Spotless solutions half a world away

By PAUL BRISLEN

New Zealand technology is to the fore when it comes to keeping Britain clean.

Vacuum-cleaner maker Dyson UK is using a Christchurch-designed system to let its technicians diagnose and fix problems on the road.

The company's team of 170 field engineers are now dispatched with a handheld PC connected to head office via a mobile phone network.

Jobs are issued, accepted and completed in real time and Dyson estimates this has saved more than 400 hours of administration time every day.

The solution was developed and is supported from Christchurch by the New Zealand arm of British mobility software developer iTouch.

ITouch's managing director for business mobility, Dave Tinkler, said having the team in New Zealand work on the project was a major boost for the Britain-based company.

"We have relatively low costs in New Zealand, there's a centre of excellence here that's just tremendous and it's a stable environment. We can support the UK operation from here on a 24 by 7 basis if needs be."

The Dyson solution also delivered targeted technical support, said Tinkler.

"We push out technical bulletins as well as job information to the devices so if there's a particular problem, the engineers are aware of it and have the information at their fingertips."

The company had been able to reduce the number of its engineering staff.