* Click on the triangle symbols to reveal the information for each organisation.
2006 Ranking: 16
Senior IS executive: David Boyes, CIO and general manager business and technology, solutions and services
Reports to: Brad Cooper, CEO
Size of IS shop: 384
PCs: 5880
Mobile PCs: 824
Terminals: 0
Hand-held devices: 0
Total screens: 6704
Industry: Finance and insurance
PC environment: Window 2000, NT, 2003, XP; Compaq; Dell; IBM; Toshiba
Server environment: AIX; Tandem; OS4000; Windows XP; iSeries, pSeries, xSeries, zSeries; Sun
DBMS: DB2, Oracle, SQL,Sybase
Address: 157 Lambton Quay, Wellington
Website: www.westpac.co.nz
Key IS projects this year: Core system analysis; infrastructure and security technologies renewal; risk, compliance, and Basel II.
Westpac is New Zealand’ second largest bank in terms of customer numbers, and like most banks faces challenges as a result of changing economic conditions.
“The economy has been largely resilient in recent years with modest GDP growth, low unemployment, a strong exchange rate and low credit-risk cycle. Challenges will likely come in the form of deterioration in these factors and the impacts of interest rate increases on consumer borrowing levels over next few years,” says Westpac CIO David Boyes.
Further regulation is also possible as the Reserve Bank and Commerce Commission ensure the banking system remains robust and transparent and is not adversely impacting customers.
IT is used to lower the cost of bank operations, particularly through the application of automated systems and the provision of front line systems that support improved customer service and sales. IT systems allow Westpac to offer innovative products and services through online and mobile channels, and allow the introduction of new products or variations on existing products quickly and cost effectively.
Boyes says Westpac would value lower telecommunications costs with no impact on service reliability, and hopes for increased flexibility in the use of telecommunications services to serve business needs, along with more value added functionality delivered ‘out of the box’ by telecommunications providers.
Boyes says a large percentage of Westpac IT projects are focused on regulatory compliance and infrastructure.
“We are working towards shifting our investments to projects that will deliver hard benefit in the form of either revenue increases or lower operating costs.”
In the coming 12 months, Westpac will work on key IT projects including hardware upgrades, server virtualisation and VoIP infrastructure, and will also launch a new Customer System initiative. An extension to mobile and wireless technologies is also on the agenda, and Westpac will work on enhancing web-facing systems for both customers and business partners.
2006 ranking: 26
Senior IS executive: Jay Bocock, executive director information management
Reporting to: CEO
Size of IS shop: 38
PCs: 4200
Mobile PCs: 300
Terminals: 0
Hand-held devices: 40
Total screens: 4540
Industry: Education services
PC environment: Windows XP, HP, IBM
Server environment: Novell, HP, IBM, MSoft A/D
DBMS: SQL
Address: 1 Factory Road, Te Awamutu
Website: www.twoa.ac.nz
Key IS projects this year: AD migration from Novell; data warehouse; student registry upgrade; virtual student support; VoIP - One Office; disaster recovery and business continuity review.
Successfully operating in a regulatory environment and developing new educational offerings are key business objectives for tertiary education provider Te Wananga O Aotearoa in 2007. TWOA supports 178 sites nationally and purchases between 1000 and 1800 PCs every two years.
Jay Bocock, executive director of information management, says ICT supports the objectives of TWOA by providing centralised services, virtualised resources, portal based learner support and multi-platform, national access to organisation information. TWOA has a number of important IT projects underway in 2007. In the main, these involve system migration, web projects and server virtualisation – TWOA has successfully virtualised around 60 servers in the past 12 months.
“There is huge demand for IT systems that support student learning and improve teacher practice. To provide that support, we are finding it helpful to develop a more contextual IT environment using collaborative technologies like Microsoft Sharepoint and Active Directory,” says Bocock.
He says TWOA is working on new self-service web portals that support staff, students and stakeholders.
Video conferencing is important to TWOA and is run over a separate network connection to the data network. Videoconferencing is used to connect masters of academic disciplines with nationally dispersed TWOA teachers to foster collaboration and mentoring. TWOA is also progressively implementing VoIP services over its data network.
Bocock says TWOA is about to embark on a significant telecommunications RFP in an attempt to meet its burgeoning fixed line and wireless telecommunications needs. TWOA uses a large number of mobile data cards and finds mobile broadband performance superior to the broadband performance available over fixed line connections.
2006 Ranking: 24
Senior IS executive: Owen McCall, chief information officer
Reports to: Ian Morrice, CEO
Size of IS shop: 125
PCs: 4090
Mobile PCs: 300
Terminals: 0
Hand-held devices: 1400
Total screens: 5790
Industry: Wholesale and retail trade
PC environment: Windows NT, XP; HP; Javelin
Server environment: MCP; Other Unix; VMS; Windows 2000, 2003, NT; HP; Unisys; NCR
DBMS: Teradata, DMS, Oracle, SQL
Address: 26 The Warehouse Way, Northcote, Auckland
Website: www.thewarehouse.co.nz
Key IS projects this year: Legacy system modernisation; POS software upgrade; server consolidation.
The Warehouse Group has strong and pragmatic business objectives for 2007, designed to continue to build on a strategic plan of developing the Warehouse brand, sourcing product, leveraging the supply chain and improving stores.
Key business challenges include the need to adapt to rapid social and technological change, increased competition, and increased costs, whilst continuing to invest in order to contribute to both cost reduction and revenue growth, says CIO Owen McCall.
McCall says IT is a key enabler to many parts of the group, including category and channel expansion. IT also supports sourcing initiatives, improves supplier-to-shelf management processes and improves in-store service and support.
