(Guest post from Phil Sheehan, ISV Alliance Manager, IBM New Zealand)

Innovation has been described as brand new ideas and methods that change the game and give you an advantage over the competition — at least for awhile, and the never ending search for improved productivity and efficiency.

i.e.:”doing more with less, and better than before”.

From both of these perspectives, Cloud Computing offers businesses a real chance to innovate with the potential for outstanding results. Think of Cloud in terms of the services it will provide, and not simply in terms of a compute/storage network.

While there is always risk in transforming IT, Cloud can offer a high quality user experience, enabled by dynamic infrastructure, leading to significantly improved supply economics. While virtualisation is a component in any Cloud story, it’s not the end game. Consolidating assets, increasing utilisation, and standardising and automating to improve service delivery and lower operational labour costs are key to achieving an optimal and effective Cloud computing experience for the end user, thus maximising value to the business.

Find out more in the conference session on “Cloud Computing – Beyond the Hype”, and learn about the 5 different deployment types and workloads suitable now for Cloud.

Phil Sheehan
ISV Alliance Manager, IBM New Zealand

(Guest post from Ray Delany, CEO of DesignerTech)

Innovation isn’t what it used to be.

While the ICT industry is well known as an innovative force, the vast majority of people who work in the industry today have a relatively unsophisticated understanding of the nature of innovation. Too many people who have brilliant ideas think that it is the idea itself that is of value, but this is not usually the case. What we consider to be an innovation is almost always the product of a great idea plus a lot of hard work and often a little luck.

Microsoft is now a bastion of conservative big-corporate thinking, but in the 1980s it was a larrikin start-up taking aim at the big guys – IBM – with the technological equivalent of a pop-gun. The great idea back then was you could transfer your software when you upgraded your computer. Doesn’t sound so revolutionary now, but back then the convention was bigger computer equals new software.

Ten years later Microsoft was the big game in town and almost missed the significance of the commercialisation of the Internet, opening the door for younger, more nimble organisations to innovate, which led to a whole other big player known as Google, and a slew of others.

The Austrian economist Schumpeter used the phrase “creative destruction” to summarise the effect of innovation, often the creation of something new destroys that which preceded it, but it is also the case the some innovations slide neatly in next to stuff that was there before.

To really innovate and prosper, we need to find a way to harness the brilliant technical idea to the smart business thinkers who can take the idea forward and make money from it.

Being involved in the NZCS 50th Anniversary Conference provides a fantastic opportunity to hear from other people who have succeeded in doing this in a number of different ways over the years, as well as from people who are just starting out, and people who are a bit further down the track.

We will no doubt admire the achievements of the people who have succeeded, and hopefully we will also perceive the level of commitment and effort required to achieve success, and be inspired to emulate them.

Ray Delany
CEO, DesignerTech

Joining the huge range of thought leaders from within the industry, academia, education sector and Government both presenting and attending the 50th Conference, Hon Steven Joyce, Minister of ICT, is now confirmed to open the conference on the morning of 16th September.

We’re looking forward to the Minister’s perspective on the past, present and future of ICT in New Zealand.

For those heading to the NZCS 50th Anniversary Conference in Rotorua in September, or thinking about it, Air New Zealand has just announced a 24 hour sale on flights to Rotorua from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

• Auckland to Rotorua, $59 each way
• Wellington to Rotorua, $79 each way
• Christchurch to Rotorua, $89 each way

If you’re thinking about coming and haven’t booked your flights yet you should get in early – the sale is only for 24 hours, and no doubt the cheap flights around the dates of the conference will go fast.

These can be booked in the normal way at www.airnewzealand.co.nz

EarlyBird Registrations are all but sold out, however we’ve decided to hold pricing until 30 June 2010.

So if you’re planning on coming but haven’t bought your ticket yet, you’ll need to get in quick to take advantage of the EarlyBird pricing – now until 30 June 2010.

You can register at www.innovation.org.nz/registration

The full Conference Programme has now been released, and it’s a doozy!

Conference Presentations

A total of 40 presentations across the two main days ensures there’s something for everyone.

The programme is separated into 4 main Streams:

1) Future of ICT: Future of ICT, what does the next 50 years hold?
2) Professional: ICT Professional Development and learning
3) Innovation: This includes “Concept to Reality” and bringing new ideas to market
4) History/Education: This is split between looking back at ICT innovation and exploring ICT education

You can view a list of all presentations here, or the Programme here.

