IDC forms partnership, says NZ telecoms industry 'at a crossroads'

Peter Dinham
Wednesday, 08 April 2009 18:13

IT Industry - Strategy

IDC New Zealand has consummated a partnership with the country’s telecoms user group at a time when, according to IDC, the NZ telecommunications industry is at a crossroads as it faces international competition for what it calls 21st century telecommunications infrastructure and services.

IDC announced today that it has formed a partnership with the Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand (TUANZ) to jointly host a series of events including TUANZ's contact centre awards, innovation awards and rural broadband conference.

Ullrich Loeffler, country manager of IDC New Zealand says New Zealand is at a crossroads, and the path the country chooses now will determine the way it communicates and interacts, how it runs its businesses, occupies leisure time, and its ability to "connect to" and "compete on" the global stage.

Loeffler says the partnership with TUANZ is a natural fit as both parties aim to provide valuable and tangible insights around the rapidly transforming Telecommunication industry and the services provided to New Zealanders.

“The partnership will enable us to make the events available to a greater audience, providing greater value to the New Zealand Telecommunications community."

According to Loeffler, the joint events are an important platform to inform, educate and discuss the relevant topics, challenges and opportunities within the market, and also provide an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate New Zealand success stories in areas of innovation and best practice technology applications.

He says the partnership combines complementary sets of expertise to bring greater value to the TUANZ members and the broader ICT community.

Ernie Newman, chief executive of TUANZ says the partnership will bring greater strength to the TUANZ professional development programme.

“It will make our very successful events accessible to more people and more attractive to sponsors, as well as introducing the professional dimension of a major research company. TUANZ members will benefit significantly from the increased scale the partnership offers.”

The first event to be run under the new partnership will be the TUANZ Contact Centre Awards on 18 August.