The Warehouse Group is investing in server virtualisation technologies with a view to saving costs in server maintenance costs, and like many organisations in this year’s MIS100, will make a substantial investment in disaster recovery systems and business continuity planning.
For The Warehouse “Red Sheds”, IT projects include installing new point of sale (POS) software to match a 2006 POS hardware upgrade, and extending an existing 802.11 wireless network rollout.
Other initiatives include a legacy modernisation to the company’s customised ERP system, and upgrading the demand forecasting system. McCall says critical data network services for the Red Sheds are with TelstraClear, following a switch from Telecom in 2006. The Warehouse also recently made a significant investment in cellular mobile technologies and Vodafone mobile services.
“This was a reasonably significant rollout in terms of internal mobile communications and global roaming,” says McCall.
He says The Warehouse Group has “played with VoIP in one store” and is only lightly investigating VoIP technologies.
For Warehouse Stationery, key initiatives for 2007 are implementing Oracle merchandising and logistics software to aid the supply chain and data warehouse; and improving the web channel with a new web implementation and an upgrade to online buying processes.
24 Victoria University of Wellington
2006 Ranking: 18
Senior IS executive: Stuart Haselden, ITS manager (acting)
Reports to: Warwick Clegg, pro-vice chancellor IT
Size of IS shop: 96
PCs: 4450
Mobile PCs: 400
Terminals: 0
Hand-held devices: 0
Total screens: 4850
Industry: Education services
PC environment: Apple Mac, Linux, Windows XP, Dell
Server environment: Apple; Linux; Solaris; Other Unix; Windows 2000, 2003, XP; VMWare, Digital Alpha; Compaq; Dell; Silicon Graphics
DBMS: Oracle, SQL
Address: Kelburn Parade, Wellington
Website: www.vuw.ac.nz
Key IS projects this year: My Victoria enterprise portal; institutional repository; operational recovery.
The key focus for any university is to provide efficient administration, support diverse teaching requirements and enable research flexibility. Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) is focused on continued implementation of the university’s strategic plan and IT is a key enabler of this, says acting ITS manager Stuart Haselden.
Haselden says VUW continues to build on its reputation and intellectual heritage as a broad-based centre for teaching and research, and selectively develops programmes in which it can achieve excellence and that are, where appropriate, relevant to its location in the capital city and cultural centre of New Zealand. Key challenges in 2007 include defining IT strategic plans over the long-term for teaching and research, especially as technology changes.
Haselden says IT Services at VUW assist in defining reporting requirements and resulting IT projects for the university, and in implementing such projects. Other IT services provided include data storage, improved identity management and enhanced teaching and learning experience.
“Where possible, VUW partners with other New Zealand universities to gain mutual benefit and economies of scale from IT services including procurement initiatives,” says Haselden.
Key IT projects for 2007 include analysis of CRM technologies and strategies, continued server virtualisation, continued investment in 802.11-based wireless technologies for wider campus coverage, and a web infrastructure upgrade. Identity management, operational recovery, and lecture recording projects are also planned.
25 Auckland District Health Board
2006 ranking: 20
Senior IS executive: Johan Vendrig, chief information officer
Reports to: Chief executive officer
Size of IS shop: 330
PCs: 5400
Mobile PCs: 300
Terminals: 0
Hand-held devices: 200
Total screens: 5900
Industry: Health and community service
PC environment: Windows XP, HP
Server environment: Windows, HP
DBMS: Oracle, SQL
Address: Building 10, Gate 3, Greenlane Hospital, Auckland
Website: www.adhb.govt.nz
Key IS projects this year: Electronic referrals and radiology orders; staff rostering system; clinical workstation and management information programmes.
The Auckland District Health Board (ADHB) recently integrated its Patient Information Services and Information Services and Decision Support teams – a total of 330 staff – into a new Information Management and Technology Service (IMTS) to meld traditional health information management processes with evolving information technology expertise.
Chief information officer Johan Vendrig says the IMTS team wants to develop a customer service culture that goes the extra mile while appropriately managing people’s expectations. He says the team’s focus is changing from simply “running systems” to providing IM services and IT systems that facilitate informed decision making.
A key goal for 2007 is to improve productivity and maximise return on investment for ICT technologies. These include thin clients to reduce the time to access information by clinicians; portal technology to bring relevant data together in context; and improved qualitative and quantitative data for analysis and reporting.
Vendrig says the ADHB has also started looking at server virtualisation and is keeping a watching brief on VoIP and wireless technologies. “We cascade servers very effectively until they’re out the door. As a result we are not quite convinced about the added value of virtualisation at this point, but we keep talking to the market. Similarly, the business case for a ‘big bang’ VoIP deployment is not there for us, but as our PABXs are aging we will begin hybrid VoIP trials.”
He says challenges around wireless technologies include finding a return on investment and whether wireless tools truly allow staff to work smarter and more efficiently. In the meantime, ADHB is trialing cellular mobile technologies and wireless applications via the Vodafone and Telecom mobile networks.
Vendrig says changes to telecommunication legislation should aid mobility strategies in the health sector. While many ADHB staff work from home and want better mobile access to the network, past barriers have included cost, mobile and fixed-line broadband performance and legacy applications that didn’t port well to the mobile platform. Vendrig points out mobility is not just a technology issue – management of staff performance and the employer’s responsibility with regards to occupational health and safety at the alternative workplace, including the home, are key factors. “But the IT industry as a whole is more comfortable about people working from home and we are trialing this in some areas and can see it happening in others, as we bring more business processes and information online.”
Vendrig says attracting IT staff with the capability to make a difference – those who pro-actively engage with a wider team to get new ideas implemented quickly – is an ongoing challenge. However, ADHB offers salary levels and career opportunities that compete with the market as well as a wide variety in information technology and projects.