Workshops

The Workshop Schedule has also been released:

• Search Engine Optimisation: The Inside Story
• Role Profiling and Refining Skills Capability
• Making Projects Effective
• Concepts of Online Identity Verification
• Becoming an Innovator

These Workshops are well worth a serious look. Whether it’s Google’s own Craig Nevill-Manning discussing Search Engine Optimisation or Software Education’s Martin Davie flown in from Australia to outline how to lift the innovation of you and your team, you simply won’t get this soft of opportunity often.

You can find out more about the Workshops here.

One of the things that has been truly excellent thus far while organising this conference is the widespread support from all corners of the sector.

From a sponsorship perspective, a number of companies have been prepared to dig deep and help make this momentous milestone celebration a  reality, and we are truly thankful for this.

In terms of Keynotes, this conference is supported by some of the true kiwi entrepreneurs in our sector. You’ll see early next week when the programme comes out that the huge range of presentations covers every nook and cranny of ICT in New Zealand – this will be a vastly inspirational occasion.

We truly appreciate the input, sponsorship and support from a huge number of companies and individuals across the board, however it has to be said that there’s one company that has really gone the extra distance to ensure this conference is a success, and that’s Microsoft.

As well as fronting as the first Platinum Sponsor of the conference, Microsoft have helped in every way possible, whether asked or not. Ranging from major sponsorship, to Microsoft’s global CEO, Steve Ballmer, being prepared to put together a short video for the conference, through to helping arrange major speakers, through to New Zealand senior staff advocating the conference and registering early themselves, we simply couldn’t ask for more.

And for those thinking this might have been with ulterior motive, you’ll see from the programme release next week that the speaker programme is widely representative, including the open source community for instance. Microsoft haven’t made any attempts to influence proceedings – their support has been unconditional.

Others have been fantastic too, and certainly aren’t forgotten. The conference sponsors have all dug deep to support this event. However a special thanks for the commitment made by Microsoft to date.

The Dom Post has an excellent profile article on Ian McCrae, founder of Orion Health (one of our countries largest and most innovative software companies).

View the article here.

Ian McCrae will be sharing some of the secrets to his success at the NZCS “50 Years of ICT Innovation” Conference in September, in an effort to help guide the innovators of the future.

More Conference info: www.innovation.org.nz

Here’s the first post of many leading up to the conference briefly exploring various aspects of Innovation.

What is Innovation?

The dictionary describes innovation as the “Introduction of new things or methods”. This definition looks at the final output; in an ICT or software sense, a completed product.

But what about the other factors that went into making that completed product, the people, the late night meetings and code that needed debugging at 4am?

Although some could say this is part of the development process, one could certainly view development as being encapsulated within this ‘Innovation’ term. Through continuous development we can achieve innovative solutions.

Thinking about Innovate Solutions…

So if innovation is about the ‘introduction of new things or methods’ this raises some questions;

(a) What am I introducing?
(b) Who am I introducing it to?
(c) Is my ‘new thing or method’ helping/solving/refining/addressing?
(d) Can I leverage technology to help me?
(e) Can I be innovative in being innovative?

All valid questions really. Here’s a simple diagram focusing on 3 areas which illustrate the concepts involved in innovation very well:

Now… Innovate!

So we have a definition of innovation and some things to think about during the process. It seems simple enough, and is a little bit of an oversimplification, however not as much as you’d think. But it involves a fundamental change in focus for many people.

If more of us continually ask ourselves or our organisations these 5 things each and every day we may well achieve more as individuals, as companies, as a sector and, in fact, see New Zealand climb the global innovation stats on the back of an innovative ICT sector.

So no matter where you are….. always remember…. Its never to late…..to Innovate!

The New Zealand Institute has given us a wake-up call on the country’s performance. Our score is D for dismal.

Innovation and business sophistication are the most important drivers of income and NZ is “below par”. The Herald picked up on this last month, reporting that “NZ languishes near the relegation end of the OECD league table for Innovation”.

So it’s time we turn the tide.

Having said that, there are some very notable exception – some individuals that have made a huge difference in New Zealand and around the world. We’ve rounded some up – come and listen, and more importantly ENGAGE, at the NZCS 50th Anniversary Conference – these are serious people with solid experience in converting inventions from ideas to international business success – Sam Morgan, Craig Nevill-Manning, Ian Taylor, Rod Drury, Ian McCrae, Sam Knowles, Nat Torkington.

But more than this, ask yourself “What can I do to help turn the tide?”. Our country’s relying on it.