INTERGENITE NEWS >> 2

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT >>

6WORLDWIDE PARTNER CONFERENCE >>

7WORLDWIDE PARTNER CONFERENCE >>

8MICROSOFT DYNAMICS

9GST AND SYSTEM READINESS >>

10THOUGHTS ON THE INDUSTRY >>

11CASE STUDIES >>

12

>> HOT NEWS:

WEB STRATEGY >> 3SHAREPOINT 2010 >> 4

>> T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E I S S U E 2 3

>>

CASE STUDIES >>

5

< Copyright 2010 Intergen Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the permission of Intergen Limited >

What a fantastic award to win. It is the second time that Intergen has received a Partner of the Year award from Microsoft and it is something that we’re extremely proud of.

The win is, in no small part, the result of a huge amount of energy and

enthusiasm shown by everyone at Intergen for implementing great solutions

for our clients based on Microsoft technologies. It’s really no exaggeration

to say that we live and breathe Microsoft – from our participation in early

adopter programmes, through to the work we do for Microsoft, and right

through to the long-term support and maintenance of solutions we deliver

to our clients. We invest heavily in training and qualifi cations for our staff

and support a wide range of Microsoft initiatives, delivering hundreds

of projects each year. It is great to receive recognition from our most

signifi cant business partner.

We were also particularly pleased to be one of only three partners in

the Asia Pacifi c region to make the Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle. We

have worked very hard over the past few years to grow a fantastic Dynamics

Microsoft 2010 Country Partner of the Year –New Zealand.

business. It is very satisfying to know that not only do we have a team that

stands out in New Zealand but that we stand out as a success in our region.

This comes at a time when we are increasing the amount of work we are

doing across the region, with projects currently in progress in Perth,

Sydney and Brisbane, and with one recently completed in Singapore.

The Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference is always a highlight of the

year. It is a great opportunity to refl ect on the direction of the information

technology market and the role the products and services from Microsoft

play. We have the opportunity to meet with Microsoft executives and gain

additional insight in to Microsoft’s direction and to validate our strategies

against theirs.

The cloud features very heavily in everyone’s future. Although many end-

users appear to be somewhat tentative, it is hard to dispute that, at the very

least, some of the current offerings make real economic sense. The amount of

investment and attention these offerings are receiving internationally indicate

that we are moving very quickly towards a completely new paradigm.

We are currently moving Intergen to the cloud. We believe that what is

good for our clients must also be good for us. This move will save us real

money and will be a great case study for large BPOS implementations in

New Zealand.

We have a lot of great stories in this edition of SMARTS. I hope you

enjoy reading some of them and, as always, please feel free to contact any of

the authors if you would like to discuss anything with them.

tony.stewart@intergen.co.nz

Intergen wins Citizenship Solution of the Year and Portals and Collaboration Solution of the Year at Microsoft New Zealand's Partner Awards, held in Auckland on 18 August.

>>2 >> I N T E R G E N I T E N E W S < S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E T W E N T Y T H R E E >

6.

1.

2.

3. 5. 7.

8.

9.

We’ve been up mountains, celebrating on rooftops, launching

an offi ce in Perth, receiving accolades in Washington,

Copenhagen and Auckland, setting up yellow headquarters in

St Louis, dining out and working out (and working hard, which

goes without saying), all in the name of intelligent business.

No rest for the wicked, so it seems, and here’s a mere fl avour of

some of our most recent adventures in Intergen land.

1. Microsoft’s Brent Colbert and Paul Muckleston ( far left and far right) present Tony Stewart and Wayne Forgesson Intergen’s awards.

2. Intergenities celebrating at the Microsoft New Zealand Partner Awards.

3. One of the shiny new trophies for the trophy cabinet.

4. Feeding the troops. The Christchurch team digging in at Winnie Bagoes.

5. The Intergen ski weekend. Chris Auld and James Newton-King conquer the mountain.

6. A multicultural midwinter Christmas. The Auckland team gets festive.

7. The Intergen Perth offi ce launch. Not just a pretty face, Craig Keenan gets to work as host with the most in the new Perth offi ce.

8. On top of the world (with bubbles). Three cheers to us winning Microsoft Country Partner of the Year for New Zealand! The Wellington team celebrates on the roof.

9. Intergen St Louis. In need of some yellow in his working day, Ben McKernan spruces up the E•SPONDER headquarters in St Louis.

INTERGENITES HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE

4.

>>3>> W E B S T R A T E G Y < S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E T W E N T Y T H R E E >

“A Web Strategy is a vision (often documented) that clearly articulates how you will use the web to help achieve or exceed your organisation’s business objectives. It's a measurable plan of attack specifi c to you; not a one-size-fi ts-all blueprint.”

