MIS 100 2007(1-20)

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1 University of Auckland

2006 ranking: 1

Senior IS executive: Stephen Whiteside, IT director
Reports to: Director administration
Size of IS shop: 300

PCs: 12,294
Mobile PCs: 2010
Terminals: 250
Hand-held devices: 800
Total screens: 15,354

Industry: Education services
PC environment: Apple Mac, Windows XP, Dell, HP, Lenovo
Server environment: AIX, Linux, Solaris, Windows 2003, Sun, IBM, Apple, Dell, HP
DBMS: Oracle, SQL, MySQL
Address: 22 Princes Street, Auckland
Website: www.auckland.ac.nz
Key IS projects this year: Upgrade of HR systems; new city data centre; enhancement to online presence, eResearch.


As New Zealand’s largest university and research centre, the University of Auckland wants to grow its research income so that by 2012 it is double the 2005 income figure.
Stephen Whiteside, director of IT, says the university’s IT team of 300 is focusing on improving student services via “quite a large number” of new process and service improvements. “The Government is reviewing the way it funds tertiary teaching and learning so that research funding is now more based on outcomes. A key driver for the IT team is therefore to provide measures and reporting around teaching and learning systems and to improve the quality of our indicators.”
Challenges the university faces are the low unemployment rate, which decreases the number of students choosing to study at Masters degree level, and lack of affordable suitable student accommodation within Auckland.
To address these and other challenges, Whiteside says collaboration and connectivity between systems and locations is important. As are new education delivery channels such as e-research, which allow researchers to collaborate online to complete work they can’t complete individually or in person. Access, processing, and storage computer grids are used to facilitate shared online international research.
Whiteside says observing international universities and their innovations around research and funding is helpful and international collaboration supports the growth of local research activity.
The university, for instance, has a close relationship with the earthquake engineering division of the University of San Diego and access to its ‘shake table’. There is also international research collaboration on medical analyses such as bio-engineering of the human heart, physiological modelling and geno-mapping.
Scheduled legislative acts like the Public Records Act, effective from 2010, creates work for the IT team and developing improved document management and supporting systems is a key activity for 2007 along with process enhancements in HR and student administration areas.
Telecommunications and international data networking needs are well supported by the KAREN research and education data network, and this has removed a lot of barriers to national and international connectivity, says Whiteside. Whiteside says local telecommunications costs still have a prohibitive effect on teaching, learning and research. “We still need to be able to provide our students with a much better deal for remote access to our campus. Students are often time poor because of travel or part-time work commitments, so the need to record lectures and provide more flexibility accessing learning material is important. Access to true broadband services is still woefully inadequate in New Zealand and we need that access to become far more ubiquitous.”
Whiteside says while new voice system investments are VoIP, the benefits are contained because the university does not have a large number of dispersed and remote sites – VoIP will therefore continue to be implemented “very incrementally”. Wireless technologies will be significantly expanded in 2007 and identity management technologies enhanced to allow visiting academics to wirelessly access the network.
The university will implement a new data centre in 2007, and investigate a combined disaster recovery centre with other universities including the University of Waikato.
2 New Zealand Defence Force
3 Fonterra Co-operative Group
4 University of Otago
5 Telecom New Zealand
6 Ministry of Social Development
2006 Ranking: 6

Senior IS executive: Tim Occleshaw, chief information officer
Reports to: Deputy chief executive, people capability and resources
Size of IS shop: 350

PCs: 11,400
Mobile PCs: 1700
Terminals: 0
Hand-held devices: 135
Total screens: 13,235

Industry: Government and defence
PC environment: MS Windows 2002, Dell, Compaq
Server environment: HP Unix; MCP; Solaris; Windows 2000, NT; HP 9000; Unisys; Sun
DBMS: Oracle, DMS2, SQL
Address: Level 8 Bowen State Building, 32 Bowen Street, Wellington
Website: www.msd.govt.nz
Key IS projects this year: Client management system; management information system for CYF; new service model for Work and Income.


