Inside the government’s multi-billion dollar digital shake-up
The way the New Zealand government buys technology is about to change in a big way. A Cabinet paper from Judith Collins, the minister for digitising government, has outlined and approved a plan to centralise IT and digital-related government procurement decisions within the Department of Internal Affairs. Facing up to $13 billion in planned technology spending, with only two-thirds of it funded, the DIA team knew something had to change. “The underlying issue is fragmentation,” explained Paul James, the Government Chief Digital Officer and key architect of the procurement changes. “We are very highly digitised as a public service. But they’ve digitised in a way that leaves us very fragmented. Each agency has got their own systems, their own applications, and their own points of connection with a customer. So it’s fragmented for New Zealanders, and it’s expensive, as a result,” he told me on this week’s episode of The Business of Tech, where we were joined by Myles Ward, who will assume the new role of Chief Technology Officer for the government. We also talk about AI's adoption across government, digital driver's licences, and how the digital trust framework in development could underpin a youth social media ban here. Listen to the full conversation on episode 118 of The Business of Tech powered by 2degrees Business, streaming on iHeartRadio and wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Edge of space: Mark Rocket’s sky-high mission
Three months ago, Mark Rocket strapped in for a ride aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard sub-orbital launch vehicle, and in the process became the first Kiwi to enter space. The experience was a culmination of years of anticipation and some unexpected twists for the tech entrepreneur who was a pivotal, early investor in Rocket Lab and went on to form his own venture Kea Aerospace. Joining five other passengers on the New Shepard rocket in July, Rocket enjoyed several minutes of weightlessness on the suborbital trip that saw him pass the Kármán line, the 100-kilometre threshold that marks the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space. Floating in the capsule, peering down at Earth through the big windows, Rocket says he relates to the emotions felt by astronauts looking back at Earth from space, known as the “overview effect”. “It was incredible to see the atmosphere and the blackness of space. It’s quite a powerful feeling seeing the context of the Earth and the Sun. It was quite an emotional experience,” he said. “You do get that real emotional impact when you see how thin the atmosphere is. We can only live in the bottom five kilometres of the atmosphere. By the time you're up to 100 kilometres, there is not much atmosphere left. It's like the skin of an apple,” he added. Listen to the full conversation on episode 117 of The Business of Tech powered by 2degrees Business, streaming on iHeartRadio and wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Turn science into value: Aussie’s lessons for a stronger economy
Australia has grown wealthy by exploiting its vast mineral resources, but successive governments have also identified the need to move beyond extractive industries and have invested in science to come up with alternatives. On The Business of Tech this week, I sit down with Dr Cathy Foley, Australia’s former Chief Scientist, and a 40-year veteran of the CSIRO, Australia’s highly respected public research institution, to talk about Australia’s science-powered economic transformation, and what we can learn from it. Australia’s focus on advanced technologies like quantum computing, advanced manufacturing, AI, and clean tech has weathered political changes. Foley highlights the need for strategic coordination, leveraging strengths, and carving global supply chain niches, a model that New Zealand and others can follow. “Fewer, bigger things. Focus on areas where you’ve got strengths, and turn that into global market supply chains,” she advises New Zealand. Tune in to episode 116 of The Business of Tech for the full discussion powered by 2degrees Business, streaming on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Amazon Web Services’ highly anticipated launch of its New Zealand cloud region unravelled this week as it nonplussed journalists and the public alike with PR spin that failed to mask the cracks in its narrative. In a special episode of The Business of Tech podcast to round out the week, Ben Kepes joins me to break down the blunders, highlighting misplaced numbers, poor communication, and missed opportunities to tell a genuinely positive story. According to Kepes, a Christchurch-based businessman and board director who has closely followed cloud industry developments for over 20 years, AWS’s attempt to herald its new local infrastructure fell apart due to a mix of political expediency and surprising vendor immaturity. “There are two stories here, right? The first story is one about investment, NZ Inc, infrastructure, politics, frankly. And that was a total debacle. And it was because of political expediency on the politician side and, frankly, immaturity, surprising immaturity on the vendor side,” Kepes told me. Listen to the full conversation on this special episode of The Business of Tech powered by 2degrees Business, streaming on iHeartRadio and wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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No upgrade needed: Rimini St’s cost-saving pitch to CIOs
Nasdaq-listed tech services company Rimini Street is challenging the status quo in New Zealand’s enterprise IT market, offering a striking alternative to the upgrade treadmill set by big software vendors. On this week’s episode of The Business of Tech, Seth Ravin, founder and CEO of Rimini Street, and Joe Locandro, global CIO, share their vision for how New Zealand enterprises and government agencies can maintain legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, dramatically reduce support costs, and harness artificial intelligence for innovation, all without costly upgrades or cloud migrations. Rimini Street’s business model is built on lower profit margins than the incumbents, which Ravin used to work for with executive-level stints at PeopleSoft and SAP. “If you’re driving a 90% plus profit margin, just do the math. You cannot offer much service. You have to say no to just about everything,” Ravin said. “So in that environment, we said, we’re going to spend more on the customer, give them more service. We’re going to cut the price in half, accept a much lower profit margin. We’re going to make it better for the customer, and we’re going to have a good business, a solid business”. Tune in to episode 114 of The Business of Tech for the full discussion powered by 2degrees Business, streaming on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The Business of Tech, hosted by leading tech journalist Peter Griffin. Every week they take a deep dive into emerging technology and news from the sector to help guide the important decisions all Business leaders make.
Issues such as cybersecurity, retaining trust after a cyberattack, business IT needs, purchasing SaaS tools and more.
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