Ah the smell of pine, the opening of the advent calendar, the visits to Santa, and lazy hot summer days at the beach. Don’t you love Christmas?

Especially this Christmas. The last message we broadcasted was after the February earthquake. Since then we’ve been recovering, fixing, and adapting to the situation. It’s been both mentally challenging and disruptive, but we are surviving, and I’m pleased to say that thanks to our wonderful customers and referrers things are looking up for 2012. As our Avonside office was too damaged to work from, we (like many others) are now working remotely from our home offices and making use of online tools such as Dropbox and Skype. It’s working well, and the flexibility of accessing and sharing data anytime, anywhere is proving very handy.

We hope you enjoy this news update on some of our recent activities.  Please note that we’ll be closed between Christmas and New Years, and both Shannon and I will be back on deck from 4 January. Shelley will be holidaying in Golden Bay from 15-29 January, but checking emails regularly.  Have a very special holiday season and we look forward to seeing you in 2012!

Read the newsletter.

The theme this year was “Can you compete in the international market” but equally it could have been “Can you compete in the mobile market”, for nearly every presentation touched on smart phones and mobile computing, and with good reason. In 2007, 87% of mobile consumers were not yet online, but just four years later that statistic is reversed.  And the message was clear:  if you’re not ready to serve your software to mobile devices, you’d better get ready – and quick.

Digital Wallets

Scott Bradley has clearly built his business on it – VoucherMob’s meteoric growth is attributed to the ability of smart mobile phones to transform the buying experience with location-based marketing.  Retailers like Pumpkin Patch, Bivouac Outdoor and Powerstore are able to engage with potential shoppers because of their ability to send communications like coupons or offers to the consumer when and where they are going to be most receptive to it, and to accept payment through the phone like a “digital wallet”.

Play

People are also using their phones to play games.  Commonwealth Bank’s Andy Lark talked about the importance of letting consumers “play” with your brand, and Tyone McAuley described how the traditional gaming industry is fundamentally changing.  People are seeking “bite-sized entertainment” anytime, anywhere – on the train, in a waiting room, within Facebook (with a nod to the success of Zynga’s Farmville).  This is greatly affecting traditional game development software houses like Sidhe.

Social Media

Lark told the audience that it’s imperative to design today’s software applications for mobile devices – because that’s where everything is going to happen, and if you don’t design your apps for it from the start, you’re going to struggle.  In fact, location should be used as a “lens” for the advent and design of new applications – like a mortgage application at Commonwealth Bank which allows you to walk up to a house to take a photo and record GPS coordinates, and then serves up any previous real estate listings and sale details, and finally allows you apply for a mortgage right there on the spot.  Mobile devices and social media are totally interconnected – 80% of Twitter usage is on mobile phones, and 40% for Facebook.  He told the story of a woman in a mall who tweeted that she’d lost her eftpos card, and was unhappy that she couldn’t shop – customer service saw it and arranged for a new card to be delivered immediately.  Now that’s service in the new mobile world.

Gestural

David Brebner suggested we are moving into the “post-PC” world, and that traditional web browsers are not the optimal way for people to interact with a computer and consume information.  Unlimited Realities’ touch or “gestural” software runs on a number of different hardware platforms.  ‘Fingertapps’ makes it easier and more intuitive for people to use their devices effectively – whether for games, shopping, or socialising.

Embracing Consumerisation

Leading corporate IT departments need to embrace the plethora of technologies out there, according to David Scott of Z Energy. He refers to it as “consumerisation” – business users bringing their smart phones, iPads and every other device under the sun to their IT manager and asking them to make it work on the secure, orderly corporate network.  And IT departments of today (or Business Technology departments as David calls them) need to embrace that change, because allowing business users to work on the devices of their choice makes them happier and more productive.

The Summit speakers provided lots of food for thought and got everyone thinking about how they can incorporate some of the ideas into their own business. And with the New Year fast approaching, this is the perfect time for us all to take a fresh look at our business strategy and consider how we too can capitalise on the bourgeoning mobile market.

To find out more you can download the presentations from the Canterbury software website at www.canterburysoftware.org.nz.

Read the press release.

Press release, 6-September-2011, Canterbury Software Cluster, Christchurch, New Zealand: The Canterbury Software Summit & UCONZ combined event on Thursday, 8 September now has over 450 delegates registered, far surpassing organisers’ expectations.  Registrations close on Wednesday at 5.00pm.

The agenda has been finalised and has something for everyone in the ICT industry, from informative technical sessions to inspiring business success stories. The speaker line-up includes Peter Townsend, CEO of the Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce, David Brebner of Unlimited Realities and Phil McCaw of Movac. Keynote speeches will feature high profile expatriates Dr Craig Nevill-Manning of Google, appearing via live videoconference from New York, and Andrew Lark who moved from industry giant Dell to Australia’s Commonwealth Bank in July. The full event programme is available on the Canterbury Software Summit website.

Read the press release.

First-ever partnership with University Commercialisation Offices of NZ will be a focal point on the 2011 Christchurch business technology event calendar

When: Thursday, 8 September 2011
Time: 11:45am – 8:00pm
Where: Addington Raceway, Christchurch
Cost: Free
Register: Visit http://canterburysoftwaresummit.eventbrite.com

Press release, 5-August-2011, Canterbury Software Cluster, Christchurch, New Zealand: The Canterbury Software Cluster is hosting Christchurch’s business technology event of the year – the annual Canterbury Software Summit on 8 September at Addington Raceway. This is the first time that the event is free to attend for members of the ICT industry thanks to the generosity of our sponsors: JOOB, Clarus, NZTE and IBM, and NZICT who are including our event as the first in the series of the Rutherford Innovation Showcase.

Read the full press release.

Press release, 23 June, 2011 Vizualise, Christchurch, NZ - Business is booming for digital business strategy company, Vizualise. With increasing demand from companies wanting to optimise their online presence and virtualise their systems (particularly after the recent earthquakes) founder Rupert Deans anticipates revenue will more than double in the next year.

Export revenue is also expected to double to over $1m with high value and/or celebrity enquiries (Hollywood A-listers) from Australia and the United States.

Read more.

Advertorial (three articles) written by Communicate IT. Christchurch Press, 5 April 2011

With escalating export sales and pioneering bio-medical innovations both in production and in the pipeline there’s an exciting future ahead for Canterbury Scientific.

This successful biotech firm first emerged out of the Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) back in 1985. Yet few had heard of Canterbury Scientific until 18 February when they opened their new research and development facility in Addington, Christchurch. …

View the PDF of the advertorial.

IT consulting firm, Clarus Ltd, has had to recruit four new staff to cope with the unprecedented demand from some of New Zealand’s largest innovators and manufacturers for assistance with Agile adoption and Scrum certification. New Zealand companies including Trimble, Allied Telesis Labs NZ, Zeacom, Serato, and Commtest are adopting Scrum to both improve project delivery and predictability, and to increase team collaboration.

Read the press release here.

Global communications solutions provider Tait Radio Communications and premier electronics design house Bluewater Systems have signed a partnership agreement to enable shared access to each others specialist skills and resources. The aim of the agreement is to increase competitive advantage with accelerated speed to market and quality development that focuses on customers’ needs.

Download the press release

Affected by the Iceland volcano, a freight fire, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake, manufacturing and shipping delays caused by the global recession, and a nail-bitingly tight deadline, the Christchurch City Council’s IT infrastructure outsource project could have been a disaster.

Instead, against all the odds, the project was completed on time, to budget, and is now lauded one of the biggest and best data outsource projects in Australasia’s history.

Download the Christchurch City Council case study