The OPRA Story

Jan 1997

Dr Mike Smith (lecturer at Victoria University) and Paul Englert (student at Victoria University) form a business partnership. The aim is to bring best practice organisational psychology to the Wellington market. Partnership operates under the trading name OPRA (Occupational Psychology Research Associates) Management Consulting.

Apr 1997

First contract won beating other tenders for the redesign of an assessment procedure for job seekers at the New Zealand Employment Service (NZES).

Aug 1997

The partnership is formalised and OPRA Ltd is established.

Sep 1997

OPRA employ their first staff, Michael Duggan and Nigel Guenole.

Jan 1998

OPRA develops a product arm to the business. Various products including assessment tests, ergonomic products, HR audits, and stress management packages are secured.

Mar 1998

OPRA begin talks with Fred Bauer of Bauer and Associates to distribute the OPRA range of products in Auckland.

Jun 1998

Bauer and Associates agree to distribute OPRA products in the New Zealand market.

Jul 1998

OPRA release their first in-house developed product: The Maori Knowledge Assessment (MKA).

Aug 1998

Sarah Russsell (now Sarah Burke) becomes a shareholder and director in OPRA.

Sep 1998

OPRA formally releases their product range in the New Zealand market at the national HRINZ expo. Promotional material is developed and distributed throughout New Zealand, and the original website built.

Oct 1998

OPRA moves into Wellington premises (Level 4 James Cook Arcade).

Jan 1999

OPRA's work in unemployment receives international acclaim and Paul Englert goes to Canada to discuss interventions for addressing unemployement in British Columbia.

Apr 2000

OPRA's product and consulting businesses are separated. A new company is formed to deal with the growth in product sales (OPRA Publishing and Consulting Group). Shareholders are Dr Mike Smith, Paul Englert, Fred Bauer and Sarah Russell.

May 2000

OPRA release the Sales Preference Indicator (SPI).

Apr 2001

OPRA and Bauer and Associates are merged. OPRA Publishing and Consulting Group (trading as OPRA Consulting Group) is restructured to deal with product and consulting services. Shareholders are Paul Englert, Sarah Burke, and Fred Bauer. Staff grows to 14.

Jun 2001

OPRA release GeneSys3 to the New Zealand market.

Feb 2002

OPRA open a Christchurch office. Simon Gluyas is appointed South Island manager.

Feb 2002

OPRA release their e-zine "News from the OPRA house". Initially a monthly, and now quarterly publication our e-zine covers all that's new in New Zealand business psychology and was launched to a readership of over 3,000.

Aug 2002

OPRA release their first major norm upgrade for all Genesys tests. The database initially compromises of 13,000 people.

Oct 2002

OPRA release Genesys Profiler. The world's first non-linear validation tool using the Barrett coefficient.

Feb 2003

OPRA begin distributing the A&DC range of assessment and development centre exercises exclusively in New Zealand. With 170+ ready-to-use exercises, A&DC are the world's largest supplier of assessment and development exercises.

Apr 2003

OPRA begin distributing the Genos EI, developed by Swinburne University in Australia. Genos is one of the world's only validated EI measures.

Jul 2003

OPRA gain the rights to distribute Pre-valuate one of the world's leading suppliers of online computer skills assessment.

Sep 2003

OPRA launch "Afternoons at the OPRA": Educational seminars on the latest business psychology with guest speakers from around the world. The first speaker is Dr. Stephen Williams the developer of the PMI, the world's gold-standard stress management tool.

Oct 2003

OPRA begin distributing the Common Metric Questionnaire (CMQ). The CMQ is the world's gold standard in job analysis, developed in the USA.

Nov 2003

OPRA develop the Industrial Proficiency Test (IPT). The IPT is a lower level cognitive ability assessment which is now sold across four continents.

Apr 2004

OPRA develop the Masterclass Training for Human Resource Professionals. The Masterclass is an industry accepted certification programme covering all aspects of employee assessment.

May 2004

OPRA successfully negotiate distribution of the Stanton Survey. The Stanton Survey is the world's leading overt measure of integrity.

