You could never accuse former All Black Marty Holah of having his head in the clouds. But his business is.
And he can't understand why two out of every three New Zealand small and medium enterprises (SMEs) haven't signed up to a fibre broadband package and, as his family company does, conduct their business through the cloud with 2degrees' nationwide fixed network.
Holah and his two brothers, Phil and Grant, run Holah Homes, an award-winning design and construction company based in Hamilton. They have been on fibre for about a year - a decision made easy because of the thousands of man-hours it has saved them (and thus an incalculable amount of money) and the nimbleness it has brought to the company with the ability, for example, to transfer huge files simultaneously.
Holah, an All Black renowned for his ability as a ball-winning flanker, can't hide his surprise that more companies, particularly SMEs, aren't running with the fibre 'ball'.
"I had no idea," he says of the one-in-three statistic. "I can't understand that - it has made an enormous difference to us. We run so much through the cloud now [the network of servers that stores information in the internet from which it can be easily accessed] and it has changed the way we do business. Maybe it's the perception of cost - people think fibre is expensive but it's actually not."
A MYOB Business Monitor survey published in December revealed that but only 32 per cent of New Zealand SMEs have fibre, even though nearly 60 per cent believe the fibre connection would benefit their business.
If there is any doubt what that means for the country's economic health, the report of the government's Small Business Development Group should clear that up. Late last year, it put the number of SMEs at just under 488,000 - representing 97 cent of all businesses, employing 30 per cent of our population and producing about 27 per cent of New Zealand's GDP.
It's not just New Zealand - last month, a survey in Britain by the regulator for the telecoms industry there found two out of every three UK small businesses were not using fibre broadband either.
2degrees Chief Marketing Officer Roy Ong says fibre is an absolute game-changer: "It enables SMEs to access a technology which streamlines systems, processes and customer service, giving them a real competitive edge - at home and abroad.
"If you look at the Holahs' industry, construction projects are growing at a fast rate, maybe the fastest growth we have ever seen in modern New Zealand. This technology actively helps boost business performance and, in competitive industries, that is crucial.
The government's $2 billion roll-out of fibre throughout the country provided the platform, says Ong, but many SMEs had yet to take the steps to perform on it.
"The Small Business Development Group made the point many small businesses had a long way to go before they understand the benefits of technology - and they would need to embrace the opportunity or risk being left behind."
Holah says the change to fibre has changed the way the company works, making them more competitive and less reliant on paper and slow processes.
"We do a lot of work around the Waikato, often in rural areas and lifestyle blocks or remote parts. To help our business grow, we had to get better information delivered to the guys on site more efficiently."
That meant an end to paper - with blueprints, plans and documents sometimes running to 40-50 pages; instead the office software was able to configure 3D plans and change those plans electronically. Then it was a matter of connecting with the people in the field using the 2degrees mobile network which enables large file transfers and other complex transmissions.
Holah says: "You know building sites; if it's raining or windy, they are not good places for pieces of paper."
Instead, his company uses iPads and an app which enables the builders and the managers in the office to make instant changes to the building project at hand.
"It has saved us thousands of man-hours, all right, and the whole thing is delivered on a strong and useable platform, with data stored in the cloud so we in the office and those on site can quickly access everything we need.
So a small or medium business does not have to be mired in small-to-medium thinking. Holah Homes is a family firm, founded in 1962, and their dad Alan, has just retired at age 74. Holah says: "We stopped paying him at 65 or 66, but he just kept turning up to work."
Holah, now 40, has himself retired from all rugby now after 36 tests for the All Blacks and three years with Welsh club Ospreys; he resumed his long association with Waikato rugby in 2012 and, aged 38, was still in provincial colours before deciding to retire.
But it's interesting to note that the speed and accuracy which he brought to his job as a flanker has been replicated in the speed and accuracy with which the family firm operates.