KEY POINTS:
A nine-to-five job is a thing of the past for most New Zealanders, who are among the hardest workers in the developed world.
But one Wellington-based software start-up claims it has the answer to the upward creep in working hours across the world - Web 2.0 software that allows companies to work smarter.
The tagline for ActionThis, a Wellington start-up incubated within IT services company Intergen and due to be launched on Monday, says it all - "Get stuff done, go home early".
With a glut of workflow management software on the market, the claim is likely to draw a cynical reaction from some workers.
But ActionThis says it's system of tracking the progress of projects within companies and its tight integration with Microsoft's popular Outlook email platform, make its software a powerful tool for helping ensure work is finished on time.
"Most companies in this space have been focused on making great planning tools. But we want to make sure things actually get done," said Ed Robinson, a veteran of Microsoft's head office in Redmond who returned home to work at Intergen before starting ActionThis.
The company is owned by Robinson, Aftermail co-founder Tim Howell, chief technology officer Derek Watson and Intergen, who are united in their desire for ActionThis to be a global product available via the internet.
"If you're aiming for overseas, the internet's the best vehicle," said Robinson. "And we wanted to build a software package that would capture the world."
ActionThis joins fellow Wellington start-ups PlanHQ and Xero in adopting the software-as a-service model to reach an international audience. Robinson said there was a growing level of cooperation between fledging Kiwi internet businesses, something which reminded him of Silicon Valley in the early 1990s. "The Japanese have a word, 'keritsu', which is a family of separate companies that buy off each other and support each other.
"What we'll need to do is share our applications with each other," he said.
At its most basic level, ActionThis is a web interface that allows managers to assign "action items" - tasks for colleagues - and keep an eye on the status of the jobs.
But it's also a handy collaboration tool, as notes on a project can be assembled, updated and sent to all team members in as little time as it takes to send an email.
The real use of the software for managers is in the business intelligence tools it offers.
Robinson is coy about describing the underlying technology, some of which is patented.
But he explains that all those action items are useless unless a company can get an overview of the progress it is making. That's where visualisation and graphing software comes into play.
ActionThis users can view a "Bubble Timeline" which plots the various due dates of projects on a timeline, giving a clear view of the company's overall workflow.
Another graph titled "How Am I Doing"? gives individual team members a picture of how well they are keeping up with their work.
Robinson admits that use of ActionThis needs an acceptance among employees of the need to tighten up workflow management.
"We're not tying to radically change how people work. That's why we've made it like email." he said.
ActionThis hits the market at a subscription price of US$10 per user per month, with a free web-only, advertising-supported version available for download.