Jun 2004

OPRA release the Chinese Cultural Awareness Test (CCAT). Developed by OPRA in conjunction with Asia 2000, the CCAT is the world's first validated measure of Chinese business.

Sep 2004

OPRA has their first graduate psychological intern Hayley Sisarich. OPRA continues to produce registered I/O Psychologists for New Zealand.

Dec 2004

OPRA begin distributing Futureselves, the world's first on-line career tool developed around the concept of Possible Selves.

Jan 2005

OPRA release Genesys online. Genesys online includes online cognitive and personality assessments that can be completed unsupervised.

Jun 2005

OPRA formulate a world class associate's model. Recognised Associates of OPRA include (Drasgow Consulting, Davidson Consulting, The Lab and Dr Duncan Jackson)

Oct 2005

OPRAsurvey.com is released. A proprietary survey product OPRA survey is capable of everything from basic online surveying through to 360 solutions.

Jul 2006

Fred Bauer retires from OPRA.

Sep 2006

OPRA release their first software solution: The Organisational Performance Dimensions (OPD) tool. The OPD is an integrated assessment and interview solution and is an instant hit both locally and off-shore with distribution in 6 countries.

Nov 2006

OPRA's Masterclass training goes international with distribution deals negotiated in Australia and Indonesia. Dr. Paul Englert conducts the first course in Indonesia.

Dec 2006

OPRA undertake a national update of GeneSys norms and split these by functional group, industry, gender, age, salary band and ethnicity. The NZ normative group for GeneSys tops the 70,000+ mark!

Jan 2007

OPRA begin exporting to Australia through Jarrah psychology. Products adopted include PreValuate, Training and the OPD System.

Feb 2007

OPRA extend their exporting network to South Africa. Psytech South Africa begins sub-distributing a range of OPRA products and jointly OPRA and Psytech present at a South African trade show.

Mar 2007

OPRA gain non-exclusive rights to the distribution of one of the worlds leading talent management systems Sonar6.

Apr 2007

OPRA is show cased international in New York at the annul conference of Industrial and Organisational Psychologists. Dr. Duncan Jackson, an associate of OPRA, presents the work that he and OPRA completed on assessment centres with New Zealand Post.

May 2007

At the beginning of its 10th financial year OPRA rebrands, as OPRA Group. OPRA Group represents the bringing together of all the OPRA business units and the completion of an end to end business solution through specialised product consulting solutions. OPRA Group is launched through the new website www.opragroup.com

Aug 2007

OPRA Group Ltd is acquired in a multi-million dollar deal by investment firm Advanced Enterprising Limited. Paul Englert and Sarah Burke remain as minor shareholders.

Jan 2008

OPRA, together with Psytech and Added Insight, develop Isupervise, the world’s first supervised remote testing.

Feb 2008

OPRA release OPRA Develop: A five pronged leadership programme.

Mar 2008

OPRA is requested to take up a global position with Psytech International, coordinating and driving global sales. It is the first time in the history of Psytech that this position has gone to a distributing organisation.

Apr 2008

OPRA successfully negotiate the distribution of the Denison: One of the world’s most researched culture tools.

May 2008

OPRA successfully negotiate the development of a Computer Adaptive Test for Psytech.

Jun 2008

OPRA extend distribution of their tests throughout Europe.

Jul 2008

OPRA sign a new deal for international distribution and service provision in Brazil.

Aug 2008

OPRA release the Contact Centre Situational Inventory (CCSI) to a global market.

Oct 2008

OPRA release a complete survey solution which includes a range of proprietary products such 360Develop (360) and Parting Company (exit interviewing).

Present

Since conception OPRA has worked with over 300 clients on a range of both large and small-scale projects. OPRA's product arm has grown substantially with new products being released and updated on an on-going basis 100+ organisations now enjoy the GeneSys advantage. OPRA employs 12 permanent staff across Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch.

Future

OPRA will remain commited to the vision of being the leading organisational psychology firm in New Zealand and continue to explore new international markets as well.