Hamish Howard, Assura Software
Assura can be accessed via mobile phone in the field.
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Irrigation Leader: Your technology dovetails nicely with social distancing. Have you seen an uptick in its use among your customers?
Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about yourself and about Assura Software.
Hamish Howard: I’ve been pleasantly surprised that, through this time of social and economic crisis, we’ve continued to sell solutions to people who are looking for ways to enable their workforce to carry on being productive. I would certainly link it to social distancing: With Assura’s solution, you no longer need to meet with a lot of people. You can enter information into a mobile device, whether it’s a phone or tablet, and share that information with managers or other team members who can then move it along through the process. It reduces the need to meet in person or to handle shared paper that has the potential to carry germs. I think that people do see it as a tool to help them continue business while socially distancing.
ssura Software, based in Christchurch, New Zealand, aims to help businesses automate their everyday manual processes. Its software platform combines the configurability of a bespoke solution with the ease and assurance of an off-theshelf product. In this interview, Hamish Howard, Assura’s CEO and managing director, speaks with Irrigation Leader about the situation in New Zealand and how Assura has assisted businesses during this crisis.
8 | IRRIGATION LEADER | JUNE 2020 - COVID-19 SPECIAL ISSUE
Irrigation Leader: How has the COVID‑19 pandemic affected your business? Hamish Howard: Until recently, in New Zealand, everybody except essential workers was working from home. We’ve had pretty strict stay-at-home measures, which we refer to as living in your bubble. All my staff have been working from home. Fortunately, because we work on software, we can do everything remotely. As long as we can remotely connect, we IRRIGATIONLEADERMAGAZINE.COM
PHOTOS COURTESY OF ASSURA.
Hamish Howard: I’m one of the owners and the managing director of Assura Software. Assura’s solution is a platform that provides a highly configurable workflow engine that solves problems in the office or in the field via a browser or a smart phone. Our solution is already addressing particular needs in the United States—our first U.S. customer is Roosevelt Water Conservation District (RWCD) in Arizona. RWCD’s manager and his team have started to use Assura to collect field reports via a smart phone and send them back to the office. This ensures that issues raised are dealt with in a timely fashion and that things move through a process to resolution. In New Zealand, Assura’s solution is also used to manage the assets of an irrigation district and ensure they are well maintained.
