News, views and reviews from NZ’s tech sector No Images? Click here Dear , Many of us over a certain age probably felt a slight sense of déjà vu last week when Google was slapped with a €4.34 billion fine after the European Union found the tech behemoth had run afoul of competition and antitrust laws. Ironically, 2018 is the twentieth anniversary of a crackdown on Microsoft by US regulators that saw Google’s Chrome emerge as the big winner (rather than the complainant). But as Pat Pilcher discovered, while there are similarities between the two cases, there are also some big differences which will likely see Google continuing on its merry way. Certainly, while for any other company a €4.34b fine would be a killer, it has done little to dent investor confidence in Google. With cash reserves of US$103 billion it will sting, but it can afford it. And one thing is for certain – an appeal will be next. In other news:
We also take a look at how distributor Filters Plus won the inventory control battle, cut costs and prepared itself for continued growth, thanks to Jiwa Financials. Happy reading! Heather Wright Google fined gazillions: Do they care?Google forced to cough up big bucks in action reminiscent of Microsoft anti-trust case, but will it have any impact?... Last week, the EU whacked Google with a multi-billion-Euro penalty for abuse of its market position through several practices to stifle competition. “Google has always been a contradiction, in that it is a market facilitator who also wants to control that market.” Vodafone NZ calls on Watson for AINew deal with IBM as Vodafone NZ goes Agile for automation and AI... Vodafone NZ has partnered up with IBM in a DX/customer experience program to increase AI, customer interaction automation and agile development. “The more we use it the more ways we will find it can improve our customer experience.” Goodbye dumb dairy, hello smart-beef the story goes. "Any suggestion that New Zealand will or should compete in manufacturing chicken-free chicken or meat-free burgers is misinformed.” Agility, the workplace of the future and UCaaSAs unified comms-as-a-service grows, it’s embracing all today’s key catch cries… The increasing push to be agile, cloud-first, mobile-first businesses and the influx of younger workers are creating a perfect environment for UCaaS. “The real goal is to get away from slow things like communicating via email where it starts to turn into a bit of a chat.” AWS executives took to the stage in front of a full house in Auckland yesterday in an effort to nudge NZ businesses further down the road of transformation, with personal education and business change taking centre stage. “I suspect AWS Learning Month might morph into AWS Learning Year and then subsequently AWS Learning Decade.” Distributor wins the inventory battleWhen this filter distributor couldn't separate the chaff from the wheat in its inventory it knew it was time for an upgrade… For any small but growing business, there comes a time when at least one of the software systems that keep operations running smoothly and efficiently is no longer up to the task. “Inventory control is a big thing for us, and Jiwa allows us to do a lot that we couldn’t do before.” This week's sponsor: Upcoming events: > NZ Gaming Developers Conference | Aug 01 | 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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