At Beyond Essential Systems, we believe in living our values and reinforcing them with real action.
Our VISION
If we achieve normal things, we have failed.
Beyond Essential Systems (BES) was started for a singular purpose – to deliver real, positive, sustainable improvements in the lives of people in some of the most challenging, low resource and remote places in the world. That is why we exist. People matter everywhere and need is all around us but we focus on low resource settings because that is where the need is greatest and that is where our expertise lies. We also want to be genuinely building up the people we work with so that one day, what we do is no longer necessary. If we leave people able to use and maintain their own systems, that is success.
We know we cannot do as much as we would like but if you bring enough special people together, you can make things a little better for others. What is a little better? It means living a little longer, getting the chance to earn a little more money. It means being a little healthier and spending a little more time with your family instead of in hospital. It means travelling and experiencing a little more of the world and living in a country that is a little fairer and a little more equitable. Most of all it means passing on a better community and world for your kids to experience and enjoy. We shouldn’t ever fall for the lie that we can ‘change the world’ – but we can help improve a small part of it. Beyond Essential Systems is not a normal company and if we achieve normal things, we have failed.
By harnessing innovation, our technology and our skilled people, our vision is to make some parts of the world a little better for as many people as we can.
Our Values
1 | Local partners first
Our clients are at the heart of everything we do and teamwork matters. We are passionate about empowering local communities to connect to resources they need and respecting their incredible skills. Understanding context is everything and locals know their communities best, so we spend plenty of time on the ground, listening and learning in order to provide the optimal experience. We engage local staff on projects to provide expertise and continuity and we try to encourage south-south, peer-to-peer networks in the regions where we work.
2 | Purpose over profit
Our primary focus is the impact of the work that we do. Making sure that we are financially sustainable is important but our goal must always be the outcomes of our projects – whether or not a project will make a profit is secondary to whether they will make a difference. This means right-sizing our contracts to charge only what we need to deliver high quality services whilst ensuring affordability. We will always see projects through to the end and where a project is delivering results, we bend over backwards to make sure it continues, with or without us involved. This means we can maximise our impact but be leaders in our class by hiring the best of the best.
3 | Long term thinking
Sustainable projects, sustainable planet: we want our projects to be providing value long after we finish and we want this planet to be wonderful for the generations to come. These drive a single philosophy – think long term in everything we do. We are serious about upskilling local partners and our software is free and open-source. This ensures organisations are not indefinitely tied to us or any other single provider. Given what we do, we also run a lot of servers and often have to fly to manage projects all over the world, so we partner with Greenfleet (an Aussie not-for-profit) to offset our carbon emissions. They do our dirty work for us (literally), by planting carbon absorbing native trees across Australia and New Zealand.
4 | Find and support great people
We want to work with people who are great at what they do and support them in doing it. This means encouraging the very highest software development standards, nurturing the most highly skilled project managers and fostering inspired collaboration. But it also means genuinely supporting each other. We are flexible in where and when people work, we take mental health seriously, we recognise that people have lives outside work (and that those lives come first), we foster a nurturing environment where people feel safe communicating their needs – and when things get tougher, we provide formal, funded professional help and personalised support for life stressors.
Partnership with mSupply
Commenced work in Nigeria and Timor-Leste
2016
Launch of Tupaia
Melbourne office opened
Partnership with innovationXchange
Commenced work in Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Tokelau, Kiribati
2017
First implementation of DHIS2
Tupaia wins Australian Public Service Innovation Award
Commenced work in Tonga and Cambodia
2018
Partnership with Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security and UNFPA Pacific
Commenced work in Laos (UNICEF Laos) and PNG (Burnet Institute)
2019
Launch of Tamanu
Launch of DTAC in partnership with the mSupply Foundation
Commenced work in Fiji and Samoa
2020
B-Corp Accreditation
Tamanu enters Digital Square Global Goods Guidebook and achieves ONC Certification
Commenced work in Nauru and Palau
2021
Fiji virtual office opened
First SENAITE implementation
Tamanu wins Commonwealth Digital Health Award
Commenced work in Colombia and Tuvalu
2022
Beyond Essential Systems Projects
A List of our Projects Worldwide
What we do
Contextually appropriate solutions for remote and resource-limited settings.
We pride ourselves on maintaining a stable business model of profitable sustainability, where the primary goal is to help people and not simply to derive profits. Beyond Essential Systems is B-Corp certified and all our software is built on free and open-source platforms, meaning the software code is publicly accessible and can be managed or modified by adequately equipped local staff should they wish or need to do so.
60+ dedicated team members
Building free & open source software
Worked in 10+ countries with 25+ partners
Deliver excellence at sustainable prices
Beyond Essential Systems employs staff across offices in Melbourne, Auckland and Suva, with project offices located in several partner countries. Our staff include specialists in procurement, clinical services, project accounting, geospatial epidemiology and a full-time software development team. Each of Beyond Essential System’s principal staff have 15 years’ experience working in low-resource settings across Africa, Asia and particularly the Pacific, having completed work in nearly every Pacific Island Country.
We have undertaken work in more than 10 countries across Asia, Africa and the Pacific region. We have also managed large projects on behalf of partners including the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), World Bank, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, World Food Program, Save The Children International, UNFPA, UNICEF and the World Health Organisation.
Beyond Essential Systems have a continuing commitment to the Pacific and the ability to deliver high-quality implementations at low cost. Using innovative, collaborative solutions and working closely with local partners, we provide support in software development and implementation, health information systems, health supply chain, geospatial epidemiology and data analysis.
We provide contextually appropriate solutions for remote and resource-limited settings, combining experience of cutting-edge technologies with an appreciation for the physical, financial and cultural challenges where we work. We are committed to ensuring that our products are fit-for-purpose, affordable for the context and open source.
Where OUR STAFF ARE BASED
What we are
Beyond Essential Systems are proudly a certified B Corp.
There is a space in between not-for-profits and private enterprise that encompasses businesses who are driven by their desire to have a positive impact on the world and make only enough money to be sustainable – and that’s where Beyond Essential Systems sits. B Corporations are businesses that “balance purpose and profit” – read more about the steps to becoming a B corp. To achieve certification as a B Corp, we were audited over 12 months and had to:
Demonstrate high social and environmental performance
Make a legally binding governance structure accountable to all stakeholders
Exhibit transparency by allowing information about our performance measured against B Lab’s standards to be publicly available – check out Beyond Essential Systems B Corp certification.
Beyond Essential Systems policies
Transparent and practical.
Our policies are public documents which can be downloaded here. For any questions or concerns or to report issues relating to our policy compliance, please contact us using the details elsewhere on our site.
Policies:
Preventing Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment (PSEAH) Policy