Unlike many other endeavours within the IT universe, Web Strategy can

feel a bit more nebulous – that’s because no two strategies will ever be the

same. This is for the simple reason that your organisation is unique – so your

strategy should be as well.

What’s included in a Web Strategy?

A strategy can be as big or as small as you like. But there are some key areas of

focus that should be part of your strategy. It should include things like: project

background, vision, objectives, goals, positioning, landscape, opportunities,

success measures (ROI), analytics, audience, technology, promotion (SEO/SEM),

accessibility, social media, governance, brand, content and so on.

This list is not exhaustive and not all these components are mandatory. For

example, if you’re a social media start-up then your strategy will be different

to an e-commerce retailer or a public agency. What’s really important is that

the strategy receives buy-in from everyone in your organisation and that it

articulates some clear, realistic and measurable targets.

Why do I need one?

You don’t. You can probably survive without one. You can also build a house

without plans and you can probably fi nd your way around a new city without

a map; it’ll probably just take a bit longer, cost more and you might not end

up where you wanted to.

What do I do with it?

The fi nal part of your strategy should

be the roadmap. Based on everything in

your strategy, the roadmap will provide

the actual plan for what you’re going to

execute (time, effort, resources, milestones,

deliverables, cost and so on).

The roadmap might stipulate, for example,

that you can start coding tomorrow, your

online presence should be limited (and

you should instead be focsued on mobile

delivery) or that you need six months’

research before you do anything. It just

depends on you.

Your strategy should be reviewed regularly

against the vision you’ve created and the

goals you’ve set yourself. The roadmap will

include these dates – so it should become an

ongoing process of reviewing, refi ning

and improving.

If you’re wondering what the web can do for

your business or you’d just like to chat about

what’s happening online in your sector, please

contact giles.brown@intergen.co.nz.

Web Strategy. What is it? Why do you need it? And what you do with it?

>> INTERGENITE:

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Giles Brown

What do you do?I am a Web Strategist within the Innovation, Strategy and Solutions Offi ce (based in Wellington, but working with clients everywhere).

How do you make a difference?I help clients to create, focus and execute their Web Strategy. I also work on specifi c projects that require anything from the User Experience tool set – user analysis, interaction design, information architecture and so on.

What do you love about your job?People. I’m from a technology-agnostic background so I love working face-to-face with clients and users to help create things that look great, are easy to use and work like they’re supposed to. I also love the fact that the web changes daily – so I’m constantly learning new things.

A bit about yourself…I’ve worked in and around interactive and online media since 1998, with long periods at some of New Zealand’s premier interactive, web and creative communications agencies. Outside of work, I enjoy spending as much time as possible with my wife and two kids – we live in Lyall Bay, Wellington, so there are at least three days a year when we can actually use the beach.

>>4 >> S H A R E P O I N T 2 0 1 0 < S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E T W E N T Y T H R E E >

We’ve been busy with SharePoint 2010 since well before its offi cial launch date in May this year, and our SharePoint team has been abuzz with the shiny new features of the release ever since they got their hands on it. But rather than run through the expected facts and fi gures, we thought we’d go straight to the horse’s mouth, so to speak, and ask our SharePoint gurus what they like the best.

Loren Scheuerman

“SharePoint 2010 has come a long way in the area of custom development.

Visual Studio 2010 and SharePoint Designer 2010 are both great tools that are

making the development process simpler, quicker and more fl exible. Visual web

parts, visual designer for features, deployment and packaging functionality and

the SharePoint 2010 project templates (to name a few things) that come with

Visual Studio 2010 are helping to increase developer productivity and bring new

SharePoint developers up to speed faster than before.”

Jordan Mayer

“I would have to say that one of the major steps forward in SharePoint 2010 has been

with custom workfl ow confi guration in SharePoint Designer 2010. In particular, the

update to the UI for creating custom workfl ows in SharePoint Designer 2010. The new

UI makes creation quicker, visually clearer and easier to follow. All steps in the workfl ow

are laid out on one page, reducing the need to click through multiple windows. With

everything on the same page, grouping lines and boxes have also been added to help

identify each step and their actions. This is particularly handy with nested steps.”

Highlights of SharePoint 2010 –as decided by our SharePoint experts

Philip Plimmer

“My favourite thing about 2010 is the InfoPath integration, especially with

Business Connectivity Services. Now you can use the richness of InfoPath forms

in SharePoint with almost no additional effort.”

