About Us
With over 30 years of combined professional experience, Neil and Martin formed Butler + Associates to provide independent consultancy advice on information technology and telecommunications sector opportunities for business. We have private and public sector clients ranging from start-ups through to mature organisations.
Our ICT Sector Interest and Approach
The IT and telecommunications sector is pivotal to the success of individual firms and the NZ economy as a whole. Why? A single word. Productivity – the ability to do more with the same or the same with less. Few other business tools have a more profound effect on productivity than IT and telecommunications.
Yet many IT and telco initiatives – large and small achieve the opposite – lots more in with little or nothing out.
We’re passionate about helping NZ commercial and non profit organisations succeed and take a pragmatic approach to these challenges, borne of “many scars on the back”.. So down to tin tacks. How do we approach opportunities? Here are some thought starters that provide a sense for our approach:
+ Confronting the Customer’s Reality:
technology can be beguiling resulting in ’innovative’ solutions chasing perceived Customer need – but without really seeking to confront the Customers real needs. This is the starting point.
+ Confronting the Operational Reality:
ICT for business always requires a high degree of service reliability. Understanding the detail of how this will be delivered is critical.
+ Confronting the Financial Reality:
Only when the Customer and operational requirements have been understood in detail can an accurate business case assessment be undertaken.
Profiles
A fitter turner by trade on the Wellington waterfront, Martin went on to complete an MBA with distinction at Victoria University with a focus on industrial/micro economics. |
Neil has a Bachelor Electrical & Electronic Engineering (Honours), University of Canterbury. |
Martin is the telco guy having spent 11 years with Telecom in a range of senior and general management roles including heading up the mobile business. He is the architect of Telecom’s W850 3G strategy and has managed many of Telecom’s major product/service lines. 
Neil is the IT guy and a co-founder of one of NZ’s most successful IT companies, Optimation NZ Ltd. Optimation works with NZ’s smartest and most innovative companies to transform businesses with ICT - such as Air New Zealand, Vodafone and Government for example working with the Ministry of Culture & Heritage to deliver Te Ara, the world’s first fully online national encyclopaedia.