Latest news with #RossMcKenzie
Business News Wales
7 days ago
- Business
- Business News Wales
Digital Innovation Is Reshaping the Property Market
When my co-founder Ross McKenzie and I set up Open Moove, it was because we were both frustrated with how slow and unclear property transactions had become. Home movers felt in the dark, and professionals are increasingly spending time chasing updates rather than focusing on the job they were trained to do. We saw a clear opportunity to improve the process with better communication and smarter use of digital tools. From the start, we were guided by a simple idea – to improve communication and build trust with home movers. Trust – that's what we wanted to bring to the residential property market. Along the way we've learnt a lot about how digital transformation is reshaping professional services. Whether you're a conveyancer, a surveyor, an estate agent or a mortgage broker, the right innovation can reduce risk, improve communication, and make your service more human – not less. In the early days, we looked at where the pain points were. One stat that stood out to us was that conveyancers spend around 45% of their time on the phone. That's an enormous amount of effort being spent just trying to get updates and pass them on rather than doing the work that requires their expertise. We built Open Moove to integrate with their case management systems and reduce the need for constant calls and chasing. Of course, we weren't sure how the sector would respond. The UK property market is built on top of 1,000 years of experience, innovation for innovations sake is naturally challenged. We found a positive response. Many of the firms we spoke to were equally frustrated about delays and duplication. The systems were there, the desire was there – what was missing was the connection between them. Open Moove is that connection. What our platform does is quite straightforward: it helps everyone involved in a property transaction work together. That includes the professionals, but also the home movers themselves, who are often left feeling in the dark about what's happening. By putting everything into one shared space – what we call the Moove Room – and using our AI assistant, Meredith AI, to provide nudges, reminders, and updates, we've been able to give people more visibility and reduce the number of repetitive questions flying around. It's not about replacing professionals – far from it. It's about letting them do the work they're good at. We use digital tools to handle the routine admin, freeing people up to focus on the tasks that need judgement, experience and that all-important human touch. That's how we move away from drudgery and towards something more valuable for clients and for the professionals themselves. We've seen this approach echoed elsewhere too. Startups like SeedLegals and FounderCatalyst began by addressing specific legal needs in the startup space and are now broadening their offer. It shows that innovation doesn't always mean replacing the traditional model – often, it means enhancing it. We still need local law firms who understand contracts. We still need accountants who can guide you through more complex questions. But we also benefit from specialist digital tools that can take care of the groundwork and speed things up. The real opportunity lies in the hand-off – where digital tools can take you 80% of the way and then pass the baton to a human who can finish the job with insight and care. That kind of orchestration is where I think we'll see the most exciting developments in the coming years. One of my favourite aspects of Open Moove is allowing the progression of a transaction even when everyone's offline. For example, being able to prompt a home mover with a quick message in the evening – when they're sat on the sofa – so they can confirm a detail or provide some information. That way, the conveyancer arrives the next morning with a property pack that's already updated and ready to go. It's about momentum, keeping things moving without always needing someone to chase. These changes might feel small, but they add up. Every document submitted on time, every call that doesn't need to happen, every client who feels reassured – contributes to a more efficient and human service. While our focus has been on property; the same principles can apply right across professional services. These are the kinds of conversations we need to have and I'm glad that some of them will continue at Wales Tech Week. Events like that are a great chance to bring different sectors together and look at where innovation can take us next. Because if we want better outcomes for clients, better experiences for professionals, and better use of our time, we need to keep asking the question: how can we do this differently? Cai Gwinnutt talks about this and more in The Wales Tech Week Podcast episode Advising the Future: Innovation at the Core of Professional Services. Listen to the podcast here. Wales Tech Week takes place at ICC Wales, Newport from November 24 to November 26 2025. Find out more here:
Otago Daily Times
25-06-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
New Coastguard boat arrives
Riverton Coastguard skipper and chairman Ross McKenzie (left) and Gough Bros manager Nick Morris with the new Coastguard boat behind them. PHOTO: TONI MCDONALD After seven years, Riverton's Coastguard skipper and chairman Ross McKenzie yesterday drove the new $1 millionrescue boat home, ready for its launch in August. But filling it with 700 litres of fuel was the first stop before tucking it into its purpose-built shed. The Riverton crew will take the boat through sea trials before its official launch on Riverton's high tide on August 16. The vessel replaces the 25-year-old 8.5m Naiad, also called the Russell John Chisholm, named after a 7-year-old boy whose body was never found after a Cessna carrying 10 passengers plunged into Foveaux Strait in 1998. Built by Gough Bros in Invercargill, the 10m hard-top Naiad is powered by twin V6 350 Yamaha outboard engines and equipped with autopilot search patterns, a Forward Looking Infrared thermal image camera and night-vision cameras. — Toni McDonald
