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In 2014 Garth was head hunted and became a valued member of our sales team. Garth has worked in many different roles and styles of business in the hospitality industry. Because of his extensive experience, and ownership of a successful bar, he instinctively understands what each unique business needs from our onetap system.
Chris SmithNational Sales & Distribution ManagerChris is one of the longest serving members of the WizBang family, and in July 2015 celebrated being with the company for 10 years. He is a born and bred Cantabrian, having lived in Christchurch for over 30 years. He spent many of his younger years working in the hospitality industry where he was a trusted team player. One of his highlights from this time was assisting the owner of a well known pizza restaurant in Christchurch open four more restaurants and then franchising of these new stores. |
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Chris holds an Advanced Certificate in Computer programming and is passionate about new technologies. His more recent background prior to his current role includes both sales and management roles within the computer retail industry. Before working for WizBang he was successful in both sales and installation of onetap software, working for EFTCO, a reseller for onetap software. In 2005 WizBang approached him to work directly for them to help establish a second office in Christchurch. He jumped at this opportunity as he was passionate about both the onetap software and the hospitality industry, and it appealed to his pioneering nature.
Chris owes much of his success to a strong focus on building and retaining relationships with our clients. He loves seeing businesses within the hospitality industry succeed and is always willing to go the extra mile to ensure our clients thrive.
The hospitality industry was hit hard after the Christchurch earthquakes. Fifty two percent of our clients in Christchurch were initially unable to trade. All of those who have reopened have returned to the onetap system. This is a reflection not only of a great product but of the integrity of a sales manager committed to both company and customers.
Chris lives in Christchurch with his wife, three kids and the family border collie. Over the years Chris has been heavily involved in the local Surf Life Saving Club. He raced inflatable rescue boats and won numerous national titles. His present day interests include new technologies and spending time with good friends.
Chris owes much of his success to a strong focus on building and retaining relationships with our clients. He loves seeing businesses within the hospitality industry succeed and is always willing to go the extra mile to ensure our clients thrive.
The hospitality industry was hit hard after the Christchurch earthquakes. Fifty two percent of our clients in Christchurch were initially unable to trade. All of those who have reopened have returned to the onetap system. This is a reflection not only of a great product but of the integrity of a sales manager committed to both company and customers.
Chris lives in Christchurch with his wife, three kids and the family border collie. Over the years Chris has been heavily involved in the local Surf Life Saving Club. He raced inflatable rescue boats and won numerous national titles. His present day interests include new technologies and spending time with good friends.
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Josephine SandersKey Accounts ManagerJosephine is originally from England. She moved to New Zealand and joined WizBang in 2013 on a working holiday visa and ended up staying as she fell in love with the place. Josephine has worked in the hospitality industry since she was 18. She has managed several busy bars, nightclubs and restaurant bars, which has given her a wide range of experience with different POS software systems and invaluable customer insight and service skills. Josephine originally started her journey with us in Accounts and Administration and then moved into Sales as a Key Accounts Manager. Because of her exposure in the various departments she has gained a wide range of knowledge in all areas of the business. This combined with her strong customer centric approach means she naturally builds long lasting relationships with our clients. |
Prabin KarkiTechnical Support EngineerPrabin is originally from Nepal, the home of Mount Everest. He came to New Zealand in 2012 to pursue his studies and completed a Diploma in Information Technology with excellence. Prior to joining WizBang, Prabin worked in the hospitality industry for 5 years as a Chef including time as a Sous Chef at renowned Mt Eden restaurant The Garden Shed. After his time at Circus Circus, Prabin was tasked with setting up and managing the kitchens at Garden Shed and Wu & You when they initially opened. |
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Prabin was also frequently called upon to trouble shoot IT issues across the various restaurants he worked in and so he became very familiar with our onetap software. When looking around for another addition to our tech team, Prabin came highly recommended as a great troubleshooter and all-round good guy. His background in hospitality and IT, combined with his sincere empathy for the client makes him a great Technical Support Engineer.
In his spare time you will find him fishing, cooking, playing football and tasting the local craft beers and different cuisines around the city.
In his spare time you will find him fishing, cooking, playing football and tasting the local craft beers and different cuisines around the city.
