Inside ASI-AP

We like to celebrate our achievements at ASI and each month the Melbourne staff catch up for Friday night drinks and celebrate the previous month's achievement as well as staff birthdays, anniversaries and value award winners. Last month we decided on a 'beers of the world' beer and nuts evening. Here are some pictures! (ok yes they are mainly of the beer!)

MEDIA RELEASE: You don't have to be Google to be great

Embargoed until 30 April 2009

It’s not every day that a company with around 30 employees gets to be mentioned in the same breath as corporate heavyweights like Google, Coca-Cola, Yahoo!7 and Deloitte.

But that’s what Advanced Solutions International (Asia-Pacific), a software provider to the non-profit community, has achieved after today being named one of Australia’s 50 best companies to work for – despite having one of the smallest workforces on the list.

The list is compiled by the Great Place to Work (GPTW) Institute Australia, part of a US-based research and management consultancy that works with organisations in more than 40 countries and has been releasing the list in the United States for 10 years.

As previously advised, ASI AP is a member of VECCI’s Grow Me the Money Program which encourages businesses to be environmentally aware. The following tip is from their latest Forum:

Most computers in Australia incorporate ENERGY STAR technology, the international standard for energy efficient electronic equipment. When enabled ENERGY STAR reduces the amount of energy consumed by a computer by automatically switching it into a 'sleep' mode when it's not being used. ENERGY STAR settings on your home or office computer are accessed via the Control Panel.

On a desktop computer running Microsoft Windows:

The June Value Award winners were announced overnight. Congratulations to Shearne for winning the individual award for the ASI value of Respect; and to Jana and Ross for winning the team award for Respect.

Individual Respect - Shearne Ramage
Customer Care Executive
I nominate Shearne Ramage for Respect. Shearne has always been customer focused in working with iMIS customers over the past 11 years however during the last 6 months this was put to the test in her customer care role. With one of the three Customer Care staff away on personal leave for 6 months, Shearne picked up the slack and put in the extra hours/effort to help ensure that all customers' queries/issues were responded to and that they received the information/pricing they requested. This included covering the extra-pressure time of year-end. Shearne performed her job with beyond call of duty and always with 100% respect for hers and others allocated customers.

In a recent post I announced the exclusive quarterly recognition lunch. On Tuesday last week I visited with Amanda K in Sydney for her lunch and already wrote about that. On Friday, it was Melbourne's turn and Julie, Jennifer, Lap, Leo and Ross joined me for lunch at Rockpool over at Crown.

Rockpool (www.rockpoolmelbourne.com) is Neil Perry's new Melbourne restaurant of the same name and style as his famous Sydney restaurant (www.rockpoolsydney.com). Neil Perry www.neilperrychef.com is one of our leading and influential chef's. He works with Qantas, on various TV shows, and has a number of books including his most recent 'Good Food'.

We have a couple of new initiatives this year to recognise the achievements of our team. Firstly is the monthly end of month drinks where we recognise all achievements, including anniversaries, birthdays, value award nominees and winners.

Secondly, and a little more exclusively, is the quarterly recognition lunch. This is a lunch hosted by me for team members who won a value award in the previous quarter, and for those team members celebrating special anniversaries.

(Originally posted by Mick on www.imiscommunity.com)

As part of our annual planning meetings last week we revisited some of the past year's core value alignment outcomes and a discussion about the process over previous years. I expect anyone who has been with ASI for more than a year has participated in a core values alignment workshop.

Does anyone remember some specific issues raised or actions that had been committed to as part of an alignment workshop? Does anyone still have issues that they are working on from past workshops? Comments please