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Tech Summit Reflections Sept 26

The Edge team recently attended annual Tech Summit at Te Pae and had a day of immersion in tech talks, business talks, networking – and of course, good food!  We did not all agree on the best and worst speakers, but that makes for lively debate, and we thought we’d share a few of the highlights....

You already know the problems - knowing which one to fix first is the important first step

Your business strategy should be supported by technology, and yet it surprises me how often there are big gaps between what the business needs and what technology provides. I've spoken to lots of local CEOs and when we talk about how well their technology supports their business I don’t need to prompt them - they can list the problems - they can be very painful and expensive. Here is a relevant example: We recently came across a very successful manufacturer who clearly understood the...

Canterbury ICare Faster Team Wins International Healthcare Award

Congratulations to one of our clients for their recent global recognition and award win. The Canterbury ICare Faster team, and Emergency Medicine Specialist Martin Than who led the project, have recently won a Teams of Achievement award at the 2026 global UNIVANTS of Healthcare Excellence Awards.    These awards recognise interdisciplinary care teams around the world who have achieved measurable, innovative impact wi...

Welcome Mike Wiehahn and David Ferkatovich

We’re excited to welcome two new team members to the Edge team.Mike Wiehahn is joining us as a Project Manager.Mike brings experience across marketing, web development, software development, business improvement, and project management. After starting his career in marketing, he moved into web development and later became a systems manager focused on improving business processes. He went on to establish and run his own digital agency, leading teams that delivered web design, marketing, and sof...

What's Actually Changed for Ratepayers this Quarter?

Many New Zealand councils are running digital transformation programmes, with budgets allocated, projects underway and teams that are busy.  But when leaders step back and ask what has actually changed for ratepayers, the answer is not always clear.  This article explores why digital transformation can produce activity without meaningful outcomes, and what the councils making progress are doing differently.  We bring direct experie...

Motu Move Reaches 1 Million Taps

Congratulations to ECAN (Christchurch Regional Council) and the milestone of 1 million contactless payment ‘taps’ across the Greater Christchurch Region, and 200,000 unique cards and devices in use across the network. Arina from our team took these beautiful cupcakes into the team to celebrate this big user milestone. It’s nice to see the results after the behind-the-scenes hard work.  Motu Move is the new contactless ticketing and pay...

Hiring IT Consultants: Examples of Poor Use or Poor Performance

#4 in a series of posts on When to Use an IT Consultant And How to Get the Best Results...

How would I choose a consultant?

#3 in a series of posts on When to Use an IT Consultant And How to Get the Best Results...

What Should You Expect from an IT Consultant?

#2 in a series of posts on When to Use an IT Consultant And How to Get the Best Results  ...

When to Use an IT Consultant and How to Get the Best Results

#1 in a series of posts on When to Use an IT Consultant and How to Get the Best Results ...

Welcome Isabell Maier

We are pleased to welcome Isabell Maier to the team as Office Administrator.Isabell brings over 20 years of administrative experience, along with a creative edge shaped by her background in graphic design.Originally from Austria, she has recently relocated to New Zealand.She joins Edge Consulting as our Office Administrator, where she’s focused on creating a well-organised, efficient environment that supports the team to do their best work. She enjoys bringing clarity to busy environments, sol...

Welcome Justin Farr

We are excited to announce Justin Farr as a new Project Manager in our team.Justin is a Prince2-qualified Project Manager with extensive experience delivering IT infrastructure projects across a wide range of industries, including retail, energy, government, health, and financial services. Having worked both in New Zealand and internationally, he brings a pragmatic understanding that no two organisations or projects are the same, but they all need strong levels of technical understanding, commun...

Ravensdown Wins New Technology Award for HawkEye Pro

Congratulations to Ravensdown Fertiliser on winning the New Technology Award at Southern Field Days for HawkEye Pro https://www.ravensdown.co.nz/products/hawkeye-pro/. As reported by Farmers Weekly:“The winner of the New Technology section was the HawkEye developed by Ravensdown, a technology that uses a combination of GPS, soil samples and AI learning to inform farmers on fertiliser placement.”  HawkEye Pro uses machine l...

The Curse of (IT) Knowledge

As an IT professional, have you ever written or presented to senior management on straight-forward technical problems or recommendations only to see the eyes of your audience glaze over as you get to your main points?Or perhaps you’re a senior executive facing a business challenge and seeking advice. Then the person from IT arrives, concentrating on technical details and speaking in jargon that can seem like a foreign language, all without directly tackling your business concern. Too often, th...