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Conrad FordTechnical Support EngineerConrad brings over 15 years of experience in the IT support industry. His first foray into IT was when he was employed in the fuel retail industry, building and configuring computer and point of sale systems for the big four oil companies in New Zealand. He soon progressed on to helpdesk support and then jumped at the chance to round out his skills when he moved on to helpdesk management. These skills put him in good stead when he was offered a role with one of NZ’s largest banks, managing the internal helpdesk during a period of catastrophe mitigation change being implemented within the bank. Conrad joined the support team at NZ POS Systems in 2011 and plays a key role in supporting onetap users within the hospitality industry throughout New Zealand. |
Michael ZhangTechnical Support EngineerMichael came to New Zealand 5 years ago, from China, and obtained a Diploma in Information Technology as he is passionate about providing specialised IT solutions and service. Prior to his studies Michael had a decade working within the hospitality industry where he discovered he thrived in both the hospo environment and customer service space. Before joining WizBang, Michael worked for the Auckland City Council in ICT and then MyTech for 4 years as their Senior Engineer, providing quality IT services to a range of small to large sized organizations. It was at MyTech that Michael quickly earned a reputation for his efficient problem-solving skills and his ability to exceed customer expectations. |
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His knowledge and experience in the hospo industry together with his understanding of all thigs ‘IT’ means he naturally provides our clients with the best possible service.
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Lucas NishimuraICT Project ManagerLucas was born and raised in Sao Paulo, in Brazil, where he completed his Degree in Computer Networks in 2011. After this he worked for 5 years as a Service Desk technician in several companies, including the worldwide known investment bank, BTG Pactual. Lucas came to New Zealand to study further and find work in this industry. While he was studying, Lucas worked at Botswana Butchery in Auckland. He started as a runner and slowly climbed his way up to the role of Head Pass, then Waiter and then into a role working in the bar, before joining the WizBang team as a key technician. With his hospitality background combined with his first-hand experience using onetap in the industry, not to mention his love of computer science, WizBang was a great fit. |
His experience of using onetap gives him a deep appreciation of what our clients need for the smooth running of their business. This along with his efficiency, leadership and ability to problem solve on the spot ensures Lucas is a key technician and leader for our technical support services team.
In his spare time Lucas enjoys watching both movies and the latest series. At the weekends you will find him catching up with his hospo friends at bars or restaurants around the city.
Fun fact: His favourite place to be when the sun is out is one of our local beaches.
Fabricio CremaTechnical Support EngineerFabricio was born and raised in Sao Paulo, the economical core of Brazil. He studied Computer Science and Information Technology Management, completing his degree while working. He has over 7 years of experience in the IT industry and as a Business Analyst. Since 2008 Fabricio has gained experience in a wide variety of industries including hospitality and communications. One of his roles prior to WizBang included providing systems and end-user support, by leading the service desk team for three of the largest Portuguese Investment banks (BESI, CGD and Banif). When Fabricio came to New Zealand in 2014 he found himself, once again, in the hospo industry. His main focus was fine dining, where he had the opportunity to study the best food and wine New Zealand has on offer |
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As a member of the Technical Support team Fabricio enjoys dealing with our diverse range of customers and is always looking for ways to improve our customer’s experience and internal processes. The skills he gained in the New Zealand hospitality sector along with his exposure, as a hospo user, to our onetap software gives him a unique understanding of what our clients need for the smooth running of their business.
He inherited his passion for good food and wine from his Italian ancestors, which makes him a great cook. In his spare time, you will find him cooking or hosting a big dinner at his place. He also has his nerdy side and loves to watch both animes and the latest series along with playing his Diablo3.
Fun fact: He is a self-confessed book-worm with J.R.R. Tolkien being his favourite author.
Tina LiOffice CoordinatorTina grew up in China and has had experience working in both Beijing and Auckland. Tina achieved her Postgraduate Diploma in New Zealand and her bachelor’s degree in China. She provides valuable support to the Financial and Operations Manager. Her business skills and accounting knowledge are a real asset to the team. When Tina’s not at work she enjoys travel, as she loves experiencing different cultures and cuisines. One of her dreams is to travel every inch of the planet. Fun fact: She has recently taken up photography to capture her travel moments |
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Jessie ChenFinance & Operations ManagerJessie is originally from Southern China and came to New Zealand to study. She holds a Bachelor of Business (majoring in Accountancy) through Massey University, Auckland. Her background includes working as accounts clerk for a wholesale bakery and sushi company and working as an accountant for a body corporate. She is an excellent fit for the role she plays in the WizBang family as she has a thorough understanding of accounting and business related functions. |
Her understanding of business coupled with her hospitality experience enables her to provide full accounting and administration support to our team at both NZ POS Systems and WizBang Technologies as well as relating well to our clients.
