Gen-i wins lucrative Air NZ job

By ADAM GIFFORD

Auckland-based technology company Gen-i has won a contract to manage Air New Zealand's desktop computing needs in what is believed to be one of the largest deals of its kind involving a New Zealand company.

Industry sources say the contract for the merged Air New Zealand and Ansett Australia group could be worth more than $50 million over its three-year term.

Gen-i, which used to be known as Wang New Zealand, is already responsible for Air New Zealand's 4500 workstations in New Zealand and around the world but has won the Ansett side of the business, which includes 7000 desktops, from IBM Global Services Australia.

IBM will continue to manage the airlines' mainframe computers, and will also pick up responsibility for Air New Zealand's mid-range Unix servers, previously managed by Fujitsu.

Gen-i chief executive Garth Biggs said it would mean 50 more jobs in Auckland and Melbourne.

"It shows a little New Zealand company can take on global players and deliver more, better, faster and cheaper," Mr Biggs said.

He would not say how much the contract was worth to Gen-i. However, industry sources say that, going on the total cost of ownership calculations used in such deals, the desktop PC part alone would be worth up to $45 million.

Including the other maintenance and support components, software licences and one-off fees for managing the transition and integration projects, the figure would be greater than $50 million.

On the other side of the equation, Air New Zealand expects to save about 45 per cent on existing desktop infrastructure costs.

"If you can standardise processes across both airlines, there are savings to be made," Mr Biggs said.

"You can't do that until you standardise the applications, and you can't do that until you standardise the infrastructure."

He said Gen-i was negotiating "aggressive" timetables for introducing the new system.

Successful integration of information technology can make or break large mergers.

One of the reasons for the failure of the proposal to merge the New Zealand and Australian stock exchanges was incompatibly of IT systems, and IT is also considered by insiders to be one of the factors that could derail the dairy industry merger.

An Air New Zealand spokesman said the Gen-i contract was fundamental to achieving a sound IT infrastructure at lower cost. The airline had identified group-wide IT as critical to the successful functioning of the airline's entire business.

"In Gen-i we have a partner who has already proven it can deliver the results we require at a highly competitive cost," the spokesman said.

Gen-i has 400 staff here and in Australia to manage 15,500 desktops.

A single data centre will be set up at the airline group's Tullamarine IT base in Melbourne, with technical support provided from IBM in New Zealand and Australia.

Gen-i will manage all desktops and servers, as well as the airline's point services, and provide network storage and backup.