NZ Post eyes Datacom for one-stop IT shop

New Zealand Post may step up its information technology business by further integrating its capabilities with software firm Datacom NZ.

Chief executive Elmar Toime said the move would reduce costs and produce "the country's largest New Zealand-owned one-stop shop for IT services, creating career development opportunities for staff and revenue growth for the business."

"The benefits of increased scale and combined expertise would not only enhance services for NZ Post ... , in the long term it could also benefit many other New Zealand and international companies."

A review of both organisations would be carried out in the next two months and a final decision was expected at the end of November.

The proposed consolidation would combine the skills of around 250 NZ Post staff from the NZ Post Services subsidiary, parts of NZ Post's IT arm and parts of Datacom.

Mr Toime said he expected all NZ Post staff would be offered a position and that union consultation had been invited.

NZ Post holds a 30 per cent stake in Datacom, which already manages the postal company's computer network and production environment for applications. It also develops specialist postal software. Datacom employs more than 1250 staff.

- NZPA