Process audit
We sit down with you and map how the business actually runs. You get a ranked shortlist of the two or three processes worth owning first — with effort, cost and what they replace — not a forty-page report.
Welcome to the Bay of AI · Aotearoa New Zealand
Software as a Service was the old way. This is Service as a Software.
We help New Zealand businesses own their processes as software built to fit exactly how they work — with AI agents doing the heavy lifting, and your people in charge of the machine. Learn to run it in-house, or let us look after it. Either way, the software is yours.
- Based in the Bay of Plenty
- You own the code and the data
- No per-seat fees, no lock-in
- English & Spanish
the old way
SaaS
- rent it monthly, forever
- built for everyone, fits no one
- their roadmap, their price rises
↓
the AI era
SaS
- built once, owned outright
- fitted to your exact process
- your roadmap, your people, your call
The shift
For twenty years you rented software that almost fit. That era just ended.
Software as a Service made sense when building software was expensive and slow. So every business bent its processes around whatever the vendor sold — and paid every month for the privilege. In the AI era, building software that fits you is faster and cheaper than renting software that fits nobody. The sensible thing flips: buy the service of getting your own software built, taught and cared for. Then own it.
Software as a Service
- You pay
- every month, per seat, rising every year
- You get
- a generic tool with 80% of what you need and 300 features you don’t
- Your process
- bends to the tool
- Your data
- lives in their database, on their terms
- When you leave
- you leave with nothing
Service as a Software
- You pay
- once, for a build — and only for care if you want it
- You get
- software built to your exact requirements, nothing more, nothing less
- Your process
- is the spec — the tool bends to you
- Your data
- lives in your database, on your terms
- When we’re done
- you keep the code, the data and the know-how
What we do
Your processes, as software that fits.
Quoting, scheduling, onboarding, follow-ups, reporting, compliance, stock — the everyday processes your business runs on. We turn the ones worth owning into software of your own, built with AI agents and with your people in the room.
Custom build
Software written to your exact requirements, running on infrastructure you own. AI agents do the heavy lifting; humans set the spec, review the work and sign it off. No per-seat fees. Nothing rented.
Team training
We teach your workers to command the machine — to describe a process, ask for a change, test it and ship it. Pitched at your team’s real work, in plain language, in English or Spanish.
Care & maintenance
Software needs looking after. Keep it in-house with the people we trained, or put it on a care agreement with us: updates, fixes, improvements and a person to call. Your choice, and you can change it later.
What it looks like
Three builds a Kiwi business might own.
Illustrations, not case studies — we’d rather show you the shape of a build than invent a testimonial. Every one of these is a few weeks of work with agents, not a year with an agency.
Quote, schedule, chase — without the CRM bill
Job requests land in one place. An agent drafts the quote from your price list, books the slot, sends the reminder text and follows up on the unpaid invoice. Your office manager approves, the software does the rest.
Replaces: a CRM, a scheduler and a follow-up tool — three subscriptions, one owned system.
Bookings and guest comms on your own rails
Direct bookings, waivers, weather-day rebooking and pre-arrival messages, run from software you own instead of a platform that clips every ticket. Your guests deal with you, not with a marketplace.
Replaces: per-booking platform fees and a messaging tool — margin back in your pocket.
Onboarding, intake and reporting that run themselves
New clients are welcomed, documents are collected and checked, and the monthly report writes its first draft from your own data. Your people review and sign off. Nobody re-types anything.
Replaces: an onboarding tool, a forms tool and hours of admin every week.
Two ways to own it
Learn it and keep it in-house — or own it and let us look after it.
Both ways end the same: the software, the code and the data are yours. The difference is who carries the spanner.
Learn it, keep it in-house
We build it with you and teach your team everything — then hand over the keys.
- Your people learn to run, change and extend the software
- Training built around your actual processes, not a generic course
- Access to our academy resources as they come online
- Full independence — you never need us again unless you want to
Fits businesses with someone curious on the team and a taste for owning things.
