IT source firm opts for NZ's potential

By MICHAEL FOREMAN

Denver-based IT outsourcing firm Avalanche Technology has selected New Zealand as the location for one of three centres to provide a worldwide round-the-clock service.

The centre will join two similar centres in Northern Ireland and Canada to provide 24-hour coverage to Avalanche clients.

Avalanche's website says the New Zealand centre will be of a similar size to the company's Belfast centre.

This opened last December with 25 employees, but is projected to be employing as many as 500 IT professionals by 2005.

Commerce and Information Technology Minister Paul Swain, who visited Avalanche's Belfast centre during his recent world fact-finding tour, said company representatives would be arriving in New Zealand this month to discuss the project.

Mr Swain said Avalanche had been attracted here because New Zealand was a politically stable English-speaking country offering good infrastructure in a unique time zone.

"They like the fact that our working day overlaps with the United States for two or three hours and we are a day ahead," he said.

A plentiful supply of software engineers and graduates had also been a factor. "There's a broad consensus that our IT skills and graduates are as good as anywhere in the world but they are marginally cheaper."

Avalanche, which last year received $US5.5 million ($12.95 million) from 3i, Europe's largest venture capital firm, is projected to grow to 2000 employees within four years.