CIO

Inside Datacom’s new home at Auckland’s innovation hub

Project Tahi (Maori word for ‘One’) unities five offices into a single collaborative environment

This project isn't just about cost efficiencies, it's about improving our business outcomes by having our diverse teams co-located and collaborating

Datacom says its new new office in Auckland’s innovation hub at Wynyard Quarter brings 1200 people from five Auckland offices together under a single roof.

The move, known internally as Project Tahi (Maori for ‘one’) is about producing a truly modern, collaborative workplace, focused around Datacom’s people and their capacity to grow customer relationships, says Vernon Kay, director, Datacom Systems Auckland.

“We are very excited about the potential of having all of our teams under one roof,” says Kay, in a statement.

“We’ve designed a modern collaborative environment that fosters creativity, encourages new ways of innovating and working, and most importantly supports our teams to approach customer challenges from a holistic point of view. Our commitment to customer obsession is at the heart of our relocation.”

“Project Tahi's objective is to provide a modern, flexible and fully-digital workspace that provides for the working needs of Datacom’s global staff located in, or visiting, Auckland,” says Datacom CIO Jim Swanson.

“This is also to better accommodate customer teams that we are collaborating with. This project isn't just about cost efficiencies, it's about improving our business outcomes by having our diverse teams co-located and collaborating.”

Datacom’s global head office remains at 68 Jervois Quay, in Wellington.

Our commitment to customer obsession is at the heart of our relocation

The 17,000 square-meter Datacom Building on Gaunt Street, owned by Goodman and built by Fletcher Construction, was officially handed over last week following an official Maori blessing ceremony conducted by Ngati Whatua o Orakei.

Datacom says the building is designed to the latest earthquake standards, was awarded a Five Green Star NZ design rating, and combines the latest in sustainable architectural features in energy and water conservation.

The new workspaces are open-plan with wireless capability throughout, allowing Datacom ‘rovers’ to move freely around the building to form collaborative work groups.

There are 100 breakout spaces for one-to-one discussions and informal meetings, 30 single person booths, state of the art training centres, and a number of special spaces which include sanctuary rooms, a library and a games room.

The first floor event space can be completely opened up to accommodate town hall meetings or to host events such as Datacomp, Datacom’s annual hackathon. The hackathon gives teams 48 hours to develop innovative technology solutions to a customer problem, based on a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style pitch process.

The tech demo room also allows Datacom to share its work across augmented reality, artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things with the wider community.

Datacom says the new building can accommodate more than 1,500 people.

The company says a number of its key customers are at Wynyard Quarter, such as ASB, Fonterra and Air New Zealand. The area is also home to its key technology partners including Microsoft, HP and Dell/EMC.

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