New ways to pay for bus rides

As part of a nation-wide effort, our team programme managed and provided project management services for this project, led by Jeremy Dickson from Canterbury Regional Council (formally ECan). Not only does this provide more payment flexibility, it supports greater use of services by removing barriers to users who don't have a Metro card.Read the news at the link below. The original has been copied with thanks from ECan's website.Motu Move rolls out in Greater Christchurch...

Welcome Arina Yamin

We are very excited to announce the appointment of Arina Yamin to the team.  She’s joined us as a Project Coordinator, beefing up our Delivery Team and helping clients effectively manage complex projects.Arina has spent years supporting complex delivery and product initiatives, keeping things organised, people connected, and outcomes on track.  She brings a broad range of experience in diverse and leading organisations – including Coca Cola, Gap Filler and Westland Milk.  She�...

AI in the factory and the office: why feedback loops matter most

I’m not an AI wizard — just someone trying to make sense of where this technology really works. This week I went down a rabbit hole on edge AI in manufacturing — GPU-powered devices running models locally on factory floors, making split-second calls without cloud connectivity. That’s proper Operational Technology (OT) integration: silicon at the coalface. Then I got sidetracked by a very different thought: corporate “transformation,” customer-journey mapping, and the ongoin...

The decline of traditional telephony and the telephone number

In recent years, both the New Zealand and global markets have seen a decline in fixed telephony and copper-based voice services. This has been fuelled by an aggressive removal of legacy analogue access and services by the telcos, heightened demand for improved communication tools with a richer feature set, and more flexibility and support for the move to cloud.Beneath this visible shift lies a more fundamental, and perhaps more disruptive, evolution: the decline of telephony and the telephone nu...

Practical steps to making the most of digital technology for New Zealand small and medium sized businesses – a reflection on a recent NZIER report.

A recent NZIER report  “Going digital in 2025: The economic benefits of digital tools” discusses how accelerating small and medium size enterprises (or SMEs) is a major economic opportunity with the ability to boost our country’s output by NZ$8.6 billion in 2025 alone.The report highlights a number of global trends where digitisation is accelerating and reshaping industries and economies. It’s a compelling case for adopting digital tools, but is aimed at policymakers, not the m...

IT Budget Planning Guide

We are often asked for budget figures for future projects, and we know this time of year many of our customers are preparing budgets.  We thought it would be helpful to provide a few budget insights and some pricing guidelines that will help with your planning.  Read on for: Some of the common errors we see in budgeting An IT Budget Guide for your project costs....

Paul Morrison - reflections on 40 years in the local IT industry

As I head into retirement, Kerry suggested I may want to share some of the key changes and milestones I have seen and experienced over four decades in the industry. It’s a tough ask as I have been privileged to see so much change – unbelievable advances in technology, applications, communications and collaborative working and been inspired by so many amazing people in the industry; friends, colleagues, competitors, vendors and customers. I will start with Business World Computers, which...

Simplifying ICT Integrations for Local Government

Digital Transformation has been great for knowledge sharing and overall efficiency for local government organisations. However, the visibility of data connections or APIs has become a huge problem. As more applications are implemented and connected, ICT environments have become more complex. These interconnected systems and applications form a tangled web – that we refer to as the ‘spaghetti junction’ – increasing the difficulty of maintaining and changing systems to meet organisational ...

Achieving application portfolio visibility in NZ local government

For ICT leaders in local government organisations, achieving visibility in application portfolios is crucial for operational efficiency and effective service delivery. Budgetary constraints, risk management issues, and a lack of visibility across application portfolios can create barriers to effective decision-making. When ICT teams lack detailed insights—such as understanding when applications require renewals or ensuring they meet security standards—they struggle to manage risks effectivel...

NZ Telco & Comms Changes - How to Get Value for Your Organisation

If telco and communications spend is a significant part of your budget and supports how you operate as an organisation, then this post is for you.Telecommunications, in its widest sense is a fundamental component how an organisation supports and engages with its internal and external customers. The telecommunication industry is undergoing significant change at an industry, technical, functionality and user level.These changes have led to increased productivity, reduced costs, and improved servic...

How Application Portfolio Management can assist Energy Distribution Companies reduce their application operating risk and meet compliance requirements.

An application portfolio is a fundamental component of every organisation's IT infrastructure. Put simply, it encompasses all the applications an organisation is using, serving as a repository of software assets. However, despite its significance, many Energy Distribution Companies IT teams struggle to effectively manage and maintain their application portfolios.The term 'portfolio' implies the aggregation of applications into a cohesive and accessible format, which is often not the case. Instea...