On Friday 2 October our logo went up on the big screen at McKay Stadium in Whangārei. IT Live Northland was a finalist in two categories at the 2026 Northland Business Excellence Awards – and when we entered, there were two of us.
We were up for the NorthChamber Best Emerging Business Award and the One NZ Best Digital Adaptation Award.
Who won (not us, this time)
Jansen Flooring won Best Emerging Business, Criminal Defence Investigations New Zealand (CDINZ) won Best Digital Adaptation, and Donovan Group took out the Supreme Award. Congratulations to all three – and to North Interiors and Scope-Total Project Partners, our fellow finalists in Digital Adaptation.
There were more than 50 entries this year (full results on the awards site). Two finalist spots is a result I’ll happily take for a business that started in August 2024.
How it started: bored, and I hated golf
I’d already built and sold one Northland MSP (a managed IT services business). About six months after the sale, Dawid Sadie from IT Live asked what I was doing with myself. I told him I was bored and hated golf.
He suggested we go into business together. That became IT Live Northland.
I wanted Northland businesses to get the same IT an Auckland firm takes for granted. Still do.
What we showed the judges
A few numbers from the Emerging Business entry:
- SMB1001:2026 Gold, the small-business cyber security standard – all 27 controls, on our own business first. We don’t take a client somewhere we haven’t been.
- Across three of our clients, Microsoft Secure Score (Microsoft’s own rating of how well your Microsoft 365 is locked down) went from an average of about 42% to about 73%.
- Median time to close a support ticket down from about 13.5 business hours last December to under one hour by May – while monthly ticket numbers more than doubled.
- 100% client retention, and 14 out of 14 satisfaction surveys came back “Excellent”.
The number I’m proudest of is that 100%. A lot of it comes down to picking up the phone:
“Andrew and the team have been awesome to deal with. Even calling me back on a Saturday at his kids netball game (sorry about that). Very helpful and proactive. Thanks for your guys support.”
– Bronson Murray, North Drill (Google review)
Digital Adaptation: AI that does a real job
The entry covered two AI tools we’ve built for clients. One is for a law firm. It reads the file on a property purchase and drafts the client reporting letter, the calendar of dates, the authority to pay and the AML (anti-money-laundering) assessment. When a senior lawyer marked its homework, his written verdict was “perfect, true, complete, and accurate.”
Another, for a food importer, checks a product’s Certificate of Analysis (its lab test results) against its Product Information Form and flags anything that doesn’t comply – a check that used to be done by hand.
CDINZ won this one by building their own case management platform. The judges said they “did not simply adopt existing technology”. Fair call – that’s the bar we’re aiming at too. Buying AI licences is the easy part. The hours only come back when you point AI at a specific job your team does every week – here’s how we build AI that does real work.
Thank you
To our clients, for backing a new business, and for the Google reviews we leaned on in both entries. To Anthony, who runs our day-to-day support. To Dawid & the wider IT Live team. To Warwick Taylor, my business mentor for the last five years, and my TAB (The Alternative Board) peers, who hold me to account every month. And to One NZ for sponsoring the Digital Adaptation award, and NorthChamber and the judges for the hours they put in.
Thinking about entering next year?
Do it. Our main entry filled a 25-page form, and putting a number on every claim is a proper business review whether you win or not.
And if you’d like your own IT run to the standard we put in front of the judges, get in touch or give us a ring on 09 222 7770. Nice and simple.