Looking for a business with IT that doesn't function

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Businesses around New Zealand are underestimating the extent to which poor computing systems can hold them back, says Dell New Zealand.

A second-rate information technology set-up can cause big delays for businesses and can harm productivity, said Dell's James Arnold.

Despite this, he said companies were not paying enough attention to their IT set-up.

"Good business strategy will include an IT strategy, it shouldn't drive the business strategy but should be part of it. The critical thing is getting the right advice."

Part of the problem was that small businesses, which make up more than 80 per cent of companies in New Zealand, do not have the time or resources to employ specialist IT staff, he said. "Small businesses don't want to be spending all their time on IT, they want to spending time working out how they sell more services and focus on their business growth."

As such, Arnold said businesses needed to make partnerships with technology companies so they could get the right advice on what equipment they needed to maximise productivity.

While cloud computing was commonly touted as the antidote to many business IT problems, Arnold said the platform was not right for all firms. "For some, cloud computing is the right solution but other business will want to keep their information in-house," he said.

Dell is offering to free one business from the shackles of poor IT by providing them with $25,000 of equipment ranging from desktop computers, laptops, printers and software. "We're looking for a small business who have been set up for a while and their systems are five years old and no longer functioning and they're a complete disaster," Arnold said, "or they're are brand new and wondering how they are going to set up their infrastructure."