Stories by Stuart Corner

A Labour Inspectorate operation targeting subcontractors rolling out Chorus' broadband network has found almost all of them to be breaching employment standards.

Clare Curran, minister of government digital services, has resigned over an undocumented meeting with a candidate for the government’s chief technology officer role, the recruitment of which is being managed by her department.

Inland Revenue says it has resolved problems with its GST processing system. It blamed the issue on a network load balancer at its telecommunications provider. The problem was fixed quickly by the telco, IR said.

IDC New Zealand has released its Security Heatmap summarising the ICT security issues facing New Zealand organisations, saying IT security is an organisational challenge as much as a technology challenge.

The Controller and Auditor General has called on the Government Chief Information Office (GCIO) to work with public sector organisations to produce a set of measures for its shared information and communications technology services and to use these to monitor and report on the effectiveness, efficiency and benefits of these services.

Auckland based Soul Machines, which has produced a digital created human face able to speak text with intonation and facial expressions, has signed European car maker Daimler as its latest customer.

Chorus has announced the resignation of Scott Newton, general manager, strategy and business operations after just four months in the job.

Dimension Data New Zealand has merged a number of its business units to create a new cyber security practice

Air New Zealand is partnering with Winding Tree, a Swiss based startup — registered in the Virgin Islands — that is using blockchain technologies and cryptocurrency to eliminate intermediaries in air travel and hotel bookings.

ASB Bank has launched a new mobile app for small businesses that combines access to several popular online tools.

Spark has made its first appointment under the Future Directors Programme, founded by Sir Stephen Tindall, Michael Stiassny and Des Hunt in 2013

InternetNZ has produced an online, interactive map that it says clearly displays the ‘digital divide’ by showing areas of low, medium and high internet access and broadband penetration, correlated with areas ranked similarly for skills and social wellbeing.

Southern Cross Cable Network (SCCN) says it has completed the route survey for its $US350m Southern Cross NEXT cable that will link New Zealand and Australia to the US, and it now has “signed intent” from eight customers, including four Pacific Island nations: Fiji, Samoa, Tokelau and Kiribati.

Blerter, a New Zealand developed app designed to improve workforce health and safety, has been upgraded with the addition of a new incident management feature, the ability to link alerts and hazards to incidents, a new user interface and other features.

The Warehouse Group has become one of the first customers for a new offering from cloud business applications software developer Zoho that provides access to its full range of more than 30 business applications for a fixed per-employee price per month.