2006 Ranking: 28
Senior IS executive: Derek Lyons, chief information officer
Reports to: General Manager corporate management
Size of IS shop: 130
PCs: 5672
Mobile PCs: 650
Terminals: 100
Hand-held devices: 45
Total screens: 6467
Industry: Government and defence
PC environment: Windows NT, XP; Dell; HP; IBM
Server environment: Linux, Solaris, Windows 2003, IBM, Dell
DBMS: Oracle, SQL
Address: Level 3, Mayfair House, 44-52 The Terrace, Wellington
Website: www.corrections.govt.nz
Key IS projects this year: Software systems refresh, hardware upgrades; electronic document and record management systems.
The ICT unit at the Department of Corrections supports 20 prisons and more than 180 other sites across New Zealand.
Derek Lyons, chief information officer, says managing growth in the corrections environment is a challenge, with new prisons and changed community probations sites. “Focus in IT is on continuing to support operational business requirements, as well as improving quality and quantity of information supporting the organisation.”
The three largest IT projects in the coming year are further development of the department’s key business application, the Integrated Offender Management System, ongoing hardware and software upgrades, and work on the electronic document and record management systems.
Other key IT projects include work on ERP and knowledge management systems and implementation of mobile devices such as tablet PCs to deliver work flexibility to remote and mobile staff.
Lyons says many of the changes are being driven by pending legislative changes such as the Criminal Justice Reform Bill and the new Public Records Act. He says the department’s core application is the Integrated Offender Management System, which is regularly modified to suit New Zealand correctional and legal requirements.
Due to the nature of its activities and the need for confidentiality, the department runs a controlled environment with few external access points into the network.
On the telecommunications front, Lyons says the department is “happy” with the telecommunications services it has and describes service levels as “reasonable”. Data performance to some sites is as fast as 100MB/sec, while others have 10MB/sec connections. More remote sites may connect at 256Kpbs.
He says the 2006 implementation of a Cisco VoIP system has been successful and the department is now investigating leveraging that investment for IP network video conferencing.
2006 ranking: 25
PCs: 4561
Mobile PCs: 360
Terminals: 0
Hand-held devices: 40
Total screens: 4961
Industry: Education services
Senior IS executive: Coralie Gibbison, director, IT services (acting)
Reports to: Head of corporate services
Size of IS shop: 132
PC environment: Windows, Linux, Apple Mac, Dell, HP
Server environment: Linux, Windows, Dell, HP
DBMS: Oracle, Jade, MySQL
Address: Hillcrest Road, Hamilton
Website: www.waikato.ac.nz
Key IS projects this year: Wireless access and connectivity for students and staff; learning management system replacement; web-enabling applications.
In the coming 12 months, the University of Waikato plans to address falling student numbers, increase research revenue, implement a campus redevelopment plan and implement the Government’s new funding regime for the tertiary sector.
Coralie Gibbison, acting director IT services, says challenges include a significant decrease in international students over the past three years and the reality that the largest source of revenue to all universities is via government funding of domestic students and research contracts.
She says IT systems continue to provide the university with the tools it needs to compete and attract enrolments. Web-enabled business processes help reduce costs, while wireless connectivity, support for student laptops and expansion and upgrade of the information commons all help promote student growth and retention, says Gibbison. State of the art ICT teaching tools and development of specialist online teaching environments within the schools and faculties are also attractive to students.
The University of Waikato is working on collaborative ICT procurement initiatives, virtualisation of servers and implementation of multi-functional devices to replace photocopiers and printers to improve services to staff and students and reduce costs. A new Hyperion business intelligence system aims to improve management reporting and will replace the legacy Brio system. Wireless networking is being extended beyond the “pockets” of current coverage, and the university has a number of formal and informal knowledge management initiatives including analysis of content management system needs, and compliance issues around the pending Public Records Act.
Business continuity and disaster recovery system upgrades are priorities. The university is working with other universities to investigate shared disaster recovery systems. “The aim is to work with other universities to retain 15 per cent spare capacity in server rooms so that if one university has a disaster, they can set up their servers in the room of another university.”
2006 Ranking: 29
Senior IS executive: Tony Hood, chief information officer
Reports to: Peter Schuyt, chief financial officer
Size of IS shop: 170
PCs: 2600
Mobile PCs: 600
Terminals: 1250
Hand-held devices: 300
Total screens: 4750
Industry: Transport and warehousing
PC environment: Windows 2000, IBM
Server environment: Windows 2003, IBM
DBMS: Oracle, SQL
Address: New Zealand Post House, 7-27 Waterloo Quay, Wellington
Website: www.nzpost.co.nz
Key IS projects this year: Not disclosed.
New Zealand Post is a state owned enterprise in a fully deregulated postal environment. Its straightforward business objectives include growing revenue and being customer-driven.
NZ Post has 325 PostShops and 663 PostCentres and handles 140 different payments to around 80 different agencies through its retail network. NZ Post subsidiary Datamail Group prints and produces a third of the business mail sent out in New Zealand and hosts more than 500,000 documents online. The ECN Group, another New Zealand Post subsidiary, provides e-commerce services to more than 2000 organisations around Australasia.
New Zealand Post continues to undergo internal change designed to enable it to increase focus on its customer base. This change has seen the IT function folded into the Postal Services Group under Postal Services Chief Executive Peter Fenton. Tony Hood, group CIO for NZ Post, has oversight of the IT strategy for the New Zealand Post Group and also ensures that New Zealand Post continues to gain the benefits of a collaborative approach to ICT.
