Conduit founder needs to move on

By ADAM GIFFORD

The slow take-up of e-commerce has claimed another scalp, that of John Hayson, the founding chief executive of IT distributor Renaissance's e-commerce and supply chain subsidiary Conduit International.

Mr Hayson cited family reasons for the move after five years building first Renaissance's business to business website operation, then turning those techniques and technologies into a standalone business.

"I was having to spend a lot of time in Australia, and having a young family and being away for most of the last year, I decided it was time for a change," Mr Hayson said.

Chief operations officer Joanne Hodgson has become acting chief executive, and market watchers expect the appointment to become permanent.

While Conduit has been successful in New Zealand e-commerce ventures, its plans to expand into Asia have been stymied by the economic slowdown there.

Mr Hayson had moved to Singapore to work with partners there and prepare for a listing on the Singapore Stock Exchange. But when the market slowed he found more of his time spent in Australia, trying to build up the business.

Meanwhile, Conduit laid off staff in New Zealand, as some major projects came to an end.

Mr Hayson said there were still opportunities for Conduit in New Zealand.

These included a revamp of Unisys New Zealand's Uonline service, due to go live on November 1.

Unisys acting marketing director Lloyd Thomas said Uonline had become a key part of the way Unisys dealt with customers.

"Contrary to other online technology marketplaces, we are having great success as Uonline enables customers to manage their technology needs and access information from Unisys and product vendors they don't have in any other form," Mr Thomas said.

The upgraded Uonline site will include increased product range, more security and user management, customer-specific pricing, order status and tracking information, aggregation of multiple suppliers and access to post-sale information, such as being able to access old invoices and credits.

Other successful Conduit sites include the Renaissance site, which now handles more than 55 per cent of the IT distributor's sales, and Sheppard Industries, which owns the Avanti bicycle brand.

Sheppard's eConnect websites receives almost 40 per cent of its logins on weekends, so retailers are able to get information on product availability during their busiest time. Delivery time has dropped by up to half.