Talk about way oneOwn it, we maintain it
We build it, you own it, and we keep it running under a care agreement.
- Updates, fixes and improvements handled by us
- A real person to call — in the same time zone
- Still your code, your data, your infrastructure
- Move to way one whenever your team is ready
Fits businesses that want the ownership without the upkeep.
Talk about way twoEither way, you can start with a single process. Most businesses replace one rented tool first, feel the difference, and go from there.
How it works
A straightforward engagement. No procurement theatre.
-
1
Talk
A free conversation about your business and where the friction is. If custom software isn’t the right answer, we’ll say so.
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2
Map
The process audit: what to own first, what it replaces, what it costs, what it returns. A plan you could hand to anyone.
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3
Build
Agents build, humans direct. Your team is in the room from day one, so the know-how lands with you, not with us.
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4
Run
Hand over and train, or hand over and stay on care. The software runs your process. You own the result.
Bay of AI
Helping Kiwis through the transition — on our own terms.
We’re based in the Bay of Plenty. We think it should become the Bay of AI: a place where local businesses own their software instead of renting it from the other side of the world, and where the people doing the work are the people running the machine.
The AI transition is coming to every workshop, orchard, clinic, café and office in the country. It can happen to Kiwi businesses, or it can happen for them. Our job is the second one: we help owners keep control, and we teach their workers to grow with the tools instead of being replaced by them.
Small team, straight talk, same time zone. We’d rather build one process that works than sell you a platform.
Who we work with
- Trades & construction
- Tourism & hospitality
- Horticulture & agri
- Professional services
- Retail & e-commerce
- Community & iwi organisations
If your business runs on processes and rented software, it runs on something we can help you own.
Learning · coming soon
The Aotearoa Services academy.
Resources and a learning platform for Kiwi teams: how to describe a process as a spec, how to work with AI agents safely, how to own and maintain your own software. Built from what we teach our clients in the room. Leave an email and we’ll tell you when the doors open — nothing else.
People
The people behind Aotearoa Services.
Builders and teachers who’ve run software, businesses and teams — and who now spend their days helping others own theirs.
AI consulting · New Zealand businesses
Felipe Gutierrez
Software engineer and former CTO. Audits, custom agent systems, automation for operations, and team workshops for New Zealand businesses. Practical, no hype, systems you own.
felipe.aotearoaservices.com → Online build partnership · for experts, worldwideThe Assembly
For coaches, consultants and service businesses anywhere: a 16-week partnership to install a client-getting machine you own — content, conversations, clients and proof — run by AI agents you command.
online.aotearoaservices.com →Questions
Asked and answered.
What does a build cost?
It depends on the process, and we tell you before we start — a fixed price for the build, from the audit, with what it replaces beside it. Most first builds are priced against the subscriptions they retire, so the software pays for itself in months, not years. The conversation is free.
We’re not a tech company. Can we really own software?
Yes. Owning software in the AI era means owning the spec, the code and the data, and being able to ask for changes in plain language. We build with your team in the room and train them to run it. Way two exists for businesses that would rather we carry the spanner.
Is our data safe with AI in the loop?
Your software runs on infrastructure you own, and your data stays in your database. We design every build with the Privacy Act 2020 in mind, keep the AI model a swappable part, and never route your customers’ information through our systems. You can audit all of it — it’s yours.
Are you replacing our staff?
No. We’re replacing the rented tools and the re-typing. The people who know your business are the people we train to command the machine — that is the whole point of the Bay of AI: the transition happens for Kiwi workers, not to them.
What about the tools we already use?
Keep what genuinely earns its fee. Accounting software, for example, usually stays. We go after the tools that almost fit and charge you monthly for the privilege, and we connect the new software to whatever you keep.
What happens if we stop working with you?
You keep everything: the code, the data, the documentation and the trained people. Way two’s care agreement is month to month. There is no lock-in, because lock-in is the thing we’re here to end.
Talk to us
Tell us about the process that hurts.
A few honest lines are enough. A real person reads every message and replies within two working days.