The Department of Child Youth and Family merged with the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) in mid-2006 to create an organisation of more than 9000 staff, 13,000 screens and with an annual turnover of $1.14 billion annually. However, the size of the IT team under CIO Tim Occleshaw has only increased by around 30 positions, to 350 permanent staff.
Occleshaw says the MSD is an outcomes-focused department, and one of the consequences of this is that both client and front-line staff requirements directly drive IT strategy and architecture. “We put clients at centre of everything we do and that puts some pressures on the IT systems. Our front line staff has evolved business processes and practices but IT and systems infrastructure has not been able to evolve as fast, so that’s a big challenge.”
Large IT projects for 2007 include a Client Management System pilot to be trialled among 800 users in the Bay of Plenty region and contact centres. Occleshaw says the MSD’s SWIFTT system, which manages core benefit calculations and payments, does the job well and isn’t up for replacement. However, SWIFTT is transactional in nature and not well suited to support the management of client relationships, which is where the new Client Management System (developed by Irish software developers Cúram Software) comes in.
“The Client Management System will make a significant difference to the way our staff can work with clients; allowing us to work with much better information, reducing the administration overhead, and also allowing new staff to come up to speed faster.”
Occleshaw says increasingly state sector agencies are joining together to provide better integrated services to New Zealanders. “Isn’t it better for our clients if government organisations can work together so that clients don’t have to talk to several different agencies about the same thing? But for many of us this means we have to work in new and different ways. At the moment, MSD’s infrastructure and systems don’t lend themselves particularly well to cross-government collaboration, so this is one of the drivers of our infrastructure roadmap.”
MSD’s general approach is to leverage technology to remove barriers to services and to enhance responsiveness to clients and stakeholders. Occleshaw says MSD is not seeking to reduce personal contact with customers, but to use technology to put them at the centre of what it does. Key IT activity supporting this includes the new Client Management System; greater integration of systems and joining of disparate repositories of client information into a single view of the client; evolution of integration strategy towards a service oriented architecture; and a management information system (SAS data warehouse) program for Child, Youth and Family. This aims to build managers’ capability to recognise trends, understand drivers and know what the information means, and what action they should take in response to indicators.
Occleshaw says the MSD has a knowledge management programme that will go well beyond being only a document management system. “We want to get this right – knowledge management has been a buzz phrase for a few years without being fully understood. We have an intranet which forms part of the organisation’s knowledge, together with a document management system (Objective). We are also using collaboration tools and looking at how to leverage the knowledge stored in various user based network drives.”
The MSD is a VoIP pioneer, with a fully integrated VoIP network since 2000. Recently, Genesys and Cisco-based VoIP technologies and systems have been deployed progressively across its contact centres to replace old managed services, with predictive dialling and routing tools.
MSD is moving from its mainframe systems in a careful, risk averse way, says Occleshaw, and is re-platforming and removing a system from the Unisys mainframe – the Trace system - that manages customer debt.
7 Fletcher Building
8 Carter Holt Harvey

2006 Ranking: 10

Senior IS executive: Pat O’Connell, chief information officer
Reports to: Chief executive officer
Size of IS shop: 150

PCs: 5000
Mobile PCs: 1500
Terminals: 800
Hand-held devices: 1000
Total screens: 8300


Industry: Manufacturing
PC environment: Windows XP, Dell, IBM
Server environment: Windows 2003; Solaris; Linux; AIX;
Compaq; Dell, iSeries, pSeries; Sun
DBMS: DB2, Oracle, SQL
Address: 640 Great South Road, Manukau City, Auckland
Website: www.chh.co.nz
Key IS projects this year: M&A support; legacy system migration.


Business integration and growth are on the agenda for Carter Holt Harvey — which was purchased for $NZ3.3 billion by entrepreneur Graham Hart in March 2006. A softening economy exacerbated by a challenging export market is the main challenge faced by Carter Holt Harvey, says CIO Pat O’Connell. He says new business integration and synergistic use of existing IT capability are key IT goals for the group. “Accurate information, fast information and optimised planning are all important to the business, and are processes in which IT has a significant impact.”
In the coming 12 months, Carter Holt Harvey will continue a number of upgrade projects in the areas of ERP, business intelligence and financial systems. Hardware upgrades and work on server virtualisation are also on the agenda. O’Connell says Carter Holt Harvey has not made a significant investment in VoIP to date, but this year will extend data connectivity through access to 802.11-based wireless networks and mobile technologies. The e-channel is an additional focus area, and like many organisations in this year’s MIS100, Carter Holt Harvey is planning to upgrade disaster recovery and business continuity systems.
O’Connell says all IT functions are conducted in-house with the exception of SAP development and support, which is outsourced to former Carter Holt Harvey subsidiary Oxygen Business Solutions.
Ongoing acquisition activity by Hart’s Rank group also continues to provide challenges.
“We are constantly reviewing options for synergistic integration from all aspects — operations, application portfolios, licensing, and technologies, as we bring more business under the Carter Holt Harvey umbrella,” says O’Connell.
9 ANZ National Bank
10 Massey University

2006 Ranking: 9

Senior IS executive: Gerrit Bahlman, chief information officer
Reports to: General manager, strategy and finance
Size of IS shop: 90

PCs: 7197
Mobile PCs: 965
Terminals: 0
Hand-held devices: 0
Total screens: 8162

Industry: Education services
PC environment: Apple Mac; Linux; Windows 2000, XP; HP; Advantage; Toshiba
Server environment: Apple Mac; Linux; VMS; Windows 2000, 2003; HP Intel-based; HP Others; IBM
DBMS: SQL, Ingres, Oracle
Address: Highway 57, Palmerston North
Website: www.massey.ac.nz
Key IS projects this year: Telecommunications upgrade; storage
disaster recovery; desktop standard operating environment; virtualisation
Computer Laboratory leasing refresh; consolidated printing and photocopying; online enrolment and student programme management.