In April, postal services group infrastructure and architecture manager, Alan Roberts, told Computerworld NZ Post had achieved a 70 per cent reduction in IT operating costs after moving to a service-oriented architecture and open-source operating system. NZ Post’s service-oriented share infrastructure (SOSI) is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Server, Oracle Application Server 10g and the Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition.
Roberts said the decision to move to a service-oriented model was driven by lack of agility of existing infrastructure and high operating costs due to escalating maintenance costs of aging Sun hardware and an Oracle licensing model based on price-per-CPU. NZ Post is currently continuing work on server virtualisation, and in April had reduced server count by 40 per cent.
29 Canterbury District Health Board
2006 ranking: 32
Senior IS executive: Chris Dever, chief information officer
Reports to: General manager, corporate services
Size of IS shop: 79
PCs: 3353
Mobile PCs: 293
Terminals: 0
Hand-held devices: 289
Total screens: 3935
Industry: Health and community services
PC environment: Windows XP; Compaq/HP
Server environment: AIX,Linux, Windows 2000, Compaq, HP Others, iSeries, Sun
DBMS: Oracle, Pick, SQL Server, Sybase
Address: Level 4, Princess Margaret Hospital, Cashmere, Christchurch
Website: www.cdhb.govt.nz
Key IS projects this year: HRIS system, clinical information system, SAN replacement.
The Canterbury District Health Board (DHB) has just completely a “tough, busy year”, says CIO Chris Dever. That included embarking on and completing an infrastructure stabilisation project in parallel with a clinical information system upgrade and large HRIS and workforce management case.
Dever says the next 12 months will see Canterbury DHB make further commitments to infrastructure stabilization, which it is keen to capitalise on and realise benefits from. “We made all sorts of promises in the business case and now we want to make sure those benefits are realised. The aim of the project was to turn us from being a reactive organisation into a proactive organisation. That means not only being able to fix servers, but to maintain things today so they don’t need fixing tomorrow.”
He says Canterbury DHB is about to embark on another significant project to merge three patient-management systems from three different health organisations. This involves consolidation and upgrade of clinical information systems, and Dever says it is a big job to work on the existing connections between the systems.
Canterbury DHB has also been pioneering innovative technologies including the Vocera wireless voice communication system, which other DHBs are showing an interest in.
He says working within budget remains a challenge for the ICT team, yet this needs to be balanced alongside some “fairly serious work” on a new workforce management project that includes payroll and HR system components and a staff rostering system. The DHB will also spend money this year on an Oracle financial system upgrade, a VoIP system using Nortel software, and several wireless telephony and wireless data projects that support clinicians moving between offices and clinics with laptops. Dever says he is focused on mobile security and moving Canterbury DHB from a protective approach to mobility that involves significant firewalls to prevent people gaining remote access to the network; to one that supports staff having secure access to systems from wherever they are.
He says server virtualisation has been very successful and Canterbury DHB, which was an early adopter, is now “virtualising anything we can think of”.
30 Unitec
2006 ranking: 33
Senior IS executive: John McMaster, IT director
Reports to: Deputy president, corporate services
Size of IS shop: 58
PCs: 3422
Mobile PCs: 193
Terminals: 0
Hand-held devices: 40
Total screens: 3655
Industry: Education services
PC environment: Mac OS, Windows XP, Apple, IBM
Server environment: Mac OS, Linux, Netware, Solaris, Windows 2000, Dell, IBM, Sun
DBMS: Oracle, SQL, MySQL
Address: Carrington Rd, Mt Albert, Auckland, New Zealand
Website: www.unitec.ac.nz
Key IS projects this year: Not disclosed.
Like other tertiary institutions, Auckland’s Unitec is aware of the impact of Government policy and the competitive nature of the New Zealand tertiary education market, which has the potential to reduce tertiary institution growth nationwide.
Information technology offers support for all information technology services and systems across the Unitec campuses, and Unitec’s “ask IT” help desk is a single point of contact for Unitec students and staff from all departments and schools. Ask IT logs, manages, co-ordinates and resolves all requests relating to Unitec information technology services.
Long-serving IT director John McMaster was not available for comment at the time the Top 100 went to press. This profile has therefore been compiled using the best information available.
In 2006, McMaster said IT systems and IT development are needed to improve services and processes and to monitor operational performance at Unitec. Challenges included reduced IT project budgets as overall budgets reduced and constant pressure to realise cost savings in scheduled and ongoing IT projects and regular IT operations.
McMaster said key 2006 IT projects included server hardware upgrades and implementation and improvement of CRM and knowledge management systems. Unitec also continued an earlier investment in wireless infrastructure and technologies. Last year, McMaster said unrealistic expectations about the level of IT service able to be delivered over wireless infrastructure is a concern for the IS team at Unitec.
“We are being asked to accommodate increasing numbers of PDA-type devices wanting a greater range of services,” said McMaster.
A light outsourcer, most IT function is performed in-house. Exceptions are PC maintenance and on site warranty support, moves/adds/changes for voice and data infrastructure, AV design and installation, and some applications development. Key IT vendor partners on performance management systems and projects include IBM and Oracle for business intelligence, reporting and data warehousing projects; and PeopleSoft/Oracle for score carding and dash boarding.