Toby Spendiff

“Excel Services has to be one of the most versatile aspects of SharePoint 2010.

Businesses can quickly create dashboards and publish existing spreadsheets

over the web. There’s also support for displaying any part of a spreadsheet like

a chart or range of cells individually within a web browser. We’ve used this with

customers to create dynamic dashboards which pull charts and data from a

number of different spreadsheets onto one page. Very cool!”

Margaret Zou

“SharePoint 2010 Access Services make it easy to publish your Access

databases to the web, providing a centralised location for users to interact with

your data.”

Angela Knight

“I heart SharePoint 2010 Search! I can set up an external content type, perform

a search over the external data, use the standard search with the refi ner web

part to drill into my results using managed metadata fi elds and then when I

select a result, I can open it in a custom results page of my choice passing in

any metadata parameter I like – wicked!”

Chakkaradeep Chandran

"Microsoft SharePoint 2010 is packed with

excellent new and improved capabilities

and benefi ts that will help your company

quickly respond to changing business needs.

Productivity starts right from the free edition

– SharePoint Foundation 2010. With the

new Offi ce Web Applications integrated into

SharePoint 2010, users can now directly edit

Word/Excel/PowerPoint/OneNote right from

the browser! One of my favourite features of

SharePoint 2010 is the Business Connectivity

Services (BCS) which allows you to work with

data from other line of business systems as if it

lived in SharePoint. And also using SharePoint

Workspace 2010, you can now work offl ine

and synchronise your changes back to your

SharePoint 2010 site whenever you reconnect."

Rob Stewart

“SharePoint 2010 has a greatly improved user

interface, making enterprise and web content

management easy.”

Loren Jordan Philip Toby Margaret Angela Chaks Rob

< S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E T W E N T Y T H R E E > >>5>> E M E R G E N C Y M A N A G E M E N T

It’s in the ‘all hands to the pumps’ situations when you really fi nd out what you and your organisation are made of. How deep is your capability and how fl exible and comprehensive are your processes and systems?

For every organisation what constitutes an emergency or event is different.

It could be a major conference or a nationwide sporting event, a tsunami,

terrorist incident, pandemic, fi re or fl ood. When they happen, though,

they tend to galvanise your team and draw the focus of management,

shareholders, Ministers and the media.

Our experiences working with organisations around

emergency response have taught us that three of the most

critical aspects of any such response are fi nding the right

information, visualising it in the right context and

then having the ability to communicate and

collaborate with others.

In other words, it’s not just planning and

preparation; it’s also about having the capability

and fl exibility to respond swiftly and accurately

with a wide range of stakeholders.

Most systems on the market aren’t that fl exible, and,

as we all know, no plan survives its fi rst contact with an

event. A system needs to be able to adjust on the fl y.

We have seen too many situations where the IT solution

goes from being a valuable tool to a hindrance because

it was unable to adapt to the changing requirements

during an incident.

What’s your worst-case scenario?Being able to visualise the battle space (for emergency responders) is a

powerful capability that has really only come into its own in the last couple

of years. This is due, in part, to the general consumerisation of GIS mapping

(Google and Bing Maps), cheap readily-available GPS systems in vehicles and

cell phones, internet communication apps like Skype and Messenger, social

networking tools that allow the public to share information more readily, and

a plethora of network technologies (broadband, wi-fi , 3G, satellite…) with far

wider coverage, and easier to use with a range of different devices like smart

phones and netbook PCs.

Leveraging the extensive Microsoft platform, we are able to offer solutions that

are both comprehensive and fl exible enough to give you the tools to plan and

respond to almost any situation – even the things you may have never thought of!

One of our core offerings is E•SPONDER,

a command and control system based

on Microsoft SharePoint. E•SPONDER

is used by around 2,500 fi rst response

agencies (including the US Department

of Homeland Security, Police, fi re and

local government organisations) in

the United States, and in other

countries like Australia, Canada

and Iceland. E•SPONDER is

also used in a number of private

international organisations such

as Microsoft, Kraft Foods, Save the

Children, and World Vision.

Here in New Zealand E•SPONDER is being

used by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

and Trade to respond to situations that

potentially affect Kiwis abroad, and to assist

with humanitarian response with our

Pacifi c neighbours.

We are also currently working with

the Ministry of Civil Defence and

Emergency Management (MCDEM) to

provide a national, regional and local

civil defence emergency planning and

response capability.

The potential benefi ts for your organisation’s

critical response efforts are huge and so

we have formed a dedicated team, focused

on Emergency Management and Public

Safety, and have been pulling together best

of breed solutions and partnerships so that

we can provide strong advice and market-

leading capability into your business.

