APN Holdings NZ(MIS100 2009)

By CIO staff | Friday, July 24 2009

2008 ranking: 46

Senior IS executive: Darren Turner, chief technology officer
Reports to: Finance director
Size of IS shop: 58

PCs: 2378
Mobile PCs: 293
Terminals: 223
Hand-held devices: 130
Total screens: 3024

Industry: Information
PC environment: Windows XP, 2000, Vista; Dell; Apple
Server environment: Windows 2000, 2003; Dell; Apple; Linux
DBMS: SQL
Address: 46 Albert Street, Auckland
Website: www.nzherald.co.nz
Key IS projects this year: Microsoft Exchange rollout; editorial and contact centre SW and HW upgrades; DRP/BCP expansion, general technology refreshes and upgrades.

Australasian publisher APN News & Media, publisher of The New Zealand Herald, requires flexible technology that allows the business to quickly adapt and respond to market changes. In New Zealand, this is the task of the Group Technology Services team, headed by chief technology officer Darren Turner.

Key ICT projects for 2009 include an organisation-wide rollout of Microsoft Exchange for its New Zealand business units, upgrade of the APN NZ editorial system and upgrades to contact centre technologies. APN NZ is investigating unified communications technologies and also utility computing.

In 2008, the company completed a VoIP technology roll-out to enable toll bypass functionality, desk to desk dialling as well as other VoIP functionality, nationally and trans-Tasman. Key business applications are now centralised and are presented to the company’s user base across the WAN.

On the telecommunications front, Turner says APN makes the most of mobile technologies to provide a competitive edge, such as in securing on-the-spot photos and content delivery. “You can have a photo for your newspaper transmitted in two or 30 minutes depending on the mobile technology you use,” he says.

In the next 12 months, APN will further standardise and rationalise applications, environments and infrastructure where necessary.

“We will be investing in enhancing our business intelligence environments, ERP and financial systems and also investigate e-business capabilities.” Work is also occurring on the web front end, with web technologies being employed to ensure web channels are relevant and meet the needs of an evolving online audience.