About Us
Our Journey: from School-links to Beep
Living through the devastating Christchurch earthquake, Andrew Balfour experienced first-hand how important no-fail methods of communication are to emergency response management.
With constant improvement, development and innovation, School-links, their communication solution for schools, became a leading platform in the New Zealand education sector, and the team have become a recognised authority in the field of Emergency Response and Attendance Management.
“Over time interest from outside the education sector grew,” recalls Andrew. “And in the face of further disasters such as Kaikoura earthquakes, the Christchurch shootings, numerous lockdowns and weather events plus the changes to health and safety legislation, we decided to develop a sister product, called Beep, tailored specifically for businesses, associations, organisations, churches, not-for-profits and clubs.”
The Beep team based in Christchurch, New Zealand are dedicated to supporting the business and community sectors to adopt mass notification systems to ensure the health, safety and well-being of staff in workplaces across the country.
Andrew Balfour
Executive Director and CEO
Our Team
Beep is brought to you by Solvam Corporation Limited. We are a small company based in Christchurch, New Zealand, who have been providing innovative communication solutions to schools, workplaces and organisations since we were founded in 2003.
Andrew Balfour – Executive Director & CEO
Andrew sits on the board as an Executive Director. Andrew has over 30 years’ experience in the retail, wholesale, importing, marketing and design sectors. He is the CEO and Sales Director of Solvam. His attention to detail for all facets of business operations helps make Beep a world-class software application.
Robyn Balfour
Robyn has over 30 years teaching experience and has been involved in the company since the initial startup period through to the current day. Robyn works in a sales and support role in Beep, developing close relationships with our community sector organisations.
Mary-Anne Colenbrander
Mary-Anne is a key member of our School-links and Beep team providing expertise and support for our sales and advertising channels - and always with a smile.
Board of Directors
For a small company, as Solvam is, our directors and boardroom run with the best. Our board of trustees includes:
Graham Shaw – Director / Chairman
Graham is a professional director with involvement in several public and private companies as well as not-forprofit boards and has extensive SaaS governance experience from being on the board of Xero for eight years and more recently Gentrack and Chairman of PushPay.
Andrew Balfour – Executive Director and CEO
Andrew has over 35 years’ experience in retail, wholesale, importing, marketing technology and design sectors. He is the General Manager and Sales Director of Solvam. His attention to detail for all facets of business operations has helped make School-links the leader in communication software for the education sector.