Bryan Gallagher (previously Microsoft’s

Defence and Public Safety Technology

Specialist) and Ryan Day (previously a

Senior Project Manager at the Ministry

of Foreign Affairs and Trade) are

both experienced in the development

and implementation of Emergency

Management Information Systems (EMIS)

and provide a dedicated focus on this

critical area within Intergen.

If you’d like to talk more about emergency

or event management, please email

bryan.gallagher@intergen.co.nz. Intergen’s Emergency Management

Specialists, Ryan Day and Bryan Gallagher.

>>6 < S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E T W E N T Y T H R E E >

This was my fi fth Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) and it was always going to be interesting for a variety of reasons, not least of which was that this was the fi rst time we would have multiple attendees – Bruce Smith, Simon Bright and me – and that we were an award winner.

Also, following a huge release cycle at WPC2009, it was always going to be

challenging to have as much excitement this time around.

This turned out to be the case and there was less new release content.

Having said that, WPC10 was the busiest and most valuable WPC that I have

attended. There were a number of reasons for this, including the networking,

meetings and activities related to our award win. We were kept extremely busy

from the day we landed in DC until the day we left.

Key messages from WPC2010

The Cloud

We are “all in.” No surprises there, and if anyone thought that cloud wasn’t

going to be huge at WPC then they have obviously been in the backblocks for

the last year or two. Almost every presentation, demonstration or discussion

covered the cloud in some way shape or form. Microsoft is certainly fully

committed. Equally importantly, they recognise that the transition to the cloud

will take time and that it requires both an on and off-premise capability.

Windows Azure Appliance

This was released at WPC. Basically organisations will be able to order their

own containerised Windows Azure appliance farm. We checked out one of the

containers and, as a former hardware engineer, I was very impressed with how

Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2010 Washington DC 11-15 July

>> W O R L D W I D E PA R T N E R C O N F E R E N C E

Wayne Forgesson is Intergen’s Director of Marketing.

they have put it together. The only downside is the quantity of servers required

(initially) as a minimum: around 1000.

Microsoft Partner Network changes

While this was announced late last year, this year there was more detail available.

Microsoft is introducing a more structured partner framework that will allow

customers to get greater appreciation of a partner’s capability and experience.

InTune

This is a cloud-based PC management tool that was demoed at one of the

keynotes. Currently in beta, InTune looks great and I think it will certainly be

something of interest to a lot of organisations, including Intergen.

CRM2011

While Intergen has been working with CRM5

pre-release for some time, this was the fi rst time

I had heard its offi cial release name: CRM2011.

Interestingly, in keeping with Microsoft’s cloud

focus, CRM2011 will be released online fi rst.

Consumer

Traditionally ignored at this partner-focused

event, Microsoft discussed and showed several

consumer-focused offerings this year, including

Windows Phone 7, Xbox Kinect and Windows

Microsoft’s Jon Roskill and Allison Watson present the Country Partner of the Year award to Wayne Forgesson.

>> INTERGENITE:

>>7< S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E T W E N T Y T H R E E >>> W O R L D W I D E PA R T N E R C O N F E R E N C E

Bruce Pollock

What do you do?I joined Intergen in mid-July as one of the new account managers in the Christchurch offi ce to provide extra bandwidth in the sales process. My role is to maintain the relationship between clients and us, acquire new business and look after our existing customers.

How do you make a difference?My background in FMCG supply chain, manufacturing, distribution and retail has given me a clear understanding of the pain points in those sectors. Linking those contacts with our expertise will enable us to roll up our sleeves and get under the hood to ease that pain.

What do you love about your job?Getting involved in taking people and businesses on a collaborative journey. Building trust and credibility with our brand and then leveraging this to provide guidance on business tools and processes. Evangelising a vision, then helping it become a reality.

A bit about yourself…I’m a technology geek – as a consumer, not a coder. I use an iPhone today but I’m looking forward to the new Windows Phone 7 device, and I have clearance from above to buy an Xbox Kinect – for educational purposes only, of course. I’m married with two boys. My wife is from Manila/Saudi Arabia and we met in Shanghai.

7 Home wireless experience. All I can say is I want all

three and I’m sure my kids (not me, of course) would

have a lot of fun with Kinect. Seriously cool.

Vertical solution alignment

As part of Microsoft’s extensive R&D, considerable effort

is being put into solutions tailored at or for specifi c

vertical markets. Microsoft’s focus is on core product

development and add-ons and accelerators to ensure

unique business requirements are more easily met.

