TEG Risk’s foray into tech pays off

TEG Risk has provided consultancy services to manufacturers nationwide for the past decade, mostly in safety engineering and risk assessments on industrial machinery.

In 2021 the company sold its first licenses for a machine risk assessment app called MinRisk, the first of its kind in the Australasian market. It has since sold several more to some significant blue-chip clients, including one to an Australian company.

“Going into the tech space is not something we’ve done before. But it’s something that needed to be done to help improve workplace health and safety,” says TEG Risk founder Hamish Baker.

“Selling our first licenses validated the idea and it does feel very encouraging going forward,” he says.

Risk assessments have traditionally been more complicated than people appreciate, says Hamish. MinRisk supports health and safety teams to ease their machine safety assessments. To have fewer errors, be faster, and be in the field where the machinery is.

“Gone are the days of double-handling information. Completing on-site checklists, then heading back to the office for hours of typing up your notes. Followed by tedious machine safety meetings, relying on Excel spreadsheets, maintenance logs and large Word documents.

“The app allows you to collect the information you need on-site (enter text or take photos directly into the app), then share your machine safety updates with everyone you need to at the touch of a button.”

Originally, the app was an in-house tool, sparked by having to do risk assessments for a client that had more than 1,000 pieces of machinery and many users.

“At that time we had manual systems in place but it really tested them. That was when we said ‘never again’, that was the genesis, it prompted us to think outside the box.”

Hamish called on freelance developer Adam Langley to build an internal software solution to improve the process for his team and clients.

“Our clients were so impressed they asked to use it for their own in-house risk management. So we converted the first iteration into the third-party-ready application we now call MinRisk.”

With help from WellingtonNZ’s business growth team, Hamish has tapped into funding avenues to further progress.

Hamish has also received capability development funding which he’s used to bring business coach Josie Adlam on board.

“She’s teaching us about growing a SaaS (Software as a Service) company and her help around all the strategy, go-to-market plans and governance stuff has been invaluable.”

Hamish is a process engineer by training, establishing TEG Risk on his return to Wellington from the UK in 2011.

Brought up in Auckland, he studied process engineering before taking up an environmental engineering role with Goodman Fielder. This later included safety as well.

Overseas he worked as a safety environmental manager. But moving back to Wellington to be closer to family, he struggled to land a corporate role.

Instead, he reconnected with a former colleague and TEG Risk was born.

“The only way to make it work and stay in Wellington was to start a company,” he laughs.

“From a work standpoint, so much demand is outside of Wellington for us. But on the tech side, companies like EndGame are based here, so being in Wellington for the tech side feels like a good place to be.”

Having gone from providing consultancy services to delving into the technology space, Hamish hopes it will lead to safer workplaces.

“That’s the end goal. By giving businesses the right tools we hope to achieve greater engagement with the key parts of a safety management programme and, as a result, fewer accidents.”