Futrix gets ahead
The Wellington office of international business intelligence software company Futrix brings a whole new meaning to the word “global”.
More than 70 percent of its workforce is from offshore, predominantly Ireland, Scotland, the United States and England, and there are plans to continue sourcing workers from abroad.
“I guess you could say we’re global within Wellington – we’ve got such a different mix of personalities and nationalities here and it brings such a rich culture to our business,” says chief executive Clare Howden, herself from England.
“Culturally they bring their own different country culture, work ethic and professionalism, and a different approach to business.
“They’ve worked for some big companies with some big ideas, and those good ideas have filtered through our organisation, so they add a lot of depth and value.
“Their input benefits Futrix tenfold. It makes us more scalable - as a global company we’re able to cope much better in the corporate world outside of New Zealand because we’re exposed to such a lot of different approaches and ideas.”
Futrix itself develops analytical business intelligence software for many different industries, including health and life sciences, financial services, insurance, gaming, universities, utilities, etc.
Futrix provides the analytical capabilities to let any user from the guy on the floor to the CEO get information from their data to make quick informed decisions – a “self-service” of information.
In recent years the Wellington-based New Zealand company has been forced to look offshore for employees, simply because technological talent here is scarce.
Clare has sourced staff through a whole host of avenues, including recruitment agencies, word of mouth, product users, its own website and through the now defunct Grow Wellington migrant database link.
She has also recently become aware of Settlement Support services in Wellington, and intends to make use of them in future when hiring new overseas staff.
“Settlement Support has a lot of valuable information for new migrants, and we plan to tap into the workshops and seminars they have on all things relevant to newcomers, like income tax, our education system, KiwiSaver, emergency preparedness, the Treaty of Waitangi...”
One migrant Futrix has employed is java developer Martin Knox, who moved from Scotland to New Zealand with his wife and two young children almost four years ago.
The couple had never lived or worked abroad and wanted to experience living and working somewhere new. New Zealand was top of mind after a friend of Martin’s wife, Susan, moved to Christchurch.
So the Knox’s set the ball rolling by applying for residency through Immigration, they were in the process of selling their house and Martin, a software developer for 12 years, began to put feelers out for work.
While looking into job vacancies on the internet he discovered the Wellington City Council website that had links to the Grow Wellington website and migrant database, and asked for his details to be made available to potential employers.
As it happened at that time Clare was looking for a java developer, she came across his CV on the Grow Wellington migrant database and decided to pursue him. After several phone interviews Martin secured the job and the rest, as they say, is history.
On their arrival Futrix paid for their accommodation and car hire, Clare herself took them on tours around local schools and suburbs in search of a place to rent and she talked them through all things Kiwi, such as the schooling system, daycares, work culture and culture in general.
“Our social club has also been really good at helping migrants like Martin settle in, we have regular get-togethers – we go bowling, have drinks, we’ve gone paintballing – we know all of the families and all of the children,” says Clare. She of all people knows just how hard it is coming to a new country – she moved here from the UK 10 years ago and struggled on her arrival.
“It’s so hard to know where to go, what to do, what areas are good to live in and it’s always difficult when you don’t know anyone; it can be quite overwhelming.” Thanks largely to Futrix, Martin and his family are now well settled in Wellington and have made a new life for themselves here.
“It’s all gone very smoothly, there haven’t been any major issues that have been a problem for us,” says Martin.
“The only downside between Scotland and New Zealand is the houses – we’re used to living in sandstone houses with central heating and double glazing, I don’t think we’ll ever get used to wood houses that are cold and uninsulated,” he jokes.