The other area of WPC this year of signifi cance was the

number of meetings that we had, both with Microsoft

executives and our partners who were also attending WPC. Microsoft New Zealand did another great

job of lining up Microsoft Executive meetings for the Kiwi contingent and looking after us during our

stay. Many thanks to Brent, Misty, Bernadette, Stewart and the wider MSNZ team.

No review of a conference of this nature can ignore the many social aspects held over the fi ve days, and there

were certainly plenty of them! The Kiwi contingent was well represented at the various events, the most apt

being the Football World Cup fi nal where the Intergen team was decked out in undefeated All Whites shirts!

The last and most signifi cant aspect of WPC10 was receiving our award for 2010 Country Partner of

the Year – New Zealand. Winning this award is fantastic recognition of our efforts with Microsoft and

our customers over the last 10 years. It required being onstage in front of about 10,000 people at

Tuesday’s keynote – as you can see there was plenty of yellow!

Steve Ballmer refl ects. Victory is ours – Intergen’s Bruce Smith & Wayne Forgesson (in yellow) celebrate the occassion with Microsoft’s Jon Roskill, Kevin Ackhurst and Allison Watson.

wayne.forgesson@intergen.co.nz

>>8 >> M I C R O S O F T D Y N A M I C S < S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E T W E N T Y T H R E E >

Daniel Munns – Intergen’s Retail Specialist

What do you do?I’m Intergen’s Industry Lead - Retail Specialist. Working alongside business development managers and technical solution consultants, I look to establish the right priorities, tools and industry best practices to grow our retail clients’ businesses. My previous roles have been based in the UK where I've worked for various international brands and retailers. For the last several years I've worked in a leadership and strategic role for Debenhams Retail, London.

How do you make a difference?I can speak the retail language. I work with retail clients, identifying and aligning their business priorities with technical solutions.

To give you an idea, the following trends are typically at the top of the list in the retail world:

1. Customer Centricity – everything a retailer considers is built around the end consumer and the 'customer journey.’

2. Building visibility and fl exibility in the supply chain – it might sound easy, but tracking the correct milestones can shave days off your re-supply time and secure sales.

3. Multi-channel and convergence channel shopping is becoming commonplace – what does it mean to your brand?

What do you love about your job?It's a challenging sector and every day is different. We are all consumers and we are always hungry for new products and services. Retailers are looking to differentiate themselves to stay ahead of the competition, or at least in line with the competition. In today's market retailers face strong competition and recovery in the post-recession years remain uncertain, making the right investments a bigger challenge. Retailers and their associated supply chain partners can have lengthy supply chains which are often complex and fast-moving.

A bit about yourself?I came to Christchurch last September from London, where I have worked for the last 13 years. My career has touched many parts of the Retail Supply Chain, from design and lifecycle management to in-store solutions. In my spare time I enjoy running in Hagley Park and mountain biking over the Port Hills.

Things have been going from strength to strength in Intergen’s Microsoft Dynamics Practice. Recently we were admitted to the Microsoft Dynamics President’s Club for 2011 and were one of three APAC partners to make the Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle for 2011. There is really no higher recognition than this in the Dynamics world and so we’re understandably chuffed with these honours.

Doug Kennedy, Vice President, Dynamics Partners, says of our achievements:

“By providing the highest level of sales and innovation, customers can have absolute

assurance they are dealing with the ‘best of the best’ when working with Intergen.”

It doesn’t get much better than that as far as we’re concerned!

Dynamics Day ’10

Back in May we ran our second Dynamics Day two-day event in Wellington,

and we couldn’t have been happier with the way it unfolded. Great turn-

out, great sessions, great feedback. With around 100 attendees, 24 sessions

and three concurrent streams of activity, we had more than 30 Intergenites

involved in bringing the event to life. In the words of our esteemed leader,

Tony Stewart, “It’s great to see so many of our really smart people in action.”

A huge focus of this year’s Dynamics Day was on extending the conversation

past Dynamics, looking at it as less of a discrete offering than as a part of a

diverse integrated package for users, touching all areas of the business. We

also stressed the growing importance of the cloud to businesses and how

Dynamics fi ts within this picture.

A glimpse into the future

If you’re familiar with what we do, you’ll know we’re often waving our arms

>> INTERGENITE:The latest in the world of Microsoft Dynamics Simon Bright is Intergen’s Chief Operating

Offi cer and Dynamics Practice Principal.

about new technologies beyond the horizon,

and that we’re lucky enough to often get very

early exposure to them. We’re offi cially a part

of three Technology Adoption programmes in

the Dynamics space – for CRM5 (now called

CRM 2011), NAV 7 and AX 6 – previewing and

providing input into the upcoming releases.

