Monday July 11
O2NZ may be a bridgehead for ICT companies
The O2NZ consortia of information and communications technology companies may well establish a bridgehead in the United
Kingdom off shoring market for other New Zealand ICT groups.
This is the perspective of ITANZ Executive Director, Jim O’Neill, who believes the multi-billion dollar international
ICT off shoring market is one that New Zealand companies can enter with confidence.
“Our companies have the skills and innovative capabilities to service this market well. Time zones, our cultural fit and
similarities of our business and legal frameworks make us a natural partner for UK companies.
“But our small, by international standards, companies can’t adequately access the market on their own. They don’t have
the financial resources for a sales and marketing campaign to build the necessary knowledge of our capabilities.
“Bigger economies than ours have had to follow a similar path to this in order to get traction offshore. The giant
Indian off shoring industry was developed through government support to help small companies enter the market and
subsequently acquire the size and scale to go it alone.
“We can only develop our own niche if companies combine resources and acquire government backing on a scale such as
this.
Industry sees the O2NZ group as potentially the first of a number of consortia who will seek to build a place in the
market. We started two years ago with 22 prospective industry partners for O2NZ who narrowed down to the five now
involved. Many of the others retain an interest in off shoring. This welcome gesture of government support will
encourage them to revisit possibilities.
“As an industry we give much credit to New Zealand Trade and Enterprise for grasping the reality of the market
situation and supporting our case to the Government on behalf of O2NZ”.
ENDS