Single organisation to spearhead ICT growth

Industry organisation ICT-New Zealand aims to unite New Zealand's disparate Information and Communications Technology industry, says interim Chairman Malcolm Fraser.

He said it will do this by acting as a single national organisation for the country's ICT sector companies.

Representatives from key industry players such as NZ Software Association, ITANZ, ICONZ, Health IT Cluster, Canterbury ICT cluster, Canterbury Software Inc., NZ Computer Society, The NZ Wireless Forum and internet NZ have formed the nucleus for the new organisation.

"The contributing organisations recognise that New Zealand's ICT sector is heavily fragmented and needs to change if we are to improve our performance in an international marketplace.

"A key theme is collaboration. The ICT industry has developed at such a rate that industry organisations have historically escaped from having to formally collaborate, instead focusing more on specific interest groups directly aligned to technologies", said Mr Fraser.

Owen Scott, chairman of Canterbury Software Inc., says end users are faced with diverse industry organisation choices. "So anything that brings together the efforts of these groups has got to be good for the end user. A super group like ICT-New Zealand will provide better visibility and more co-ordinated access to value that has already been created."