2006 ranking: 31
Senior IS executive: Carol Abernethy, general manager, technology and services
Reports to: Deputy secretary, strategy and corporate
Size of IS shop: 230
PCs: 4750
Mobile PCs: 320
Terminals: 0
Hand-held devices: 0
Total screens: 5070
Industry: Government and defence
PC environment: Windows 2000, NT, XP; Compaq; HP; IBM
Server environment: Novell; Red Hat; Solaris; Windows 2000, 2003, NT; Compaq; HP Others; Sun
DBMS: Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase
Address: Level 9, Sovereign House, 180 Molesworth Street, Wellington
Website: www.justice.govt.nz
Key IS projects this year: Mandatory Projects Programme (Legislative or Ministerial Direction): Effective interventions, Criminal Justice Reform Bill, evidence recording and transcription, courtroom audio systems, Criminal Procedures Bill, Justice Sector Information Strategy Initiatives; Improvement Projects Programme (Strategic Initiatives or Enhancements): Intranet revitalisation, progression of Information Systems Strategic Plan Initiatives, courtroom video conferencing extension, courtroom electronic filing scoping; infrastructure upgrade programme.
In 2007 the Ministry of Justice has a heavy legislative programme, which leads the IT services team into many activities across the organisation and impacts IT resources in the ‘field’ – the courts and their operations.
Carol Abernethy, general manager, technology and services, says as the ministry enters a new financial year in July, it will have consolidated 12 IT supplier relationships into one, transitioning IT functions including help desk, desktop support, data centre management, and mobile, voice and data telecommunications to Gen-i.
Internally, the technology and services team will focus on four key areas: Changes to the core case management system and business processes as a result of legislative changes like the Criminal Justice Reform Bill; continuation of an infrastructure upgrade programme; addressing wider information needs through the integration of data warehousing and content management systems; and improving court process efficiencies.
“We are also progressing the electronic courtroom of the future by implementing new video conferencing solutions, scoping opportunities to advance the broader vision of future electronic filing requirements and new processes and procedures for evidence recording and transcription. The goal is to make court processes and operations as efficient as possible for our 103 locations,” says Abernethy.
Telecommunications directions include the desire to use ‘anytime anywhere’ mobile technologies so that, for example, judges can collaborate on a judgement document from different locations. To deliver security, reach and reliability, the ministry relies on a range of communications networks including mobile broadband, wireless and fixed connections. Abernethy says VoIP technologies are not presently implemented and won’t be this year.
The ministry is implementing new FMIS software called Technology One Financials and will look at server virtualisation and storage area networks in the latter half of the year.
32 Foodstuffs Co-operative Society
2006 ranking: 35
Senior IS executive: Egon Guttke, group manager of IT
Reports to: Chief executive officer
Size of IS shop: 54
PCs: 1900
Mobile PCs: 500
Terminals: 15
Hand-held devices: 1050
Total screens: 3465
Industry: Wholesale and retail trade
PC environment: Windows 98, 2000, XP; HP, Dell
Server environment: AIX, Windows 2000; HP, Dell, iSeries, OEM Intel-based
DBMS: Informix, MS SQL
Address: 57 Kiln Street, Silverstream, Upper Hutt
Website: www.foodstuffs-wgtn.co.nz
Key IS projects this year: Not disclosed.
Foodstuffs (Wellington) Co-operative Society is one of three separate, regionally- based and retailer- owned co-operative companies of the Foodstuffs organisation.
It competes “vigorously” in the foodstuffs retail market, says Egon Guttke, group manager IT. “We use IT heavily in that context. For example, we spend effort on disaster recovery programmes to ensure that we can continue to run our business in adverse situations. We invest in more network resiliency and our infrastructure in general terms, including ‘hot’ systems, and we drive all IT services around business projects.”
Point of sale systems (POS) and electronic payment systems are critically important and in 2007 Foodstuffs Co-operative Society will need to comply with the new encryption standard for EFT terminals, which means a terminal firmware upgrade and the need to test “everything” and obtain ETSL certification. Network connections are similarly critical, and Guttke says the cost of business telecommunications services is vastly inflated. “Business benefits from local loop unbundling are limited but may accrue as prices come down. At the moment, we have to pay 10 times as much for a business connection compared to what I have to pay as a consumer so there’s a lot of room for improvement.” The introduction of number portability to ttelecommunications services is seen as advantageous, as it will allow Foodstuffs to approach different telecommunications service providers without having to change mobile phone numbers, and will make it easier for new telecommunications providers to compete.
Foodstuffs has introduced voice picking technology into its warehouses so supermarket orders can be placed electronically and translated to voice commands.
On the e-commerce front, Foodstuffs Co-operative Society is less than enamoured by B2C business models but very active in B2B models with the other Foodstuffs companies. Foodstuffs has gone live with a Global Standards 1 project thatwhich places information on goods and barcodes in a central, international data repository. Organisations can tap into that repository and download information to their own systems.
33 Manukau Institute of Technology
2006 Ranking: 30
Senior IS executive: Anthony Margetts, IT director
Reports to: Executive director, Dr Stuart Middleton
Size of IS shop: 26
PCs: 3587
Mobile PCs: 224
Terminals: 135
Hand-held devices: 75
Total screens: 4021
Industry: Education services
PC environment: Apple Mac; Linux; Solaris; Windows 2000, XP, Vista; Apple; Intel-based Clone or OEM, Sun
Server environment: OS X; Solaris; Windows 2000, 2003; Apple, OEM Intel-based; Sun
DBMS: MS Access, Jade, Oracle, SQL, MySQL
Address: Gate 1, Newbury Street, Otara, South Auckland
Website: www.manukau.ac.nz
Key IS projects this year: Hardware upgrade; business continuity and disaster recovery planning; VoIP.
Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT) is committed to being a leading tertiary provider of high-quality, relevant and accessible vocational education and training on a base of applied research. MIT has around 6500 full-time students in an educational environment in which ICT is ubiquitous.
“We continue to move towards a directory-centric environment based on Sun’s LDAP-compliant directory server, integrated with JASPER SMS from Jade Corporation. Unified user management is achieved as we move in this direction,” says ICT director Anthony Margetts.
