Published on the 31/05/2016 | Written by Newsdesk
Two contradictory reports show how the New Zealand technology marketplace compares to the rest of the world…
Technology is New Zealand’s fastest growing and third largest export. It boasts 19,000-plus companies with a market capitalisation of $7 billion and it punches above its weight on the international scale too.
This year the Deloitte Fast 500 Asia Pacific 2015 index includes a record 54 Kiwi technology companies – three more than last year. When you consider the countries which make up the Asia Pacific region include China and India as well as technology heavy-weights Japan and South Korea, it’s fair to say that “we done good”. In fact, New Zealand out-performed South Korea (50) and Japan (34), and was only one company shy of India (55), on the index this year.
According to Deloitte the software sector in particular saw a substantial increase this year of 35 companies to 181 and yet again leads the industry sectors for the third year in a row. The sector also included the overall 2015 winner, South Korea’s Devsisters Corp.
Auckland-based transcription service TranscribeMe led the way for Kiwi companies with its ranking of 18th thanks to an impressive 1,818% growth. It was followed by workforce management software company GeoOp and cloud-based retail software platform Vend, which came in 41st and 83rd respectively.
Deloitte Private partner Darren Johnson said in a statement: “This year’s record Kiwi representation, with New Zealand companies accounting for over 10 percent of the entire Asia Pacific index for the second straight year, is continued evidence that our technology companies are thriving on the world stage.
“As we saw in the Deloitte Fast 50 unveiled last month, a growing number of Kiwi companies have embraced disruptive technologies; with many in business to help other companies better navigate these technological changes.”
With such glowing reports it was with some surprise that iStart read Gartner’s recently-released Cool Vendors reports in which only one New Zealand company made the grade (Auckland’s StretchSense, featured in the ‘Cool Vendors in Using IoT-Enabled Humans Instead of Robots 2016’ report). This was by no means a one-off occurrence. In 2014 there were no Kiwi companies on the list and we have never had more than one in a year. Companies featured in past years include HunchBuzz (Cool Vendors in Government, 2015) and 9 Spokes (Cool Vendors in Cloud Services Brokerage, 2013).
Asked why so few local companies featured, when evidence would suggest there is a great deal of cool technology happening in our neck of the woods, a Gartner spokesperson explained: “Gartner’s annual Cool Vendors research is not a definitive list of innovative vendors.” Instead, the said, it is a collection of reports each highlighting four or five vendors in a specific area of technology, industry or country that have come to Gartner analysts’ attention in the past six months. It also never repeats a vendor so it can always highlight the new and innovative.
Gartner’s definition of a Cool Vendor is a small company offering a technology or service that is:
- Innovative – Enables users to do things they couldn’t do before.
- Impactful – Has or will have a business impact, not just technology for its own sake.
- Intriguing – Has caught Gartner’s interest during the past six months.
It says that the Cool Vendors reports are intended to help CIOs and other top IT leaders stay ahead of the IT technology curve and consider different vendors when making strategic decisions about technology and services. It’s essentially helping CIOs to look beyond the big global vendors. It also suggests that this year features, fads and disruptions will define the digital landscape.
As for StretchSense, it has created flexible sensors (for measuring pressure, bend, shear and mechanical stress) that can be sewn into fabric or adhered to skin to track physical movement. It is still at a pre-commercialisation stage but its potential impact could be huge, from healthcare, to training sports coaching, entertainment and the textile industry.
