Stories by Divina Paredes

Diversity at work

Sumit Arora migrated to New Zealand in 2002, hopeful of landing a job in IT. He had completed a computer technology course in India, and was an Oracle certified programmer.
Prior to coming to Auckland, he applied for jobs online through recruitment firms and was told they needed to interview him personally. "But when I came over, it was totally different. Not even a single consultant interviewed me."

Written by Divina Paredes31 March 06 23:00

On the leading edge

Scott Houston laughs when asked whether he is a "power hungry executive". "Power processing hungry," he clarifies.
These words aptly describe Houston, who heads the New Zealand Supercomputing Centre (NZSC), now one of the largest commercially available supercomputing clusters in the Southern Hemisphere.

Written by Divina Paredes30 Jan. 06 22:00

Facing the upstarts

"It gives us a lot of flexibility," says Simon Hull, managing director of the labour hire firm. "We open new branches pretty quickly and it has given us a reasonably seamless changeover. It is just running in the main server and all you need is to get another computer up and running and there it is."
Hull strongly supports a web-based approach for a multi-site business like Allied Workforce. "With this system, we can run our business from almost anywhere, using just a web browser."

Written by Divina Paredes30 Jan. 06 22:00

The CIOs of tomorrow

These days it has almost become a mantra for networked organisations to be nimble, ready to adjust to the ever changing needs of the marketplace and stakeholders, while ensuring the foundations for long-term growth.
But how about transposing this philosophy to another area close to the hearts and minds of today's contemporary IS executives - their career?

Written by Divina Paredes30 Jan. 06 22:00

Acts of compliance

By 2007 at the latest, the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) will take effect in New Zealand.
IFRS, developed by the London-based International Accounting Standards Board, is a major step to globally harmonise accounting standards.

Written by Divina Paredes30 Oct. 05 22:00

Leading the way

Deconstructing leadership - what constitutes it, who has it - is a subjective process.
But four months ago, at the Wellesley Club in Wellington, this writer experienced leadership personified.

Written by Divina Paredes30 Sept. 05 22:00

Putting IT together

On acquiring and being acquired

Written by Divina Paredes31 Aug. 05 22:00

No holds barred

Marcel van den Assum says the meeting starts middle of the afternoon, ends two hours later, and "concludes with a few drinks if it works out, [as] it normally does".
"We present to them collectively our direction, our priorities, our road map." An open forum follows, and sometimes a debate.

Written by Divina Paredes31 Aug. 05 22:00

The new agenda setter

Marcel van den Assum, Fonterra: One of the most important aspects of governance pertaining to IS, is alignment within the organisation through different governance structures.
Or, to put it more specifically, alignment of governance structures. For example if you're developing a corporate culture, corporate values, it's vitally important that that culture, those values, are understood in the context of IS governance.

Written by Divina Paredes31 July 05 22:00

Roundtable discussion: Call of the future

April Walker, Southern Cross: We are at one of the early stages of considering our strategic direction in telecommunications technology for voice over IP. We're in the process of looking at what we've got, where we might be going in the future, and what we're likely to need. Obviously VOIP has cropped up as a potential direction for us so it's something that we're looking at and considering. Previously one of our call centres was operating on VOIP technology but we disestablished it. We moved the call centre. We merged it back into the main call centre.
Catherine Rusby, IAG: I'm just reviewing the final paper that's going to be submitted to our board in a couple of weeks to say, 'You won't hear from us again because we're done [with our project].'

Written by Divina Paredes30 Jan. 05 22:00

Technology pioneers

The 2005 winners, chosen by major venture capital and technology companies, includ-ed companies working on anti-terrorism software and treatments for cancer and Alzheimer's disease.
The WEF believes these pioneers have focused on four major trends: Global demographic shifts, an impending energy crunch, mobile devices and greater security concerns.

Written by Divina Paredes30 Jan. 05 22:00

Governing attitudes

Nailing the basics of IT governance has been a key step in the development of every world class IT organisation (ITO), notes a recent Meta Group report.
However, the analyst firm points out, for many organisations, governance is a "nebulous" term. "The typical ITO's view of governance is a tactical prioritisation committee incorrectly termed the 'IT steering committee'."

Written by Divina Paredes30 Oct. 04 21:00