In 2007, MIT will focus on new initiatives in the areas of mobilisation, data security and e-business and invest in systems that support compliance with the Public Records Act.
MIT’s IT environment is customised to meet individual needs, but centrally managed. A heavy reliance is placed on the directory server and storage area network, and multiple campuses are used to deliver dynamic disaster recovery. An LTO-3 tape library at each site and real-time mirrored data across the SAN between drive arrays at each data centre, give a high degree of resilience and fault tolerance, says Margetts. “We are moving towards independence of client type in a service oriented architecture using open source solutions.”
He says MIT has had messaging and authentication since day one, doesn’t allow generic log-ins, and requires encryption for files from payroll, personnel and financial systems. “We don’t let anyone near our system without authentication.”
Margetts describes the MIT email system on Sun’s Java Enterprise Messaging Server as “rock solid”. Students get free email and internet access determined by attributes held on the student management system, which automatically updates the directory server. This strategy has been extended by the introduction of Sun’s Portal Services to provide a client-independent web top for accessing numerous MIT services via a web browser.
34 Accident Compensation Corporation
2006 Ranking: 27
Senior IS executive: Graeme Osborne, general manager, information management group
Reports to: Chief executive
Size of IS shop: 17
PCs: 3200
Mobile PCs: 300
Terminals: 0
Hand-held devices: 0
Total screens: 3500
Industry: Finance and insurance
PC environment: Windows XP, HP
Server environment: Solaris, Windows Server 2003, HP, Sun
DBMS: Oracle, Sybase
Address: Shamrock House, Molesworth Street, Wellington
Website: www.acc.co.nz
Key IS projects this year: Three-year $100 million investment in Fineos system and electronic document management system.
The Accident Compensation Corporation aims to use improved customer communication at touch points to demonstrate ACC as an efficient and effective organisation.
Graeme Osborne, general manager information management group, says internally ACC’s key challenge and focus is on achieving greater operational efficiency and strategic leadership instead of simply more management. ICT is used to support this drive towards greater operational efficiency. ACC has invested heavily in modern, web-based technologies especially Fineos, an Irish, Java-based n-tier application. “We said these technologies would allow us to adapt and be flexible and now we have to deliver on that promise.”
ACC is working at understanding its end-to-end information needs and on only collecting the information it needs. There is a need to collect data once and use it throughout the life of a claim, and to inform injury prevention programmes. Currently, too much data is collected around minor injuries and not enough around major injuries, which require additional information for optimum rehabilitation and monitoring, says Osborne. “We will use NHI numbers and part of our strategy is around collecting the right information at the right time.”
Another goal is to provide a consistent service to claimants, and Osborne says Fineos’ task management, scheduling and process workflow tools will help ACC’s 2000 front-line staff provide that consistent service.
ACC has a dedicated telecommunications network serving 40 national sites. TelstraClear provides data services and Telecom is used for voice and mobile. Osborne says legislation in the telecommunications sector might improve claimant access to ACC online, and ACC would like to see better broadband performance across the community.
ACC has invested in Ericsson PABXs and will investigate VoIP this year. Potential benefits for the organisation include unified messaging, video over IP and reduced call costs. Video conferencing is being evaluated as a way to cut travel costs.
Business continuity and disaster recovery and knowledge management are further focus areas, as is the e-channel. Osborne says ACC will develop a ‘second generation’ online channel, which includes information from health providers.
ACC is a significant outsourcer of ICT operational functions. Host maintenance, help desk services and data centre management are outsourced to Unisys. Systems and network management is overseen by Datacraft and PC/server procurement and maintenance by Datacom.
2006 Ranking: 36
Senior IS executive: Bruce Moorhead, chief information officer
Reports to: Deputy secretary, people and business capability
Size of IS shop: 230
PCs: 2050
Mobile PCs: 1000
Terminals: 0
Hand-held devices: 140
Total screens: 3190
Industry: Government and defence
PC environment: Windows XP, Lenovo
Server environment: Windows 2000, 2003; Linux; IBM
DBMS: Oracle, SQL
Address: 45-47 Pipitea Street, Thorndon, Wellington
Website: www.minedu.govt.nz
Key IS projects this year: Electronic document management; website infrastructure; sector agencies electronic enablement — common authentication system and integration broker service; early childhood funding system upgrade; schools enrolment data electronic transfer system.
Raising achievement and reducing educational disparity are key focuses for the Ministry of Education. Internally, there will be increased focus on early intervention programmes.
“We have reorganised so we are an easier organisation to deal with,” says CIO Bruce Moorhead. “From an IT perspective we have brought together the ministry’s IT services under one umbrella to enable more effective use of resources and improve service delivery. We will continue to electronically enable more business processes within the sector.”
One of these is the ENROL application, which was implemented in all intermediate, secondary and restricted composite schools across New Zealand during term three of 2006. ENROL is a web-based application designed to replace a cumbersome paper-based system and provide a more effective means of managing enrolment. ENROL is expected to be implemented in remaining schools in term three of 2007.
The Ministry of Education is also developing a range of online services to enable the seamless exchange of information securely between education sector users and with the education agencies.
The Ministry of Education has up to 850 mobile phones and a large investment in a Nortel PABX system that Moorhead says it plans to IP-enable. There are 50 offices on the Ministry’s WAN, some with only 256Kbps connection, and Moorhead says the Ministry is looking at substantial bandwidth upgrades.
As a foundation member of the Government Shared Network programme, the Ministry of Education will also look at progressively migrating to that network throughout the year. The ministry has a 30-node video conferencing network throughout the country, which it uses for internal meetings between geographically dispersed staff. Like many government organisations, the Ministry of Education is introducing electronic document management and redeveloping its web infrastructure to improve information access and management.
