2011 the year that was

This post is somewhat belated, but I guess it is better late than never! 2011 is a year I’ll never forget for many reasons. It all started on the 2^nd January 2011 when I fell off my mountain bike doing the 42 Traverse, cracking several ribs in the process.

The next major event was the February 22^nd Earthquake that caused major devastation to Christchurch’s CBD and extensively damaged my house. It was all hands to the pump moving our clients into new / temporary locations, recovering servers, restoring backups etc in what must be the largest combined disaster recovery in New Zealand history.

We all know bad things happen in threes and just as we started to regain a sense of normality the next major drama of 2011 happened. Datasouth, a company I had worked at for 6 years when into liquidation on the 31^st March. At the time it was one of the most stressful thing that has ever happened in my life. I never though I would be the person who turned the lights out for the last time!

Every cloud has a silver lining and so this ‘big bang’ spawned an idea that rapidly became Canterbury Business Solutions, which I founded with Peter Cummins and David Carter. We’re now 8 months down the track and looking forward to an exciting year in 2012!

No end of year summary would be complete without mentioning the technologies that I have enjoyed the most this year, so here we go…

Xero – this brilliant cloud solution, makes Accounting easy and dear I say it fun! If you are thinking of starting a business I recommend you have a look.
iPhone – keeps me in touch with clients, Xero (see number 1), my bank and social contacts.
SharePoint 2010 – I spent a lot of time working with SharePoint in 2011. The biggest limitation is your imagination with this excellent platform.
LinkedIn – a great tool for business owners for all kinds of reasons. If you aren’t using it then you are missing out.
Tech people – many people who have started IT companies of various types have given my free advice and helped in so many ways! Thank you.

So now, it’s 2012 and I’m looking forward to an interesting year ahead. It’s off to a good start spending time with friends and family.