APN (MIS100 2012)

After significant growth in 2011, things have stabilised somewhat for APN, though ICT budgets are again up, this year by as much as five percent. The media organisation recently restructured its ICT services to more closely align with the business units in each country, appointing a CIO in each of New Zealand and Australia — reporting to the country CEO — and providing IT with a seat at the executive table. The objective is to facilitate a greater level of interaction and alignment of IT strategy with business strategy, and for IT to be able to better advise where technologies might more strongly drive the business.

The recent departure of chief technology officer Darren Turner has led new NZ CIO Richard Purvis to review APN’s IT strategy to more closely align with APN’s NZ business. This strategy will drive business improvement projects and IT operational change to implement best practices more fully across the delivery organisation.

“IT will provide guidance to the business on improvements that can be made to systems and workflows, and will enable greater agility in the marketplace with the completion of some of the new and in-flight projects,” says Purvis.

“With media moving more and more into the digital world, the convergence of systems is paramount in the media industry, and APN will be implementing some leading technologies to ensure it takes full advantage of its opportunities in this arena.”