2006 Ranking: 34
Senior IS executive: Pat McShane, general manager
Reporting to: HealthIntelligence board
Size of IS shop: 86
PCs: 2512
Mobile PCs: 111
Terminals: 1156
Hand-held devices: 30
Total screens: 3809
Industry: Health and community services
PC environment: Windows XP, 2000, NT
Server environment: HP, Novell, VMS, Windows 2000
DBMS: Oracle, SQL, Sybase
Address: Coromandel Street, Newtown, Wellington
Website: www.hiq.net.nz
Key IS projects this year: New regional hospital commissioning in Capital and Coast District Health Board; Release 2 of the IBA medical applications portal for Capital and Coast District Health Board; business Intelligence for both Capital and Coast and Taranaki District Health Boards.
As a wholly owned outsource provider, HealthIntelligence examines business drivers for customers including reduction in disparities of health standards across different communities, management of the incidence and impact of chronic disease, integration of care between healthcare providers, and updating hospitals.
During 2006, HealthIntelligence developed a comprehensive shared vision and defined its ‘essence’ as Enable Informed Health Decisions. Pat McShane, general manager, says HealthIntelligence has two strategic drivers for the coming 12 months: The first is to achieve greater synergies within the organisation and customers, including technology synergies between Taranaki and Wellington customer platforms along with enhanced process rationalisation. The second focus is around gaining new business opportunities within the wider health sector.
Key challenges are also customer challenges and include managing organisational and process change within funding constraints, and managing increasing demand for services within a fixed funding pool. Integration of fragmented service delivery across multiple providers is a further challenge. “HealthIntelligence will help customers invest in ICT projects that cost-effectively deliver the most value to the business in support of their own strategic priorities. Key to this is the provision of quality people and technology.”
He says IT provides flexible and reliable systems and improves efficiencies. Examples include timely and reliable demand tracking, resource consumption and production planning information available to managers; or diagnostic test results, clinical information and decision support tools available to clinicians at point of care.
Key IT projects for the coming 12 months include business intelligence software and systems, investment in VoIP, wireless and cellular mobile technologies, and an enhanced knowledge management strategy. Disaster recovery and upgrades to patient management and clinical hospital systems are further focus areas.
McShane says collaboration within the health sector is critical. An obstacle to this in terms of technology is the need to react to local needs, while balancing the considerations of regional or national drivers and priorities.
37 Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology
2006 ranking: 39
Senior IS executive: Kevin Adamson, IT director
Reports to: CFO
Size of IS shop: 29
PCs: 2128
Mobile PCs: 159
Terminals: 0
Hand-held devices: 80
Total screens: 2367
Industry: Education services
PC environment: Windows XP, HP
Server environment: Linux, NetWare, Windows 2000, HP, IBM
DBMS: Oracle, SQL, Sybase
Address: 130 Madras Street, Christchurch
Website: www.cpit.ac.nz
Key IS projects this year: Identity management; backup replacement; VoIP migration; wireless campus; disaster recovery, web content management implementation; Public Records Act compliance.
In keeping with the main aim of tertiary institutions throughout New Zealand, the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT) will focus on improving enrolment numbers in 2007 following a drop in international and domestic enrolments in 2006.
On the IT front, IT director Kevin Adamson says CPIT will continue file server consolidation using server virtualisation technologies based on VMWare. CPIT now has 20 virtual server environments running across three nodes.
CPIT will also continue a phased migration to VoIP telephony. Adamson says CPIT has been trialing and using VoIP for two years and will transition to using Cisco’s call manager technology from an existing Nortel platform over the next three years.
CPIT is leveraging business advantages afforded by the internet and e-channels and will implement a new web content management system in 2007, which Adamson says will provide increased ability to manage websites and content. XML development is also planned for CPIT’s student management system and this will enhance online enrolment capabilities, says Adamson.
Other areas of IT focus in 2007 include a new CMS system, further server virtualisation and VoIP system rollouts, and implementation of a business continuity and disaster recovery project that was designed last year.
CPIT is a moderate outsourcer, with some application development and systems and network management outsourced to Jade; and HR payroll and the data centre to Datacom.
In response to student demand for mobile computing and wireless support, CPIT is promoting options for students via vendor relationships to reduce the cost of buying laptop computers and will extend wireless technologies to support large lecture theatres and open spaces.
E-learning systems have been at CPIT for more than five years, with around 500 courses now web-enabled and able to provide blended e-learning content.
CPIT will transition from Blackboard to Moodle, an open source Linux product for its online learner management system. CPIT is also transitioning from Netware to Open Enterprise Server for its network operating system. “We’re also talking to vendors around our planned web content management solution and have a couple of open source solutions short-listed,” says Adamson.
He says South Island telecommunications services are important to CPIT, and the polytechnic would like faster broadband connections to the secondary schools and other community-based learning institutions it supports.
2006 Ranking: 38
Senior IS executive: Eduard Walthert, MIS manager
Reports to: Rob McFarlane, chief financial officer
Size of IS shop: 23
PCs: 900
Mobile PCs: 220
Terminals: 0
Hand-held devices:0
Total screens: 1120
Industry: Manufacturing
PC environment: Windows 2000, XP; HP
Server environment: Windows 2000, 2003; HP
DBMS: SQL
Address: 218 George Street, Dunedin
Website: www.ppcs.co.nz
Key IS projects this year: BI reporting; mobile technologies; CRM.
PPCS is a leading meat-marketing and processing company, exporting lamb, beef, and venison and associated products to 60 countries.
PPCS turns over $2 billion and accounts for 32 per cent of New Zealand’s sheep meat exports, 31 per cent of beef exports and 58 per cent of venison exports.
