News, views and reviews from NZ’s tech sector No Images? Click here Dear , The NZ economy has long depended on agriculture, but the sector is regularly beaten up by urbanites for environmentally ignorant practices. Natural, pastoral food production is, it seems, unfashionable these days. What doesn’t get reported so often is Kiwi farmers’ willingness to embrace new technology to create a sustainable, yet profitable, agricultural future. In fact, it appears that the rural sector is much more open to new technology than many mid-market businesses, which are woefully behind on any form of digital transformation. The gap is what motivated a new digital principles guidebook – designed to help NZ businesses get their DX journey under way – and it shines a light on the human side of tech (not to mention a track record of under investment in business R&D). There’s a digital divide alright – one that seems to be growing. In other news:
And we head back to agriculture with a story from one of last night’s bigger winners, looking at how the latest Dynamics 365 solution has provided big benefits to an agricultural powerhouse. Hayden McCall (p.s. Jonathan Cotton is taking a well-earned break, and we welcome a couple of new voices to the iStart team – Patrick Pilcher and Heather Wright) Rural sector eyes robotics and drones for productivityAs long they can get some connectivity first… New Zealand’s agricultural sector is looking to drones and robotics – along with increased connectivity – to help drive business in the coming decade. “[Kiwi farmers are] significantly ahead of urban enterprises when it comes to adopting prototypes.” Kiwi TechLeaders ‘digital principles’ a beginner’s guideDigital leaders post advisory to laggers to address growing divide… Senior tech execs from leading NZ businesses have unveiled six digital principles to help businesses to pull up their collective digital socks. "These principles are really trying to tackle some really big problems we'll uncover if we don’t address them at all business levels.” Is Optus World Cup SNAFU a sign of things to come for RWC 2019?Spark, and TVNZ, should be taking note of the Optus World Cup debacle... A significant marketing opportunity turned into a nightmare for Optus last week when streaming coverage of the World Cup Soccer went very wrong. “Spark have yet to announce which platform they will use for Rugby World Cup streaming.” Google Maps API change hits company pockets3,000 percent cost increases reported… Local companies are among those caught out by a massive price increase to use Google Maps API products, which are now billed under a single pay-as-you-go pricing plan. “We thought carefully about how to price Google Maps Platform products.” Microsoft awards showcase innovative tech use by Kiwi businessNew focus on customers as Microsoft partners win big... An exceptional cloud based solution promoting NZ and innovative use of Office 365 were among the projects taking honours at Microsoft’s NZ Partner Awards. “Solutions and innovations that are optimising businesses as well as improving people’s lives.” How upgraded ERP sows the seeds of successSeed producer boosts operations with first Kiwi-led Dynamics 365 for Operations and Finance implementation… When agricultural powerhouse Genetic Technologies needed an upgrade to an ageing enterprise resource planning solution, it looked to Intergen for answers. “We recognised the advantages in one common IT setup across all systems, servers, financials, CRM and so on.” This week's sponsor: Upcoming events: > Intelligent Towns, Networks and Assets | June 25-26 | Auckland iStart is proudly supported by these leading Latest Buyer's Guides ERP Buyer's Guide | CRM Buyer's Guide | HR/HCM Buyer's Guide | BI Buyer's Guide Privacy statement: We have sent this weekly eNewsletter to you at your e-mail address: [email address suppressed]. iStart will never share your e-mail address, but you may from time to time receive other event invitations or partner communications from us. You can opt out of these by managing your subscription preferences, where you can also update your e-mail address and other details. Find out more about iStart | Advertise with iStart | Subscribe
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