Datacom Group(MIS100 2010)

By Jess Meyer | Thursday, May 27 2010

2009 ranking: 43

Senior IS executive: Steve Matheson, chief operating officer
Reports to: CEO
Size of IS shop: 3050

PCs: 2600
Mobile PCs: 500
Terminals: 0
Hand-held devices: 300
Total screens: 3400

Industry: IT supplier
PC environment: Windows 7, XP, Vista; HP; IBM
Server environment: HP, IBM, Sun, Microsoft, Linux, Unix
DBMS: SQL
Address: 210 Federal Street, Auckland
Website: www.datacom.co.nz
Key IS projects this year: Document management; intranet.

IT will be used to achieve business objectives for Datacom New Zealand in 2010 through information sharing and collaboration, says chief operating officer Steve Matheson. “Specifically, we will be enhancing our intranet and customer portals to provide improved access and functionality.”

Major datacentre developments from last year will carry over throughout 2010, to further support and enhance the significant investments made by the IT services organisation, including the commissioning of a $30 million Orbit datacentre, and a commitment of $15 million for operations and maintenance of the centre this year. Construction of a new Christchurch facility is well advanced, as is planning for a new Wellington facility.

“Despite the recession we experienced significant growth.

Aside from the considerable investment in the new datacentre, we also hired a further 250 people over the past 18 months. Growth will continue and we expect 2010-11 growth to be stronger than previous years,” says Matheson.

Datacom is focusing on enhanced customer management and services for its customers, with mature IaaS and SaaS offerings, including the recently launched outsourced payroll engine. Internally, document management will be a key focus for 2010. Matheson’s team is also behind the development of a new intranet, designed to improve the access, management and sharing of the company’s IP for the company’s 3050 staff.

The coming 12 months look much like the previous, in terms of IT focus for Datacom, with unified communications, virtualisation, VoIP, disaster recovery and mobility maintaining their level of attention and importance. A wireless project initiated in 2009 has been completed, with the adoption of a new knowledge management solution taking its place.