Massey University has three campuses and 26 points of presence throughout New Zealand. The three major campuses in Palmerston North, Wellington and Albany, Auckland cater for some 38,000 local and international students of which approximately 18,000 students, in New Zealand and offshore, study by distance education.
The five-college structure provides a diversity of degrees, diplomas and certificates. Massey University specialises in the fields of sciences, agriculture, creative arts, humanities and social sciences, education and business. It also has the biggest business college in New Zealand.
Gerrit Bahlman, chief information officer, says Massey has a strong focus on research and research-led teaching and encouraging success at a postgraduate level. Leading edge research is undertaken on all three campuses and the University has invested in equipment in support of its commitment to research. This includes high-performance computing, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometry, advanced research data networking and a variety of collaboration technologies. A major upgrade of the core network of the University has just been completed and rollout of a consolidated printing and photocopying environment is currently underway. A full refresh of all undergraduate computer laboratory equipment is scheduled for the middle of the year.
While Massey does selectively outsource a number of IT function areas, Bahlman says there is growing concern that outsource suppliers are stretched and unable to provide the level of service necessary to pursue such strategies. He says mergers and acquisitions result in smaller, highly-focused providers being swallowed within larger cultures that do not understand the nature of the business. This introduces risk into the outsource environment.
“The larger the IT provider, the further removed their management is from context sensitive service delivery. In general, the quality of service provision lowers as the size of the IT provider increases. Large organisations cannot provide an intimate long-term understanding of their smaller customer needs,” says Bahlman.
Massey University has just completed an in-house redevelopment of its student management system. As with most educational institutions, the online environment continues to be an important channel and services include full registration, record information access, online payment and universal email. Internal administration on the web provides academic and general staff with access to online support structures and services.
A major project underway is the redevelopment, extension and integration of Massey University’s online enrolment capabilities, with student programme management facilities. Bahlman says this replaces an innovative but aging existing web enrolment capability.
Other key IT projects in 2007 include a telecommunications refresh, disaster recovery focus, and moves toward a desktop standard operating environment. Massey University will also embark on a financial systems upgrade, and investigate CRM and VoIP technologies. Efficiencies gained through server virtualisation and consolidation strategies will also be extended.
Bahlman says IT area concerns going forward include staffing and workforce planning in the face of a labour market skills shortage, and emerging and existing issues surrounding data security.
11 Progressive Enterprises

2006 Ranking: 13

Senior IS executive: David Morrison, manager IT
Reports to: Managing director
Size of IS shop: 64

PCs: 1900
Mobile PCs: 100
Terminals: 2000
Hand-held devices: 400
Total screens: 4400

Industry: Wholesale and retail trade
PC environment: Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP, CE; Compaq/HP
Server environment: OS4000; Unix SVR4; Windows NT, 2000, XP; Compaq; iSeries; NCR
DBMS: DB2, Oracle, SQL, Teradata
Address: 80 Favona Road, Mangere, Auckland
Website: www.progressive.co.nz
Key IS projects this year: Systems integration.


A focus on sales, customer services and integration of IT systems are key priorities for Progressive Enterprises in 2007.
Acquired by Woolworths Australia in 2006, Progressive Enterprises continues to seek to leverage synergies in New Zealand with the new parent company.
David Morrison, IT manager for Progressive, says significant improvements are to be expected in the supply chain as a result of implementing Woolworths’ supply chain systems. From these changes IT will help their primary customer – the supermarkets – to deliver competitive advantage to Progressive Enterprises.
The support of senior management for IT, along with the necessity of an upgrade following the acquisition, is reflected in the IT project line-up for Progressive over the coming 12 months.
Progressive Enterprises is a light outsourcer, outsourcing IT education, some applications development and HR payroll.
12 Air New Zealand
13 Inland Revenue Department
14 Auckland University of Technology

2006 ranking: 23

Senior IS executive: Liz Gosling, director IT services
Reports to: General manager, service and operations
Size of IS shop: 70

PCs: 5692
Mobile PCs: 1103
Terminals: 0
Hand-held devices: 396
Total screens: 7191


Industry: Education services
PC environment: Apple Mac, Windows XP, Linux, Cyclone Computers, Toshiba, Apple, Lenovo, IBM
Server environment: Linux, Novell, Windows 2000; Apple, Cyclone Computers
DBMS: Oracle, MySQL, SQL
Address: 55 Wellesley Street East, Auckland
Website: www.aut.ac.nz
Key IS projects this year: Web portals; CRM; infrastructure upgrades; information architecture.


