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| The New Zealand Software Association newsletter |
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| NZSA President Update |
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“Growth in New Zealand’s booming technology export sector has broken through the $1 billion mark for the first time.”
That’s a major milestone announced by the TIN100 last week. It wasn’t the result of a few hero companies, there are amazing success stories spread across all geographies, markets and company sizes. It’s a staggering increase of over 12% over the past year.
R & D is the engine room for this growth. Finding, developing or acquiring talent to meet these growth demands has become ever more challenging. There are many initiatives underway to meet these demands, everything from the great work in schools by TechHub from IITP, to the new ICT Graduate Schools producing their first graduates, through to the work Immigration NZ is doing to attract talent to NZ.
Some people may not be aware of the role NZSA plays in these initiatives. I’m delighted to announce that the NZSA is working with Immigration NZ and ATEED, on their mission to DevWeek 2017 in February 2017. With over 8.000 developers attending and a dedicated Hiring Mixer, this will be an amazing opportunity to attract top USA talent to New Zealand. NZSA has worked out a plan with ATEED & Immigration NZ to enable the smaller companies in NZ to take advantage of the event, without the cost and inconvenience of attending in person. Put simply, if we can supply the mission with a catalogue of job opportunities to present on the stand and at events, then the kiwi team at DevWeek will promote these opportunities to the largest talent pool to assemble in the USA. The support doesn’t end there – Immigration NZ will be providing a follow up service. You can find out more about the event here: http://www.developerweek.com/.
There is no cost for NZSA members – it’s one of the benefits. Members, please keep an eye out for our email with further details as we get closer to the event. If you are not a member and would like to be included, then please visit our website and explore our membership options & other benefits.
Roger Ford
President, NZSA
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September - Buzzfeed, from New York to Australia
After being introduced to some excellent wines by Regan from Glengarry Wines, and enjoying a great meal, we were treated to Katherine Griffiths giving us a New Yorker's perspective on starting up a business and going international. It was a rare opportunity to hear her experiences and lessons learned as Buzzfeed grew rapidly from 19 staff to over 1300! Following the explosive growth of Buzzfeed in the USA, Katherine moved to Australia as part of the start-up Aussie team in Sydney. There were plenty of interesting insights into the similarities, and differences, as well as useful insights into building teams and hiring talent.
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October - Brani Mead - 15 years on the frontline of the mobile revolution
Its was an absolute pleasure to hear someone speak with true passion for the future, based on real wisdom from the past. Brani and his team were the "Factory" part of Hyperfactory, and have continued building innovative mobile solutions as UI Revolution. Brani's insights into the role NZ could play on the global stage were inspiring. One of his three key points was the value of establishing offshore teams, as opposed to contracting outsourced teams. Kiwis can take on the world, and we shouldn't be afraid to take control of the resources available throughout the world. We finished the evening thoroughly entertained, informed, and inspired!
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Thanks to these members who brought guests to these events:
Divya Chopra, Jane Smallfield, Wayne Hudson, Richard McLean, Averill Dickson, John Quirk, Ghanum Taylor and John Jones.
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Kiwi Visionary Ian Taylor is visiting from Dunedin for our final event of the year, on December 13th. Ian revolutionalised the way the world watched sport with the creation of real-time 3D graphics for the Americas Cup and has established three successful Tech companies Animation Research Ltd, Taylormade Media and BookIt
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| Member News |
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Two hours legal advice for Corporate Members
Long time NZSA sponsors Hudson Gavin Martin who provide the legal templates for corporate members would like to know if our corporate members would like any other legal templates prepared. The legal templates currently available to corporate members are set out here. As part of each corporate membership, Hudson Gavin Martin will provide up to two hours of legal advice per membership year on drafting any required changes to the templates and/or on any other corporate or commercial legal issues a corporate member wishes to discuss. Please contact Edwin Lim at edwin.lim@hgmlegal.com for more details.
GreenTree acquired by MYOB
GreenTree has been acquired by MYOB in a move that allows Greentree to leverage MYOB’s significant scale and resource to tap into new markets while further extending MOYB’s mid-market leadership into larger enterprise business offerings. The transaction, which includes the ERP software and the 25 year old Greentree organisation which reaches over 850 businesses across New Zealand, Australia, the UK and US, is worth NZ$28.5 million. Read the full press release here.
New NZTech Chair
Congratulations to Michael Pham Co-Founder and Director of Augen Software Group on his recent appointment as Chair of NZTech.
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We’re delighted to welcome these new NZSA members
Corporate: Maxava, Aspire2Group
Small Company: wEntity, Rush Digital, Tambook, Keiyona Overseas, Indoor Sights, South Pole Systems, Intellimin
Individual: Carol Mahoney, Richard Carter, Jean Fullop
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| Industry News & Events |
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2016 Market Measures Report
The 2016 Market Measures Report “Time to Grow Up” has been released showing the latest benchmarks on what Kiwi tech companies are investing in sales and marketing. It includes comparisons between our sales and marketing approach and US tech companies and identifies the sales and marketing strategies that correlate with positive turnover growth.
The Market Measures Report provides insights on improving sales and marketing performance. You can download the report here. NZSA members can access the report for free by contacting admin@nzsa.org.nz for the Members Only promo code.
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Australian goods and services tax (GST) changes
Australia has introduced a new law applying the Australian Goods and Services Tax (GST) to international sales of digital products and services provided to Australian consumers. Under the new law, overseas businesses will be required to pay GST on these sales from 1 July 2017.
This includes digital products such as streaming or downloading of movies, music, apps, games and e-books as well as services such as professional, educational or legal services. Further information about these changes can be found here.
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"Selling Up, Selling Out" Conference
Global leaders in software mergers and acquisitions Corum Group are running a seminar in Auckland on November 15th. Considering a sale or recapitalization of your company any time in the next three years? “Selling Up, Selling Out.” Is a half-day tech M&A boot camp to achieve an optimal outcome and not be one of the deal disasters that befall most self-managed M&A efforts. For more information visit https://www.corumgroup.com/Events/auckland-selling-selling-out-0
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Agile NZ Conference 2016
Agile NZ is open to anyone who is interested in improving the way New Zealand organisations deliver software and services to their customers in he Digital Age. Aimed at all levels in the Agile community – from those starting out on the journey to experts in the Agile world the conference runs 29-30 November. For more information go to: http://agilenz.co.nz/. NZSA members receive a discount of $200 off the $995 standard rate. Contact admin@nzsa.org.nz for the Members Only promo code.
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2017 Hi-Tech Awards
Entries for the 2017 Hi-Tech Awards open this month. Over the years they have been awarded to New Zealand’s most successful high-tech companies, and highest achieving individuals. Win or don’t win (there’s no losing when it comes to awards) making it to finalist status gives you opportunities for networking with other amazing people both in and judging the awards program. Details here.
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| NZSA would like to thank the following organisations for their support: |
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