Stories by CIO New Zealand

Vend and Xero win big at Hi-Tech Awards

Xero and Vend each won two awards at the New Zealand Hi-Tech Awards, which were announced at a gala dinner attended by 700 guests at Sky City in Auckland on Friday evening. Xero won Company of the Year as well as Hi-Tech Exporter of the Year Award - over $5million Award, while Vend won the Hi-Tech Exporter of the Year Award - under $5million and Innovative Service Product Award.

Kiwi Datacom scores Australian government datacentre deal

New Zealand-based Datacom has been selected as one of five initial panel providers for the Australian government’s datacentre work. The panel will be in place for the next five years and will provide datacentre services to Australian Government FAM agencies, along with any other federal or state government organisations that wish to take advantage of the deal. “Datacom was delighted to help with the implementation of the Australian Government's 2010-2025 Datacentre Strategy. As one of the largest Australasian IT services companies and with eight Datacentre in the region, Datacom is well positioned to deliver quality services to subscribers of this new panel. We have a very strong 45+ year history of providing mission critical services to our Clients in the BPO, Systems Management and Application development space. It is encouraging to have the endorsement of the Australian Government in this very critical Datacentre technology area,” says Lisa Thorburn, Datacom’s ACT director. With over 1200 staff in Australia and 3500 in the region, Datacom has revenues in excess of AU$560 million. The company was founded in New Zealand in 1965 and established its presence in Australia in 1992. “Our recent growth to more than 70 staff in Canberra has meant that Datacom will soon be moving to new, larger premises on Northbourne Avenue, enabling better support for our clients” adds Thorburn.

Three Christchurch companies among NZ Hi-Tech Awards

Three Christchurch companies have made this year’s list of finalists for the NZ Hi-Tech Awards. “We were amazed to have received any entries from Christchurch as the competition closed just days after the earthquake struck,” says NZ Hi-Tech Trust Chair, Wayne Norrie. “To be able to announce three Christchurch companies as finalists is testimony to the hi-tech sector continuing to be a dominant force for Canterbury in the future.” Electronic fold-up bike manufacturer YikeBike is a finalist in the Dell Innovative Hardware Product category while NZ Tax Refunds and Sense Medical are finalists in the NZX Hi-Tech Emerging Company and the new Vodafone Most Innovative Product from an Emerging Market category, respectively. The finalists were announced at simultaneous functions held in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Orion Health was the stand out entrant, featuring as a finalist in six categories. Mi5 Security and VoucherMob have also made it to the finals in more than one category. According to the organisers, entries for 2011 hit record numbers and the NZ Hi-Tech Trust chair attributes at least some of the increase to the judging panel that has been assembled for the Awards. “We have over 40 local judges and a dozen international judges including Wall Street Journal’s Global Business Advisor of the Year, Gary Hamel, and Dell founder, Michael Dell,” says Norrie. “Who wouldn’t want to get their business in front of those guys?” Winners of the awards in each category will be announced at a gala dinner to be held at the TSB Arena in Wellington on 6 May 2011. The finalists for each category are as follows: PricewaterhouseCoopers Hi-Tech Company of the Year 2011 M-Com

Free IT training for Cantabrian businesses

New Zealand e-learning company Intuto is giving free online IT training to Christchurch businesses affect by the earthquake. For Richard Warren, CEO of Intuto, in a time when many staff are having to carry out duties they might not normally be familiar with, this learning system can be an invaluable tool.

NGOs need IT equipment for Christchurch

To support the Christchurch City rebuild, donations of computers, printers, mobile phones and networking equipment are needed. Tim Findlay, managing director, at Remarkit Solutions, says New Zealand Trade and Enterprise has already collected 500 personal computers (PCs), printers and networking devices, but many more are required.

Microsoft appoints corporate affairs manager

Waldo Kuipers has been appointed corporate affairs manager for Microsoft New Zealand, effective immediately. Kuipers will represent Microsoft on public policy issues such as intellectual property rights, interoperability and standards, privacy, security and internet safety and communications.

Take your reading on the road

CIO New Zealand is combining with its sister publications Reseller News, Computerworld, Unlimited and PC World to develop a mobile application, and we want you to tell us what you’d like to see in an app that combines our technology and business titles.

Renaissance launches 24/7 call centre service

Renaissance announced today the launch of its 24/7 call centre service for business and consumer customers. The new service is based on Onehunga and will provide technology support, as well as operational, project and development services to New Zealand businesses. According to James Cowie, Renaissance’s Chief Services Officer, over the past few years, there have been an increasing number of support calls coming through outside of the traditional 9 to 5 workday. “With New Zealand being such an export led economy, we are seeing more businesses operate into the evenings to take account of geographical time differences” says Cowie. Prior to this launch, Renaissance provided customers with 0800 numbers for difference specialities and only available during working hours. The new number is 0800 4 YOOBEE (0800 4 966 233), named after Renaissance’s new creative brand, means that all the previous numbers have been rolled into one and the services will be available 24/7. Renaissance’s contact centre receives an average of 600 calls a day and, according to Cowie, customer satisfaction has risen to 90% since the new service was put in place. Renaissance has also announced the opening of a clean-room for repairing high definition displays. “Even the most minute dust spec, when back-lit, provides an annoying spot on the screen when viewed by a customer. Therefore we have to spend a lot of time ensuring we meet the highest standards of screen repair. This facility has also had the benefit of cutting our repair time down by 80%, which frees up our specialists to further help our customers in other areas, and supporting our customers is what we are all about, “ adds Cowie.

Christchurch company bucks the trend

Christchurch-based Enable Networks has announced an after tax profit growth of 235% compared to normalised profit in the previous year. The figure was announced at the company’s annual general meeting on Tuesday. Enable recorded a net profit after tax of $448,000 in its third year in business, compared with a normalised profit of $192,000 in the previous year. The company says that the growth was driven by increasing demand from customers and channel partners, as well as extensive coverage and new products.