was important because of its public mandate to manage activities and assets appropriately. Organisations also have legal obligations associated with their stewardship approach.

The competency framework helps individuals and organisations within the transport sector to measure their capability and make smart decisions regarding staff skills and workforce development. The AMCF allows organisations to measure levels then identify appropriate competencies for various aspects of asset management. It is built on best practice and aligns with the ISO 55000 asset management standard. This assessment tool has been set up in an asset agnostic manner so it will be able to be used across other asset types too. REG partnered with Company-X to build the AMCF survey and report portal to help transport sector professionals begin a personal development journey.

The AMCF survey and report portal covers capabilities needed to govern, procure, and deliver effective management of transport assets.

Transport sector professionals who log in to the AMCF survey and report portal are invited to assess their competency in the areas of organisational strategy, culture, leadership, and people; knowledge management; asset management strategy; planning and decision making; delivery; performance management and continuous improvement.

The project looks to understand the wider capabilities needed to make sound investment decisions for transport activities across Aotearoa New Zealand. Data collected from the AMCF survey and report portal will be used in individual, organisational and sector development, as well as recruitment.

Hughes said there were three key learnings for an audience considering embarking on a software project.

“Regular software releases allow for targeted feedback from people and a more refined product,” Hughes said.

“The iterative approach allows people using the system to engage with core features before more are added. It’s a journey.

“No software perfectly survives engagement with people using it. The user helps perfect the end product.”

“As a sector we must ensure we have the right teams of appropriately skilled and experienced people to plan for and deliver great service to our communities,” said REG programme manager Andrew McKillop.

Company-X senior software architect Luke McGregor will also speak at the conference on how rapid prototyping solved a road-testing problem.

McGregor did some rapid prototyping and explored the ways that the data could be visualised.

Company-X gave CityEdge Alliance its first prototypes to look at in less than a week and the solution was iterated from there.

CityEdge came to Company-X with a hosted system in mind, but instead, Company-X designed and developed a web browser-based application that did not store data on a server. This solved the problem with reduced build time and cost.

The final solution was ready for use three months after work began and used daily by about 50 CityEdge Alliance users.

About Company-X

Company-X offers world-leading software savvy delivered with a can-do attitude.

Founded in 2012 by software specialists David Hallett and Jeremy Hughes, Company-X immediately won contracts with New Zealand government departments and a US multinational.

The team has grown to more than 50 New Zealand-based software specialists, with only the best and brightest passing the Company-X interview and assessment process.

The Company-X team prides itself on experience in a wide range of technologies and languages and loves challenging problems.

Company-X ranked on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ Asia Pacific, a list of the fastest-growing technology companies in the Asia Pacific region, in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Company-X has won many awards:

• Company-X won an ExportNZ Top Tech Companies of 2022 award.
• Company-X won the Best Professional Service Innovation Award in the Hamilton Central Business Association Central Business District Awards 2021
• Company-X software quality assurance tester Jes Elliott won the Reseller News Women in ICT 2021 Rising Star Award.
• The Independent Software Vendor Award at the Reseller News Innovation Awards 2020 for state-of-the-art software that turns text into human-like audio files at a fraction of the cost of booking a voice artist, recording studio and sound engineer.
• The Independent Software Vendor Award at the Reseller News Innovation Awards 2019 for a hands-free auditing application developed for AsureQuality.
• The Service Excellence and Global Operator awards at the Westpac Waikato Business Awards in 2018.
• The Services Exporter of the Year category at the Air New Zealand Cargo ExportNZ Awards 2017.
• The Homegrown Innovators Independent Software Vendors Award at the Reseller News ICT Industry Awards 2017.
• The Roading Asset Management Innovation Award at the Road Infrastructure Management Forum in 2017 for the One Network Road Classification Performance Measures Reporting Tool built for the New Zealand transport sector.

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