IBM Teams up with Unitec Institute of Technology

IBM Teams up with Unitec Institute of Technology for Its first Delivery Centre in New Zealand

Multi-million dollar investment to provide employment and skills development opportunities for local services economy

Auckland, New Zealand, 9 August, 2012 – IBM (NYSE:IBM) today announced it will work with Unitec Institute of Technology, an Auckland based tertiary education provider, to establish the first IBM New Zealand Delivery Centre.

Based at Unitec’s Mt Albert campus, the Delivery Centre will open in February 2013 and will employ full-time and part-time professionals, and Unitec graduate and current students. IBM anticipates that the Delivery Centre will employ up to 400 people within the next two years.

This announcement adds to IBM’s long history of collaborating with the tertiary sector to develop graduates with the right skills to work in today’s services oriented economy. Under the agreement, IBM and Unitec will implement a number of collaborative initiatives including extended industry based ‘Earn As You Learn’ placements. It will also provide students studying for IT, business management and communications degrees with valuable experience working in the IT industry as part of their studies.

IBM's investment in the Unitec collaboration will also enable annual scholarship programmes and jointly developed guest lectures, mentoring, internship and graduate hire programmes. The partnership will be based on IBM’s successful model at the Ballarat Delivery Centre in Australia. The Centre was established in 2005 and continues to create employment and economic benefits in Victoria.

The IBM New Zealand Delivery Centre will strengthen and expand IBM’s global footprint of Global Process Services, adding to over 50 delivery centers across five continents. The Centre will provide IBM’s clients with innovative business process and ICT services, in areas including Human Resources, Supply Chain Management and Finance & Administration, Customer Relationship Management; Remote Technical and ICT support, and Consulting. These services will use advanced analytics to maximize operations, cut costs and provide continuous innovation for IBM’s clients.

“Working with a highly respected global company will give our students the head start they need to get a great job when they graduate,” says Unitec Chief Executive, Rick Ede.

“Bringing innovative businesses such as IBM into the education environment is about matching the skills of our students with the demands of business and providing students with the experience they need to make a difference in their communities and in New Zealand.”

This collaboration is also a game-changer by demonstrating that tertiary providers, through creative partnering with business, can be direct contributors to business and productivity growth extending way beyond traditional boundaries.”

Jennifer Moxon, Managing Director, IBM New Zealand said, “This is a great example of close collaboration between industry and the education sector to provide economic benefits and employment for the next generation of New Zealanders.”

“The collaboration with Unitec will develop graduates with the right skills to work in tomorrow’s services oriented digital economy as well as create job opportunities for New Zealanders. By bringing global investment and leading practices to New Zealand our objective is to establish a strategic delivery centre for our global and local client base,” said Ms Moxon.
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