While the nature of these programmes means

that we can’t shout from the rooftops about the

latest features, we are able to talk one-on-one

with customers who are interested in what lies

ahead and how it can bring your organisation

into the future. If you’d like a sneak preview or

a chat about what any of these releases hold in

store, I’d love to hear from you.

simon.bright@intergen.co.nz

Thof

I C S

Just some of the Intergenites involved in this year’s Dynamics Day.

daniel.munns@intergen.co.nz

>>9< S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E T W E N T Y T H R E E >>> G S T A N D S Y S T E M R E A D I N E S S

GST and systems readiness – the questions on everyone’s mind

On the face of it, the GST rate increase is easy to understand: a percentage increase from 12.5% to 15% on 1 October. Yet as many organisations are starting to realise, when it comes to their offi ce software systems, things are actually more complex and a set of common questions is emerging.

One of the most commonly asked questions is seemingly very obvious – which

systems in our organisation handle GST calculations? You would immediately

think of the accounting system or forward-facing sales systems, of course.

But in reality many organisations may have other systems dealing with GST

calculations that are less obvious.

The fact is that, with the deadline in place, organisations – no matter what

size or sector – can no longer ignore the need to understand how the change

impacts their business, particularly the complexities of managing that change

from a systems perspective.

Here are some key concerns and how to address them:

Which systems handle GST calculations? This needs careful consideration.

As well as your general offi ce accounting system, there are likely to be other

systems in the offi ce which deal with GST such as Point of Sale (POS) systems

used for scanning bar codes, product information management systems, websites,

customer quotation systems and ad hoc spreadsheets. Organisations must

carry out checks to ensure these are set up to cater for the new rate.

Can you change the GST rate on your systems or is it hard-coded?

This has obvious implications with regard to how easy it may be to bring every

system up to date when the new rate comes into effect. If your system vendor

has specifi ed in the software that the rate is set at 12.5%, how does this

fi gure get changed? Is the change made in only one place, or must multiple

changes be made? Some systems refer to a single setup source. However,

older legacy applications can have hard-coded GST rate calculations which

require changing and rigorous testing before release on 1 October.

Can you change the GST rate retrospectively?

This has two implications. Firstly, can businesses enter the new rate with an

effective date and then on 1 October, your systems just assume that rate or

will an organisation need to perform a cut-over on the 1 October? Naturally

this makes the cutover process more critical. Secondly, in the transitional

period after 1 October, organisations will have to deal with situations which

may involve both rates, as the old 12.5% rate will still be required for some

transactions. When entering these transactions in your new system you will

need to manually override the code displayed in the "GST" column with the

appropriate new code.

Will open purchase and sales order lines be updated by the GST rate?

Changes to the GST rate should impact GST calculations for un-invoiced sales

and purchase orders. In some systems, GST rates are brought onto the purchase

and sales order lines, thereby creating inaccurate calculations at point of

invoicing. Do you therefore need to force an update in your system or do you

need to perform an update to the data? Again, this has implications with regard

to how easy or complex it may be to update and maintain your systems.

Does your systems manage credits for purchase and sales? Will your

system(s) be able to credit back at the 12.5% GST rate for credits to orders

raised prior to the GST rate change? This is a more complex scenario but one

that many organisations will face. An item purchased before 1 October will

have included 12.5% GST in its price. If this item needs to be returned after

1 October, and the amount is credited, then it's important to manage this

credit at the 12.5% rate and not the new 15% rate. Businesses will need to

ensure that dual rates are maintained during a specifi c period to manage

the credit process and make changes to front-end sales systems so that those

applications can recognise this specifi c refund logic.

Will your systems require updates to existing, recurring customer orders, laybys and deposits?

Managing transactions such as subscriptions, deposits, laybys, rebates and

volume discounts will require careful attention. Existing subscriptions will

require updating with new GST rates if there is a contract of supply where

invoices are raised monthly.

However, different treatment

will be applied to subscriptions

that are invoiced as a lump

sum at the beginning of

the period and treated

as a monthly debt.

Similar consideration

needs to be paid

to other amounts

that are recorded as

prepayments, debtors,

and accruals in systems.

What treatment needs to be applied to these sums and what updates are required to your existing data? In some cases, systems

can manage these changes

automatically; however other

systems and manually-

managed spreadsheets will

require scripts and/or manual

manipulation.

Ultimately, it is essential that organisations

ask themselves these questions and put

a plan in place. With the October 1 date

looming, this is an issue that requires

urgent consideration.

james.page@intergen.co.nz

James Page is Microsoft Dynamics AX Service Line Lead for Intergen.