Jessie continues to study and her aim is to achieve full membership to the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Jessie continues to study and her aim is to achieve full membership to the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Amanda MilhamSenior Software DeveloperAmanda is a born and breed Kiwi, although she has had a recent stint in Melbourne. In 1998 she completed a Bachelor of Commerce (First Class Honours) with stage 4 papers in Information Systems and has been thriving in the software development space ever since. Amanda co-founded Wizbang with her dad, John Hansen in 1997, where she designed and solely developed WizBang’s original hospitality POS system (excluding the mobile hand-held software), from scratch. The robust database and client server application design has stood the test of time and is still the foundation of WizBang’s POS system today. She had another stint at WizBang in 2007-2008 as an analyst programmer and came on board again full time in 2018 as our lead software developer. |
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Over the last twenty years Amanda has proven herself as a highly accomplished software developer. She has worked in software development for various companies including Smart Health (Australia), Global Health (Australia), Soft Tech (NZ), Exonet (NZ) and Sovereign Assurance (NZ).
At the weekends you will find Amanda spending time with her two young kids, reading who-dun-its, mountain-biking and eating gooood food.
Fun fact: Amanda’s favourite place to visit is North Head in Devonport.
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Kevin DuSoftware DeveloperKevin came to New Zealand from China as a student in 2009 and fell in love with our country. He graduated with a Master’s degree in Information Science (majoring in Software Engineering) at Massey University with Merit. Kevin’s passion in life is to develop quality software, which makes him a perfect fit for WizBang. Having worked on many software development projects, Kevin has had commercial software development experience including designing and developing in: Net Framework, multiple relational databases, Ruby on Rails and mobile development. He also has production experience with Amazon Web Services and a good understanding of OOP, software design patterns, MVC, Web API and Test Driven development. |
Kevin first began working at WizBang in 2015 as an intern seeking software development experience and quickly became a valuable part of our development team. He is currently the key developer of our primary BI Reporting system (onetap analytics) and has a hand in developing other key WizBang products using the latest technologies.
At the weekends you will find Kevin enjoying time with his young family or, as an avid hiker, exploring the great outdoors of New Zealand. Kevin also enjoys playing basketball.
Fun fact: Kevin’s favourite holiday destination is Japan.
Jamie HansenCompany DirectorJamie is passionate about technology and is committed to seeing WizBang continually provide world-class tech to the hospitality sector. He completed a Bachelor of Commerce at Auckland University in 1998 and has worked predominantly in technology, finance and food service industries over the last 20 years. His specialties includes leadership, strategic planning, sales and marketing and finance. |
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He has worked in different roles over the years within Wizbang and most recently came on board at the beginning of 2018 as a director to aid John in leading the family business. He oversees various areas of the business and is passionate about developing those around him to deliver sustained long-term performance outcomes in this fast-changing world.
He enjoys being on and in the water, as he’s a keen surfer and paddleboarder. Every January you’ll find him camping near a beach with his wife and three young kids.
Fun fact: Jamie travelled with his wife through 15 countries in 3 continents in 2004. He has travelled through the Amazon jungle in Bolivia, obtained a dive license in Egypt and enjoyed a wildlife safari in Kenya.
He enjoys being on and in the water, as he’s a keen surfer and paddleboarder. Every January you’ll find him camping near a beach with his wife and three young kids.
Fun fact: Jamie travelled with his wife through 15 countries in 3 continents in 2004. He has travelled through the Amazon jungle in Bolivia, obtained a dive license in Egypt and enjoyed a wildlife safari in Kenya.
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John HansenCEO & FounderJohn is a visionary thinker and irrepressible optimist with innovation in his DNA. His innate curiosity and enthusiasm for a future shaped by possibilities is the driving force behind his quest to go beyond the limits of current technology and capability. He is a science graduate with extensive experience in digital electronics, design of microprocessor based telemetry systems, production control systems, and commercial software development, primarily in the field of retail POS systems. He also brings years of commercial experience into the company having been involved in other enterprises prior to WizBang Technologies. |
Soon after graduating in physics in 1972, John found himself working for Cutler-Hammer NZ designing microprocessor supervisory, control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems for South Australian Railways and Sydney County Council.
This experience in the early adoption of a new disruptive digital technology inspired John’s “possibility” mind-set and set him on a trajectory of innovation.
