Our Story: School to Home Communications
Founded in 2003
School-links is brought to you by Solvam Corporation Limited. Solvam Corporation Limited was founded in 2003 by Andrew and Robyn Balfour of Christchurch, New Zealand.
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We first became interested in school communications in 2005, with the core concept stemming from the founders’ frustration in communicating with their children’s schools, and seeing that same frustration in school administrators. Communications were inefficient and time-consuming, and getting the message across was difficult. We believed there had to be a better way.
School-links launches
Following the successful trialing of the product in 2006, we moved to take School-links to market. The first step was to obtain Ministry of Education approval for Early Notification, a new initiative to simplify attendance management through the use of technology. We obtained MoE approval in October that year.
School-links today
Today, School-links is making a real difference to the communications of New Zealand schools and pre-schools. We’re not just helping schools either – training providers like Moving Mountains and I Have A Dream Charitable Trust use School-links to help streamline their communications and as a disaster recovery tool.
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We are still based in Christchurch, though our business is not quite the same after the earthquake in 2011 removed us from our office in Kilmore Street. We learnt many things around emergency communications as a result.
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While many Christchurch businesses suffered as a result of the earthquakes, we thrived as they raised the profile of emergency communication; not just for schools, but for broader community groups. Many schools are still in a position where they have no real solution to contacting all their caregivers quickly in the event of an emergency.
Where we’re heading - partnership with Schoolzine
Our goal is to be the leading provider of innovative communications solutions for schools. We’re constantly improving our product and thinking of new tools and features to help streamline workflows and improve the quality of communications.
Most recently we initiated the exciting collaboration with leading Australian communication platform Schoolzine resulting in School-links Australia and a whole host of benefits for our New Zealand clients.
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