Stories by Randal Jackson, Computerworld

Revera COO leaves as Cockayne remains

Andrew Seerden, who was appointed chief operating officer of Revera in August, has left the company.
His decision to depart was driven by Roger Cockayne deciding to stay on as chief executive officer. Seerden had been appointed to the COO role as part of a succession plan to enable Cockayne to taper off operational management responsibilities and focus on strategic initiatives.
Cockayne is the co-founder of Revera.
Seerden joined Revera after a period of management consulting. Previously, he was general manager of the Hewlett-Packard Imaging and Printing Group and held senior roles at Compaq. The longer-term plans were for him to take the role of CEO with Cockayne as executive director.
At the time, Cockayne described Seerden’s appointment as a key milestone.

Jade signals downturn for 2009 financial year

Christchurch-based Jade Software's $1.77 million profit before tax for the half year to June 30 is up by 29 percent compared with the same period last year. However, the company is forecasting results for the full financial year to be down on 2008.

Government tender site rebuild takes new tack

A report into the Government Electronic Tenders System (GETS) that recommended July as a start date for employing staff for a “new generation GETS” has been set aside in favour of a technical audit to investigate making incremental improvements to the existing system.

Leading tech companies lay off staff

IT services company Solnet has laid off 15 staff in Wellington, and Unisys is about to lay off 16.
Solnet managing director Mark Botherway says his company’s redundancies represent around 10 percent of staff and are mainly in the project delivery area.

Gen-i wins telephony deal at NZ Post

New Zealand Post is about to enter into contract negotiations with Gen-i to provide a total managed service of combined hardware and applications to replace its telephony environment.

Hewlett-Packard NZ staff face pay cuts

Hewlett-Packard and EDS staff in New Zealand are facing pay cuts and reductions in their benefits along with a redundancy programme announced last year.

Optimation lays off 11, recruits sales staff

IT services company Optimation has laid off five staff in Auckland and six in Wellington.
CEO Rhoda Holmes says the eliminated positions were primarily back-office roles, but that two technical staff were among those made redundant.

Corrections sheltered from Satyam storm

Optimation has put in place risk and management plans should troubled Indian partner Satyam not be able to carry on with a major project at the Department of Corrections.

Meet the minister: Joyce to focus on value

Communications minister Stephen Joyce comes across, first and foremost, as a pragmatist. His priority is delivering National’s broadband strategy but not without a caveat: “You’ve got to get value for money”.

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