PPCS is owned by approximately 9000 farmer suppliers, with its head office based in Dunedin and support offices in Hastings and Christchurch. It owns 25 strategically-placed processing facilities throughout New Zealand and has offices in the US, UK, Europe and the Middle East.
ICT manager Eduard Walthert says the business and IT strategy of PPCS is closely aligned and key ICT projects in 2007 are BI reporting, investment in wireless technologies and initiation of CRM and business to business e-commerce systems.
PPCS joint venture Robotic Technologies (RTL) is developing automation technology for the meat processing sector. PPCS expects robotic technology to provide lifts in processing efficiency and support its ability to meet global trends in customer demand. RTL recently received a $4 million grant from the Roundation for Research Science and Technology to fast track commercialisation of robotic technology and develop a fully automated boning-room demonstration system.
The Market Attributed Assessment of Carcass Project is a research project being undertaken by PPCS and Lincoln University. Walthert says this aims to identify the correlation between weight, yield and pH resulting in the best tasting and eating qualities of lamb. “The criteria are then related back to the genetic make-up of the stock so farmers can pinpoint specifically what aspects of the final product they want to influence. This project forms the basis of reviewing payment systems in the future.”
PPCS outsources PC maintenance and network management to Gen-i, financial systems support to Intergen and Payroll to PayGlobal. Telehouse supports the data centre.
39 Waikato District Health Board
2006 Ranking: 42
Senior IS executive: Alan Grainer, chief information officer
Reports to: Malcolm Stamp, CEO
Size of IS shop: 60
PCs: 2326
Mobile PCs: 327
Terminals: 0
Hand-held devices: 44
Total screens: 2697
Industry: Health and community services
PC environment: Windows NT, XP; HP; IBM
Server environment: Novell, Unix, Windows 2003, HP, IBM
DBMS: Oracle, SQL, UniData
Address: Pembroke Street, Hamilton
Website: www.waikatodhb.govt.nz
Key IS projects this year: Pharmacy laboratory in conjunction with internal e-ordering; enterprise reporting; new HR system
The Waikato District Health Board (WDHB) is responsible for planning, funding, providing and monitoring health and disability services for the 330,000 people in the Waikato district.
Chief information officer Alan Grainer says ensuring the availability of information in the right place, at the right time, in a usable form remains a core IT vision. “Taking the risk out of aging technology infrastructure and legacy systems continues to dominate our near horizon.”
The WDHB is orienting its new IS Strategic Plan around segmentation of the client base with the focus on different identified clusters of need, and prioritisation within each work stream.
While facing ‘business as usual’ issues in 2007, WDHB is also developing new models of care and new customer pathways. Supporting this, Grainer says a large campus IT redevelopment project is underway and in the coming 12 months WDHB will take a “major look” at HR system options and supply chain systems. “We went live with new Oracle financials in 2006 so this year is mostly about refining processes and system interfaces to pick up on key components to be improved.”
WDHB is also developing an enterprise reporting strategy which will be moved forward in the next financial year. The IT team will develop business financial capability systems. “We also have architectural work to do around replacement of one of our storage area networks and need to think about a Unix platform which will be end-of-life soon.”
He says server virtualisation technologies are important as WDHB has around 70 servers, some running small applications using around seven per cent of server resources. WDHB is also looking for a bridging strategy that will keep it investing in VoIP for the next 12 to 24 months.
Other significant IT projects include replacement of 16-year-old legacy pharmacy and radiology systems and a project at RFI stage in conjunction with three other DHBs.
2006 ranking: 41
Senior IS executive: Steve Murray, NZ managing director
Reports to: Chris Mitchell, ANZ vice president
Size of IS shop: 2000
PCs: 900
Mobile PCs: 1500
Terminals: 0
Hand-held devices: 760
Total screens: 3160
Industry: IT supplier
PC environment: Windows XP, Dell
Server environment: MVS; Sun; Windows 2000, 2003; Unisys; Dell; HP/Compaq; IBM
DBMS: DB2, DB4; DMS, IMS; Informix; Ingres; Oracle; SQL; Sybase
Address: 8 Gilmer Terrace, Wellington
Website: www.eds.co.nz
Key IS projects this year: SAP ERP technologies and business intelligence tools; VoIP pilot.
EDS New Zealand, a subsidiary of Texas-based EDS Corporation, manages IT systems for Telecom, Fonterra, all the major banks, and major government departments including the Ministry of Social Development and Inland Revenue Department, and about 20 offshore clients. As well as IT outsourcing, EDS runs a 400-plus seat help desk in Auckland and a large print and distribution centre in Christchurch.
EDS is in the third year of a $1 billion, three-year plan to transform its IT systems to the EDS Agile Platform, and in 2007 will continue to work with Agile Alliance technology partners to roll out the EDS Agile Vision for clients.
Globally, EDS is focusing on streamlining consistency through data centres, applications and business processing facilities. Key business challenges include addressing an IT skills shortage in certain areas in New Zealand and the company will continue to place substantial focus on staff recruitment and staff development programmes.
Managing director Steve Murray says EDS New Zealand remains in growth mode and has recently started to focus on the delivery of strategic services including consulting, business process outsourcing and application design.
“We are taking a more aggressive stance in those areas and starting to diversify our portfolio,” says Murray.
He says IT services are a highly competitive and professional industry and EDS has strengths in its expertise, global reach and core values.
In 2007 EDS will invest in new SAP ERP technologies and business intelligence tools, and will initiate a VoIP pilot. 802.11-based wireless technologies will be extended along with cellular mobile solutions and e-business projects. EDS is also engaged in pandemic planning and will embark on a formal knowledge management programme.
Join the CIO New Zealand group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.