Hi there,

One week ago New Zealand was watching in horror as the situation in Christchurch unfolded. Some were ‘watching’ more literally than the rest of us – viewing a livestream of the attack. The reverberations from the attacks at the two mosques continue to be felt around New Zealand, Australia and beyond, and brought closer still for us in the technology sector with the tragic losses from within our tight community.

There’s been a lot of questioning around why social media platforms were unable to stop the spread of videos of the attacks from spreading rapidly, in what amounted to the weaponisation of social media.

Here in New Zealand, changes to gun laws are now afoot, but we’re yet to see any real action from platform companies explaining why they still rely on decade-old technology, nor how things might be better handled in future.

It is time, we and many others think, that they took more seriously their social responsibilities to prevent terrorists using their platforms to incite the racial hatred behind such awful events, instead of hiding behind the ignominy of "it's too hard", which, we can report, is BS of the highest order.

In other, now seemingly bland, but comfortingly normal news:

Will Kiwi business benefit from new R&D tax credits?
'It's all about DBaaS' up for headline of the year award (plus shares the good oil on cloud database tech)
M&A industry fails to grip the IT integration opportunity
As planes fall from the sky, and a GPS meltdown awaits, have we overdone our tech reliance?
'People Also Ask', but NZ companies are failing to answer Google's new language of search

And if automation, algorithms and the future of work have you intrigued, sign up for our next webinar on Automation Benefits and Risks, coming March 27.

Enjoy the read,

Heather Wright
Editor
editor@istart.co.nz

The tech that could have blocked Christchurch video

Where there is a will, there is always a way…

Social media platforms have been under fire in the wake of the Christchurch mosque shootings and challenged to focus their technical capabilities on doing good.

The platforms couldn't keep up because, ultimately, their video content modification tools rely on decade-old technology.

[Read more]

Who wins with new tax credits?

Kiwi R&D is up, but will trend continue under new scheme…

With just over a week until tax credits replace Callaghan growth grants, companies are watching to see whether they’re really going to be better off under the new scheme.

“When we were smaller and trying to grow we probably wouldn’t have been able to get a Callaghan grant, but we could have got the tax credit.”

[Read more]

All about DBaaS

The sky’s the limit when it comes to cloud database solutions…

Demand for cloud database solutions is projected to grow as the increasingly data-centric nature of business makes traditional on-premise databases and their management a costly undertaking for many enterprises.

Two key factors are driving DBaaS growth: Ease of deployment and scalability.

[Read more]

Tech a poor cousin in M&A due diligence

M&A failure rates linked to IT system integration…

Lack of proper planning around IT systems integration as part of merger & acquisition negotiations has been cited as a key reason for failure according to recent Deloitte research.

“Frequently, neither team understands how to support Day One objectives or deliver longer-term synergies.”

[Read more]

Are we too reliant on tech?

As April 6 and a supposed GPS meltdown looms, is it time to rethink our reliance on tech?…

Instead of partying like it was 1999, many spent the last days of the previous millennium worrying about the Y2K bug.

As outages become a part of our daily lives, it is becoming abundantly clear that more and more of our lives are becoming dependent on vast and unknowable server networks.

[Read more]

People Also Ask…

But A/NZ companies are not providing answers for Google’s answer engine…

Companies across A/NZ are missing a trick in not capitalising on a Google Search feature which could be used to up their profile and drive new business.

It’s not a search engine anymore, it’s an answer engine.

[Read more]

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