>>10 >> T H O U G H T S O N T H E I N D U S T R Y < S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E T W E N T Y T H R E E >

Technologists everywhere are espousing the value of the cloud. Access your data from anywhere. Achieve unlimited scalability. Don’t worry about running your own servers – let others do that for you. While these assertions are admirable, there is another area which needs to be looked at: do the numbers make sense from a business perspective?

Rather than spend time defi ning what the cloud

means, the purpose of this article is to look at

the use of cloud services in a general sense and

the economic benefi ts that can be realised.

Calculating value

The economic value of cloud-based solutions can

be looked at from several different perspectives,

including budgeting, resource utilisation,

availability and performance and security. Each

of these factors will affect different organisations

differently. While the cloud will benefi t some

organisations more than others, they should

at least start looking at how cloud-delivered

applications can benefi t their organisations.

Cloud Economics: Making the business case

Most cloud-based services charge their customers on a monthly basis,

adopting a subscription model for longer-term relationships, with software

being used on a “pay as you need” basis. Rather than pay for new hardware

and software licenses upfront, organisations can free up typically scarce

capital expenditure for other investments that grow the business. Software

subscriptions now become an operational expense, and often cost less

than the original capex amount. For many organisations, the opex model is

advantageous, not least of which because of its predictability.

While virtually everyone now relies on IT, most organisations don’t wish

to become IT experts. Due to an increasing reliance on

IT, many organisations have had to invest in IT resources

– particularly staff. With the availability of cloud-based

services that provide email and other core functions, the

focus of IT resources can be re-evaluated. Rather than focus

on commodity products, the organisation can look to this

team to see how IT can differentiate the business and

improve overall effi ciency and performance. What’s more,

upgrades to the software – patches and major releases –

can occur seamlessly, without requiring staff and without

the traditional disruption and cost to the business that

implementing such changes in-house can cause. The direct

and indirect savings here can be considerable.

With Internet access virtually ubiquitous, and with devices

that are effectively always-on, organisations need to be

looking at how they can provide access to key systems, such as email, on an

around-the-clock basis. Organisations want to encourage their workers to work

whenever and wherever they are, while workers appreciate the fl exibility of

being able to work when they want. The cloud, with its high availability and

access, enables this to happen, while the performance of these systems is

designed to support thousands of simultaneous users, more than meeting the

needs of the average Australiasian organisation.

When it comes to security, a common question that any organisation evaluating

cloud solutions must ask is: “How secure is our current IT infrastructure?” For many

organisations, their own systems are considerably less secure than the environments

where cloud-based applications are hosted. It’s safe to assume that the investments

made in securing cloud-based data centres far exceed the capabilities any single

organisation could provide, almost regardless of its size.

Get ahead in the cloud

By investing in the cloud, organisations are effectively outsourcing (at least) some

of their IT infrastructure to experts in their fi eld, with capabilities and budgets that

exceed the resources available to any single organisation. Some

applications, such as email, are becoming commoditised – and

organisations will typically get no commercial advantage using

email that is on-premise than if it were running in the cloud; and

users probably won’t notice the difference. For services such as

email, unifi ed communications and collaboration, accessing a

cloud service will likely make sense. For other applications that

are mission critical or that differentiate an organisation from its

competitors, the cloud could be used as a deployment model, but –

right now at least – it probably makes more sense for organisations

to run these systems themselves.

Our advice to organisations is simple: Take a look at the

applications you use and evaluate the business case of having some

of these applications hosted in the cloud. Some cloud offerings

can add new capabilities to an organisation at a minimal cost,

while cost savings for more commoditised applications, such as email, could quickly be

calculated – coming into effect immediately, or at the next appropriate upgrade cycle.

As a delivery model, the cloud isn’t going away, and organisations should look to see

how quickly they can take advantage of it.

tim.howell@intergen.co.nz

Tim Howell is Intergen’s Marketing Manager

E >

< S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E T W E N T Y T H R E E >>> C A S E S T U D Y >>11

>> INTERGENITE:From the paddock to the farm kitchen table, and everywhere inbetween – Agriculture ITO cultivates a new training system using Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Agriculture Industry Training Organisation is one of New Zealand’s largest industry training organisations, helping more than 8,000 people every year to gain the knowledge and skills they need for a productive and rewarding career in the agriculture sector.

They needed a training information management system to support their

fi eld-based staff and students who may need to work offl ine at the farm

kitchen table or in similarly remote locations, with the information then

synchronising back to the master version.

