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.