Otago Daily Times
15-05-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Launch date set for new boat
After seven years of hard slog, the new $1 million Russell John Chisholm coastguard boat will be officially launched at Riverton's high tide on August 16, says Riverton Coastguard skipper and president Ross McKenzie. The new vessel will replace the 25-year-old 8.5m Naiad also called the Russell John Chisholm. Russell John Chisholm was a 7-year-old boy whose body was never found after he died alongside five others when a Cessna carrying 10 passengers lost power in both engines and plunged into Foveaux Strait in 1998. The Chisholm family have remained strong supporters of the coastguard. The coastguard crews were expecting to receive the new boat built by Invercargill's Gough Bros in early June, but it needed sea trials and its four skippers to first be familiarised with its new state-of-the-art electronic technology and revalidated before the official launch. "We get an exemption to do sea trials and training until we're signed off on the boat. Then we can sign off all the crew and their knowledge of the boat. "It's just a matter of making sure everything's running well — running the motors at different revs and just confirming everything's running the way it should be [and] the electronics are set up correctly. "There's a fair bit of excitement in the group. They're all keen to get out and get on the boat." While the boat was larger than the current rescue boat, he expected it would handle in a similar way. "It shouldn't be too much difference because it's the same design hull, same boat and everything, it's just slightly heavier. "So it's just a matter for us to get that experience under our belt. . . and get comfortable with it before we put it into full service." It is powered by twin V6 350 Yamaha outboard engines and equipped with Raymarine electronics providing autopilot search patterns, a FLIR (forward-looking infrared) thermal image camera and night vision cameras. Mr McKenzie said he was particularly looking forward to working with the FLIR technology. Locator beacon co-ordinates could be programmed into the camera and would immediately start scanning a search area. Thermal imaging was capable of detecting small differences in heat, allowing anyone in the water to be quickly detected, both night or day, he said. Three Riverton Coastguard volunteers had attended the Auckland Boat Show in 2024. "They spent the full three days just on electronics and basically they chose electronics that were the easiest to use." He expected the launch would be a big community celebration, as the community had provided valuable encouragement and fundraising contributions. "The launch was a chance for us to thank the people involved in the community and the sponsors for their support."
Russia Today
07-02-2025
- Business
- Russia Today
UK demands Apple allow spying on users worldwide
The UK government has issued a 'technical capability notice' to Apple, compelling the tech giant to create a backdoor to its encrypted iCloud service, the Washington Post reported on Friday. The move would enable UK law enforcement and security agencies to access encrypted data stored by Apple users worldwide, according to the newspaper. The UK's Investigatory Powers Act (IPA), referred to by critics as the 'Snoopers' Charter,' grants authorities the power to mandate that tech companies permit access to users' data for investigative purposes. It also makes it a criminal offense to reveal that the government has made such a demand. The recent notice requires Apple to provide a means for decrypting user data. It is currently protected by end-to-end encryption, ensuring that only users can access their information. Creating such backdoors could weaken overall security and set a dangerous precedent, according to Daniel Castro, vice-president of the US-based Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. In a statement on Friday, he has described the UK's move as an 'unjustified over-reach that threatens the security and privacy of individuals and businesses around the world.' READ MORE: EU mulls expanding digital surveillance over every citizen – media Last March, in a submission to the a parliamentary committee, Apple expressed concern that the IPA could be used to force companies to 'break encryption by inserting backdoors into their software products.' Apple asserted that it 'would never build a backdoor' and would rather withdraw 'critical safety features' from the UK market affecting the security of British users' data. Ross McKenzie, a data protection partner at law firm Addleshaw Goddard, told the Guardian that the UK order could lead to a clash with the EU, potentially affecting agreements that allow the free flow of personal data between the UK and Europe. UK security officials argue that encryption can hinder efforts to combat crime and terrorism. 'Maintaining proportionate, lawful access to such communications in the face of ever-more prevalent encryption is sometimes our only means of detecting and understanding these threats,' Ken McCallum, head of the UK's domestic intelligence agency MI5, stated last October. He believes that 'privacy and exceptional lawful access can coexist if absolutist positions are avoided.' The UK Home Office has declined to confirm or deny the existence of the notice, stating, 'We do not comment on operational matters,' according to The Guardian. READ MORE: Apple reveals which diplomats were hacked by Pegasus Apple has long defended the encryption of its operating systems, notably challenging the FBI in court in 2016 over a demand for a 'backdoor' to access the iPhone of a suspect in the San Bernardino, California, terrorist attack. In legal filings, Apple argued that the US government was requesting something it did not possess and that creating such a tool would be 'too dangerous.' The FBI eventually unlocked the phone using an Israeli spy tool, though it reportedly found nothing of value. Later revelations showed that other Israeli spyware, called Pegasus, had been used to hack tens of thousands of iPhones worldwide, targeting journalists, dissidents, and even heads of state.