Following a rewrite of its strategic plan in 2006, Auckland University of Technology (AUT) now has five key objectives for the next five years: Providing excellent education, conducting excellent research, actively engaging with communities, attracting and retaining excellent staff, and effectively managing its resources.
Liz Gosling, director IT services, says AUT’s focus is always on practical applied education, enabling opportunities in the modern professions and disciplines of today’s economy. Challenges include the need to maintain and grow student numbers in a tight education market, driven by low unemployment in New Zealand. Gosling says it is also a challenge to maintain technical support that is robust, easy to implement and cost effective.
The following key IT groups report to Gosling: The Client Services team, which is responsible for first and second-line support, training and audio-visual equipment; an Information Systems team focused on projects and system integration; a Technology Services group forming third-line, back room server, and telecommunications infrastructure support; and an on-site digital printing copy shop called PrintSprint.
Gosling says AUT is a large purchaser of telecommunications and as a result has been able to negotiate satisfying commercial deals with core telecommunications’ supplier TelstraClear. However, she says what’s important to AUT is access to e-learning and that is dependant on home broadband performance. “Cheap, good quality broadband available to New Zealand homes is vital to us; we can then deliver content-rich course content over our e-learning platform. What we can deliver at 56Kbps or less is less engaging.”
Key projects for 2007 include business intelligence, CRM and financial software upgrades. AUT is also committed to the cost savings afforded through server virtualisation and VoIP technologies and has implemented an organisation-wide Cisco VoIP System.
Wireless and mobile services are being extended and Gosling says AUT has around 70 Blackberry devices that it finds simple to support. On the e-business front, AUT is changing the structure of its key website from ‘one size fits all’ to separate portals — one for staff and students, and a transactional portal.
15 University of Canterbury
16 New Zealand Police
17 Land Transport New Zealand
18 ASB Group

2006 ranking 14

Senior IS executive: Clayton Wakefield, head of technology and operations
Reports to: Hugh Burrett, managing director, ASB
Size of IS shop: 450

PCs: 6000
Mobile PCs: 1100
Terminals: 0
Hand-held devices: 100
Total screens: 7200


Industry: Finance and insurance
PC environment: Windows 2000, XP; Acer; Dell; Toshiba
Server environment: MCP; Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003, NT, XP; Dell, HP, others
DBMS: DMS, SQL
Address: Level 28, ASB Bank Centre, 135 Albert Street, Auckland
Website: www.asbbank.co.nz
Key IS projects this year: KiwiSaver, internet business banking.


Online banking security performance and business banking services are major focuses for the ASB Group in 2007 and beyond.
Business challenges faced by the group include the competitive nature of the industry and market fluctuations, which can affect lending volumes and interest margins. CIO Clayton Wakefield says the IT team, systems and initiatives underway are well placed to meet these challenges head-on.
Online projects include a new internet banking service called Fastnet Business Banking, which allows businesses to conduct banking transactions over the internet securely and in real-time.
ASB is an innovator in online security and Wakefield says ASB was the first bank to introduce two-factor authentication technologies. ASB online banking users enter a user ID and login password but can also receive a special code via text or a token device to authorise larger transactions beyond a limit the customer determines. “As internet use becomes more pervasive, we are focused on appropriate levels of security for our customers balanced with convenience, cost and risk. Our customers recognise the benefits of extra security.”
As a default provider for KiwiSaver, ASB faces a significant upgrade of ICT systems and software to support the scheme and Wakefield says this is the bank’s most significant IT project for 2007. Other key IT projects include refined business intelligence and data warehouse tools. Treasury system replacement is also on the investment plan and the bank’s CRM system will be enhanced and continue to be integrated into all systems. Cost and operational benefits around server virtualisation are also being investigated.
ASB is pleased with the benefits it has realised from installing a full VoIP network using Cisco Call Manager, says Wakefield. These include reduced toll costs, the introduction of video, unified messaging, distributed call centres and the creation of a ‘single environment’ across the bank’s 150 dispersed sites.
ASB has no plans to implement 802.11 wireless technologies but continues to expand its use of cellular mobile network service for remote workers.
19 Bank of New Zealand
20 healthAlliance