Stories by Michael Foreman

Microsoft and the Ministry of Social Development have launched an initiative that will provide free ICT consultancy to 50 non-government organisations (NGOs) in the Canterbury region. The initiative is being administered by Infoxchange, an Australia-based not-for-profit organisation formed in the late 1980s that specialises in helping NGOs make better use of technology.
Approximately two day’s worth of consultancy will be provided to each NGO, but this may be split into smaller units of time spread over weeks or months according to the needs of individual organisations.

As Auckland Council is defending its decision to spend $54 million on a new SAP ERP system, one of its constituent council-controlled organisations, Auckland Transport, has achieved significant cost savings by reconfiguring systems from the existing councils to meet the IT needs of the ‘supercity’.
“We took bits from everything. We tried to draw as much of the technology and IP out of the old councils as we could,” says IT and business systems manager Roger Jones.

Eight months after the formation of Auckland Council from the amalgamation of seven district councils and one regional council, the rates are being collected and employees and suppliers are being paid.
Overall, the transition from eight separate ERP systems to a single SAP system has gone “pretty well”, says Mike Foley, information services manager.

National Party leader John Key reaffirms his party's commitment to fibre to the home at the CIO Conference 2008, which opened today at Sky City, Auckland.

Blenheim-based Marlborough Boys College has beefed up its security, improved network reliability and is poised to establish an electronic link with an affiliate school in China, thanks to a hardware upgrade coupled with a Citrix implementation.
Information manager Peter Oliver says the school decided to upgrade its network infrastructure, as it was becoming increasingly concerned about network reliability.

Security continues TO take a low priority in IT budgets, despite the fact security incidents were experienced by 87 per cent of New Zealand organisations, according to a survey by the Security Research Group (SRG) of the University of Otago.
The most common incidents suffered by local organisations were virus infections, laptop or mobile hardware theft, insider abuse of net access or email and ‘ripping’ of music or movies.

Attend almost any ICT-related conference these days and there is one word that seems to crop up again and again: Virtualisation. It’s not hard to understand why. At a time when data centres are running up against the constraints of limited cooling and back-up generation capacity as well as physical space, any technology that promises to free up servers, power and network infrastructure is going to be welcomed with open arms.
According to a recent survey by The Strategic Counsel, conducted on behalf of CA, at least 69 per cent of New Zealand and Australia-based organisations with more than 500 employees have already adopted server virtualisation. This installed base is expected to grow by 28 per cent in the next 18 months.

Until recently the University of Otago was depending on a 15-year-old accounts package called Counterbalance, which ran on minicomputers under the VMS operating system.
Unsurprisingly, Mike Harte, director of Information Technology Services, says the legacy system was well past its use-by date. “It was still a good, reliable engine room, but it was very difficult to use and lacked functionality. It was time to look at other things. We wanted something that was easier to use, had better reporting capability and all the things that you would expect in a modern financial information system.”

Mention the term supply chain management (SCM) and many people will start to think of manufacturing industries — the phrase may evoke visions of just-in-time inventory techniques or cost-efficient raw materials purchasing.
But Auckland Airport provides an example of how supply chain management systems can be just as relevant to service-based industries.

Mobility might be transforming the working lives of office staff but it can make a mockery of security techniques, according to Anu Nayar, manager of security and privacy services at Deloitte.
“We are now in a culture of convergence, it’s the anytime, anywhere, anyhow syndrome,” he says. “Mobile devices bring collaboration and efficiency but the technology is changing so rapidly it’s almost impossible to keep up.”

Budget constraints, broadband, VoIP, and the rise of wireless applications are perennial issues within the top 10 industry trends affecting CIOs, though the latest MIS100 report shows the recruitment and retention of staff remains the number one concern.
“This was a far more prominent issue than it was last year,” says Computerworld editor Rob O’Neill, a former chief analyst at Fairfax Business Research. “Senior IT people are stumped. They are unable to find a solution to the problem of attracting and retaining skilled ICT staff.”

With considerable understatement, Chris Corke remembers 23 September as an “interesting” day.
He had just landed the job of chief information officer of the New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX), one of the country’s key financial institutions. It was a big career step but, armed with his previous experience, including a five-year stint on the London Stock Exchange, he was confident he would make a success of this high profile role.