ITP Techblog

Kia ora koutou ITP members and supporters, the interesting times we live in continue to evolve with inflation continuing to rise, alongside our tight labour market, with Infometrix indicating a shadow of recession spreading across the domestic economy.

Newsroom pose the concept of “skimpflation” is starting to emerge - when “instead of simply raising prices, companies skimp on the goods and services they provide”. Which got me wondering - are the increased call wait times, poor service and delivery delays we are experiencing caused by a Covid ravaged and overseas bound workforce? Or businesses reducing (skimping) due to recessionary pressures? It will be interesting to observe how things develop in the coming weeks and months.

Chapter 8 - Indian IT professionals in New Zealand

Written by Sunit Prakash & Lalita Kasanji the 8th Chapter of From Yesterday to Tomorrow provides us with the history of the role Indian IT Professionals have held for over 50 years, mapping the rise of IT as a profession in India alongside the influx of workers into Aotearoa NZ. 

The middle of the chapter is a selection of vignettes (snapshots) of the contributions made to the industry by a group of men who arrived during the period between mid 1980- mid 1990’s. They go on to describe the level of education held, work experience and examples of how many now give back to the growth of our industry via Angel Investment.  

An interesting conclusion drawn by the authors is the economic contribution of Indian IT professionals - they place this estimated contribution to the economy in 2020 at approx. $350 million to the New Zealand economy in 2020 - using a calculation of Average wages in the sector per annum × number of Indians in IT $119,442 × 2,933 = $350,323,386 or $350 million.

The authors also recommend commissioning of a skilled migrant landing pad with a specific Indian focused advisory panel and propose quantifying the total investment (both directly and indirectly) in NZ by venture capitalists of Indian origin but based in the USA would also be good to undertake. 

Need Meeting or Event Space in Wellington? 

The ITP office is available for hire, we have a boardroom with VC equipment for 10-12 people, or the larger event space for workshops or meetups or networking events, sits 50 people comfortably theatre style. 
If you are looking for a space email the team [email protected]

SFIA license for New Zealand

The great news is we can all use SFIA now leveraging a license purchased by MBIE and DIA as part of the Digital Industry Technology Plan. For Government, business, education and individuals the license is for 3 years and a series of support materials are being scoped up. 

This is an important investment in terms of maturing our industry. Alignment with a common language, leveraging consistent position names and descriptions, using the same terminology - through alignment with the SFIA framework - is critical if our industry is going to realise it’s potential in underpinning the New Zealand economy.

So Yay! Watch this space for more info and resources. 

Other Digital Technology News in Brief

Here's a short list of articles that caught my eye in the last week:
- Vic Crone has finished up as CEO of Callaghan Innovation after 5 years.
- In case you missed it Mike O’Donnell’s article on the Gender Pay Gap, and how the average KiwiSaver balance for men is 20% higher than women, is well worth a read.
- Wordle is now a board game
- The UK is creating a Drone superhighway connecting towns and cities, delivering mail, medication to remote areas attracting government funding of 273m pounds
- And we are getting new emoji’s (once they are approved in September)

Kia pai tō rā (have a great day) Vic