Innovation And Can-Do Attitude Reaps Rewards

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INNOVATION AND CAN-DO ATTITUDE REAPS REWARDS

Projects as varied as providing apparel for New Zealand’s Defence Force, a motor vehicle crash analysis system and the world’s first internet-based wool trading system were amongst the winners at the Computerworld Excellence Awards, held in Auckland last night (Friday July 6).

The cream of New Zealand’s IT innovators and entrepreneurs were honoured at the annual Computerworld Excellence Awards with awards recognising the pervasiveness of e-business across a wide range of activities.

Double winners were online magazine nzgirl, named e-Business of the Year and winner of the Business to Consumer excellence award, and South Auckland Health for its excellence of the use of IT in Government and winner of the Overall Excellence in the use of IT award.

Judges said the South Auckland Health entry was impressive because of its decision to use local software development to marry a number of leading-edge technologies, making the overall system usable by a large number of specialists in the largest Emergency Department in the southern hemisphere. This was done, they said, in parallel with fitting out a new facility that had to work first time with very little margin for errors.

Nzgirl stood out ‘as an example of a true e-business, generating revenue through advertising, market research and sales, carving out a niche in a crowded electronic marketplace.’ According to the judges, it is an entrepreneurial venture with small beginnings and big opportunities, typifying the New Zealand can-do attitude.

The innovation of creative multimedia computer graphics company, Right Hemisphere, won Technology Innovator of the Year, against competition from finalists Taste Technologies and e-mmediate.

TelstraSaturn CEO Jack Matthews won the CEO IT vision category, and Paul Swain, the Minister for Information Technology, the award for the Most Significant Contribution to IT in 2000.

IDG Communications, publisher of Computerworld, initiated the awards four years ago to recognise excellence in the IT sector. With strong sponsorship support from the IT vendor community, the awards have doubled in size each year, with the 2001 Computerworld Excellence Awards attracting a record number of entries, with more than 100 organisations and companies competing.

A complete list of winners is attached below.

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