October 2020!
We’re all wondering how much longer the Covid-19 pandemic will disrupt life as we knew it. Our Covid safe environments are now the new normal.
Our Victorian team has been tested with lock-down restrictions being extended, which in some cases are extremely harsh. Thankfully as part of the food supply chain, we are an essential service and our work life is a little more normal than those in many other industries. To those of you who have been struggling with the impact of Covid-19, please remember to talk to your managers about your concerns or please call me directly for a chat. Understand that Summit team is our greatest asset well ahead of our products and services. We need you to be fit, well and positive as we come out of this challenging 2020.
The ATO has advised us that we will no longer be entitled to any Jobkeeper support. This is, of course, good news as the company is standing on its own in these difficult times. Accordingly, we’re taking care to balance the incoming revenue and outgoing expenses which sometimes is indeed a fine balance!
The good news is that in spite of these challenging times, we are expanding our talent bank.
We have just welcomed aboard Chris Bruerton as Service and Installation Technician for Victoria and Tasmania. Chris is a motivated and passionate Electronic service technician and his interests include computer networking, electronics, woodwork, metalwork, camping and archery! Chris is replacing Nick Hokin, whom we are sad to see leaving Summit, as he is moving with his family to NSW. Thank you Nick for your great work at Summit.
Our software department will soon welcome Joshua Martin as Network Systems Engineer and John Ewing who is joining us in the US, as Software Engineering Manager in early November 2020. Please join me in welcoming Chris, Joshua and John to the Summit Family.
This newsletter is full of interesting articles. Rob Oakley shares the latest news on our R&D activities and Simon O’Brien has written a background article on the early days from the 1980s to 2009 leading up to Summit Innovations inception. It is very interesting and gives us an insight into Simon’s Drive-thru technical Guru status! No doubt there is a lot more to add since then… and that’s a story for another newsletter…
Kim Redstall will hopefully give us another episode of International updates next month.
The upgrade to Office365 should make things easier for all, despite some early teething problems. Lynn sent out an email to all staff earlier this month, to ensure your newsletters don’t go into your Junk mail folders.
Remember that the newsletters are for you. They take time and effort so that we all feel more included and involved, particularly whilst we are unable to travel and connect face-to-face. We encourage you to please share your thoughts, ideas, photos and feedback to help create a cohesive and caring team environment.
Keep safe.
André