AgITO wanted to provide a future-proof foundation for an online channel

that would support and unify all areas of the business – from management of

relationships and customer interactions, management of all programmes and

courses through to all course assessment and moderation activities.

With the new system in place Argiculture ITO is able to offer a higher level

of service to its customers. The right information is at hand at the right time,

and CRM allows for quick and easy enhancements to adapt to changing

business needs.

Agriculture ITO is dedicated to providing the best training possible, and their

new CRM system helps make this a reality.

Brent Dickens

What do you do?I’m an Interactive Designer in the User Experience Design team. We work to create portals, websites and applications that look superb and are a joy to use.

How do you make a difference?By pushing design to the forefront of any and all the work we do. It’s not just eye candy – everything we design deserves care and attention.

What do you love about your job?I have a real passion for design and the fi ne art of front-end development, pushing the latest web technologies into production so that we are creating the best cutting edge work for our clients. I love working on varied, interesting projects with great people who really know their stuff.

A bit about yourself…I was born and bred in Lower Hutt, now living in Petone. I have spent most of my life in Wellington with a few snowboarding seasons living in Wanaka and Dunedin plus a bit of time in Ohakune. I’ve also spent some time in Australia and Japan. I’ve gone from running a small boutique web design company, to full-time student and am now back into the workforce. I have 14 month-old daughter named Lola who is a joy (most days). I love riding my Vespa, mountain bike riding, DJing and collecting sneakers.

“We now have an integrated system enabling users to capture all details

for our customers. Access to information is now available to everyone. We

now have a complete information source that can be used by all areas of

the business. It’s easy to access and simple to use, as it is using the familiar

Microsoft interfaces that Outlook provides.”

Lyndon Allott, Information Systems Manager

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT INTERGEN:

Auckland: +64 9 966 3070 info@intergen.co.nzWellington: +64 4 472 2021 www.intergen.co.nzChristchurch: +64 3 964 0017Dunedin: +64 3 477 5648Sydney: +61 2 9969 0088 www.intergen.com.au Perth: +61 8 9228 9990

< S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E T W E N T Y T H R E E >>> C A S E S T U D I E S

Lincoln University had an urgent requirement to replace their aged and unsupported content management system (CMS). It was vital to meet a pressing three-month deadline for the project to be delivered, with students needing information on which to base their university and course selections.

As New Zealand’s specialist land-based

university, Lincoln has a student population

of 4000 and the website is a window to all

aspects of the university’s operation, including

academic faculties, enrolments, course

information, scholarships and orientation.

Students are a web-savvy and well-connected

audience, and the existing CMS platform

fell well short on its ability to deliver and

facilitate the creation of content.

Lincoln went to market and selected Intergen

and content management solution, EPiServer

CMS. As a well-structured and fl exible CMS

platform, EPiServer has delivered immediate

benefi ts and has allowed Lincoln to engage

with the entire lifecycle of a student, from

prospecting to enrolment, to post-graduate

and alumni activities.

EPiServer CMS helps land Lincoln University where they want to be

One million members belong to the Automobile Association, making customer service the cornerstone of the AA’s vision to provide value and great service for motorists. As an organisation of 1000 people, with offi ces and service centres spread the length of New Zealand, the AA needed a central internal hub to support their culture, communications and service delivery.

Looking for the tool to help them create this, the AA decided to leverage their recent investment in a SharePoint platform and enlisted Intergen to carry out its express ‘Rapid Results’ implementation.

A key driver with the intranet project was fi nding a more effi cient way to manage the AA’s customer feedback process. Largely manual to date, it existed on several different databases and there was no consolidation or organisational view of customer enquiries and their resolution. Now the AA has the ability to route all customer feedback and enquiries to the right area and person and action. The result is greater visibility and faster tracking and resolution.

And customer feedback is just one example of smarter workfl ows that have resulted from The Hub. The AA’s Human Resources Advisor, James Tunnell, says: “Collaboration is important – for many of our super users we have built workfl ows to help manage information. Creating team sites has been a major benefi t and they’re fi nding they’ve got real power to get things done with the SharePoint tools. Multiple users can access the same information; we have excellent search and reporting features and we’re fi nding really innovative ways of doing things.”

Uptake of The Hub has been positive and organisational silos are now a thing of the past.

The Hub – the perfectintranet vehicle for the AA

Lincoln Online Services Manager Dorje McKinnon comments on how far the

site has come:

“The difference is about making the website about the individuals who are

using it. Students are now viewing information that is current, relevant and

easily accessible.”

For many, a university’s website is the fi rst hook for students making their

decisions for the future, and Lincoln is now confi dent they’re putting their best

foot forward in the web space.