He started his own electronics and software design consultancy and was commissioned to design many industrial and commercial systems. Among these was a microprocessor weighing and production control system for wire manufacturing, a spot welding machine digital controller, a messaging system for large electromagnetic and LED outdoor advertising displays, a numerical machine controller for the manufacture of printed circuit boards, a digital codec for wireless data transmission and radio paging and a vehicle speed detection system.
With this experience behind him, John saw the possibility of developing commercial software with scalable global potential and took the opportunity to work for an enterprising South African company to develop a complete financial and point of sale system for furniture and clothing retailers, known as Furnpac and Ragpac.
Returning to New Zealand in 1987, John co-founded Pacific Business Systems (now Excellent Software and Services) and developed a successful big ticket retail point of sale system known as Retail-Plus and a hire purchase ledger financial control system.
In 1997, John and his family who had all become confirmed café junkies were inspired to find a way to make life easier for waiters. The dream was to create a ground-breaking and innovative new hospitality point of sale system, encompassing wireless hand held technology for taking orders from tables. Wi-Fi was not available for portable devices at the time, so the solution required the design of a plug-in digital wireless transceiver circuit board for the Palm Pilot PDA and a corresponding wireless base station transceiver.
The solution John designed utilised a UHF FM narrow frequency band, with a range of 300 metres. Extremely low power consumption was a design objective with four days battery life being achieved through the use of CMOS technology. In order to keep hardware production costs down, collision avoidance, radio noise filtering, and error checking and correction were designed into the transceiver software drivers rather than the hardware.
The success and reliability of this mobile solution, known as WizBang Waiter at the time, was the genesis of WizBang Technologies.
Today, John leads WizBang Technologies, with the single-minded purpose of driving innovation and growing global distribution channels.
In his time off, you’ll find John sampling local hospitality with family and friends, keeping fit pounding the streets or swimming at the local beach where he currently lives in Millwater, Auckland. He also somehow finds time to fuel his fascination for science and technology, especially cosmology which seems to resonate with his curiosity about the nature of things. John is also passionate and concerned about environmental issues, food quality, food supply and organics, and thinks the extraordinary movie “Food, Inc” should be mandatory viewing for all!
This experience in the early adoption of a new disruptive digital technology inspired John’s “possibility” mind-set and set him on a trajectory of innovation.
He started his own electronics and software design consultancy and was commissioned to design many industrial and commercial systems. Among these was a microprocessor weighing and production control system for wire manufacturing, a spot welding machine digital controller, a messaging system for large electromagnetic and LED outdoor advertising displays, a numerical machine controller for the manufacture of printed circuit boards, a digital codec for wireless data transmission and radio paging and a vehicle speed detection system.
With this experience behind him, John saw the possibility of developing commercial software with scalable global potential and took the opportunity to work for an enterprising South African company to develop a complete financial and point of sale system for furniture and clothing retailers, known as Furnpac and Ragpac.
Returning to New Zealand in 1987, John co-founded Pacific Business Systems (now Excellent Software and Services) and developed a successful big ticket retail point of sale system known as Retail-Plus and a hire purchase ledger financial control system.
In 1997, John and his family who had all become confirmed café junkies were inspired to find a way to make life easier for waiters. The dream was to create a ground-breaking and innovative new hospitality point of sale system, encompassing wireless hand held technology for taking orders from tables. Wi-Fi was not available for portable devices at the time, so the solution required the design of a plug-in digital wireless transceiver circuit board for the Palm Pilot PDA and a corresponding wireless base station transceiver.
The solution John designed utilised a UHF FM narrow frequency band, with a range of 300 metres. Extremely low power consumption was a design objective with four days battery life being achieved through the use of CMOS technology. In order to keep hardware production costs down, collision avoidance, radio noise filtering, and error checking and correction were designed into the transceiver software drivers rather than the hardware.
The success and reliability of this mobile solution, known as WizBang Waiter at the time, was the genesis of WizBang Technologies.
Today, John leads WizBang Technologies, with the single-minded purpose of driving innovation and growing global distribution channels.
In his time off, you’ll find John sampling local hospitality with family and friends, keeping fit pounding the streets or swimming at the local beach where he currently lives in Millwater, Auckland. He also somehow finds time to fuel his fascination for science and technology, especially cosmology which seems to resonate with his curiosity about the nature of things. John is also passionate and concerned about environmental issues, food quality, food supply and organics, and thinks the extraordinary movie “Food, Inc” should be mandatory viewing for all!
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