Season Greetings - a year of change!
2016 has been Abbey Systems' "Annus Horribilis". The 7.8 earthquake that struck Kaikoura early on 14 November fractured multiple faults and claimed two lives. It also caused significant damage to buildings 150km away here in Wellington. Fortunately our building wasn't one of them and most staff were back at work by the following day, that is until torrential rain caused several days of further transport issues in the region. After the 2013 quakes in Seddon we had relocated emergency RTU stock to Hamilton, as backup for our customers. It's not been needed this time but the Kaikoura shake has again focused us much more closely on building business resilience into Abbey Systems in the immediate future. On a personal level, unsurprisingly emergency water tanks and generators are flying off retailers' shelves here.
The much more emotional event for us this year was Lester Abbey's sudden death on a business trip to the US in June. Many of us have worked for Lester and Abbey Systems for decades and it was like losing a parent. Lester was friends with everyone, including his employees. Following his death Tim Naylor was appointed Abbey Systems Managing Director; Tim was Lester's business partner and is a 50% shareholder in Abbey Systems.
One of the reasons for Lester's trip to the US in June was that our US Office Manager, Walt Tevis is retiring at the end of 2016 and it was an opportunity to review the US business model again. As a result of the events that unfolded, Abbey Systems has since closed its US office in Eugene, effective the end of November 2016. All of our US RTU stock has been sent to our Utah Distributors, Remote Control Systems in Salt Lake City. They will look after our West Coast customers' hardware requirements. Walt previously worked for Umpqua Basin Water Association in Roseburg, Oregon and was instrumental in choosing our Swampfox VHF product for their system after a succesful trial period. We'd like to thank Walt for choosing Abbey products and his following 6 years of service to Abbey Systems Inc. and wish him and Darci all the best for the future.
We want to welcome our newest customers, Mackenzie District Council. Mackenzie have already installed several Swampfox WTP site RTUs and use our Securelink product to remotely access Aspex HMI screens from their iPads.
Other notable sales this year include;
Tim Naylor & the staff of Abbey Systems wish to thank all of our customers for your business over the last 12 months. We value our relationships with you and look forward to building on them in the New Year.
We wish you and your families a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.
Seasons Greetings from Abbey Systems
2016 has been Abbey Systems' "Annus Horribilis". The 7.8 earthquake that struck Kaikoura early on 14 November fractured multiple faults and claimed two lives. It also caused significant damage to buildings 150km away here in Wellington. Fortunately our building wasn't one of them and most staff were back at work by the following day, that is until torrential rain caused several days of further transport issues in the region. After the 2013 quakes in Seddon we had relocated emergency RTU stock to Hamilton, as backup for our customers. It's not been needed this time but the Kaikoura shake has again focused us much more closely on building business resilience into Abbey Systems in the immediate future. On a personal level, unsurprisingly emergency water tanks and generators are flying off retailers' shelves here.
The much more emotional event for us this year was Lester Abbey's sudden death on a business trip to the US in June. Many of us have worked for Lester and Abbey Systems for decades and it was like losing a parent. Lester was friends with everyone, including his employees. Following his death Tim Naylor was appointed Abbey Systems Managing Director; Tim was Lester's business partner and is a 50% shareholder in Abbey Systems.
One of the reasons for Lester's trip to the US in June was that our US Office Manager, Walt Tevis is retiring at the end of 2016 and it was an opportunity to review the US business model again. As a result of the events that unfolded, Abbey Systems has since closed its US office in Eugene, effective the end of November 2016. All of our US RTU stock has been sent to our Utah Distributors, Remote Control Systems in Salt Lake City. They will look after our West Coast customers' hardware requirements. Walt previously worked for Umpqua Basin Water Association in Roseburg, Oregon and was instrumental in choosing our Swampfox VHF product for their system after a succesful trial period. We'd like to thank Walt for choosing Abbey products and his following 6 years of service to Abbey Systems Inc. and wish him and Darci all the best for the future.
We want to welcome our newest customers, Mackenzie District Council. Mackenzie have already installed several Swampfox WTP site RTUs and use our Securelink product to remotely access Aspex HMI screens from their iPads.
Other notable sales this year include;
- New Plymouth District Council - Swampfox RTUs for 2017 upgrade program
- Queenstown Lakes District Council - Powerlink 3.8.0 upgrade
- Gisborne District Council - Te Karaka Sewer pump station cellular scheme
- Landis + Gyr - EPL Injection Controllers
- Envirowaste - Hampton Downs, Landfill Leachate SCADA system upgrade & expansion
- Delta Utility Services - Migration of 12 substation Powercat RTUs in Central Otago to use DNP3/TCP communications
- Waipa Networks - Topcat RTUs for Feeder Automation
- Buller Networks - SCADA Master, Backup and SCADA Gateway upgrade
- Porirua City Council - Sewer pump station Swampfox RTU program suite standardisation
Tim Naylor & the staff of Abbey Systems wish to thank all of our customers for your business over the last 12 months. We value our relationships with you and look forward to building on them in the New Year.
We wish you and your families a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.
Seasons Greetings from Abbey Systems
New Zealand Office Hours
The New Zealand office closes 12 noon Friday 23th December 2016 and reopens 8:30am Monday 9th January 2017.
After Hours Emergency Support
During the Christmas/New Year holiday break our phones will contain a recorded message directing callers to Answer Services. Urgent calls for Assistance will be forwarded to an Abbey Systems Staff member to respond to. Do bear in mind though, that our Support Contracts do not cover After Hours, Weekends or Public Holiday callouts, so any calls during the period will attract additional costs. These can be steep, especially if we have to call in specialised staff to resolve an issue during their holidays. So we recommend all customers take the following procautions;
Answer Services +64 (4) 494 1758
- Freeze any SCADA software or configuration changes from the end of this week.
- Ensure your oncall staff have access to all the SCADA spares, RTUS, radios, PSUs, Antennas
- Charge any RTU batteries or have new batteries on hand
- Look over your Alarm List and revisit any that have been hanging around a while
Answer Services +64 (4) 494 1758
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