Bay of Plenty Business News April/May 2017

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14 BAY OF PLENTY BUSINESS NEWS April/May 2017 Tauranga moves to next stage of Housing Infrastructure Fund Tauranga City Council has submitted its application for the Government’s $1 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund. The Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) is a contestable $1 billion fund to assist high growth councils advance infrastructure projects required to increase housing supply. It is proposed as an interest-free loan to help meet the requirements of the National Policy Statement on Urban Development Capacity for development-ready land. Tauranga City Council has applied for a total of $256.1m to fund four packages of projects that will allow both citywide growth and to open new urban growth areas: • Waiari Water Treatment Plant ($114.6m) - city-wide • Te Maunga Wastewater Treatment Plant upgrade ($55.9m) - city-wide • Infrastructure for Te Tumu urban growth area ($39.8m) - Eastern Corridor • Infrastructure for Tauriko West urban growth area ($45.8m) - Western Corridor The council noted that submitting the HIF application is non-binding and that further assessment of risk, particularly in respect of strategic and financial impact, will be undertaken as part of the 2018-2028 Long Term Plan. The main risk identified at this stage was that because the funding is provided as a loan, the debt associated would sit Remuneration trends for 2017 A brief review Last year, New Zealand maintained a solid momentum within its economy. At the same time, global uncertainty persisted and the demand for skilled labour remained high despite strong migration levels. This combined with regional housing pressure resulted in wage increases in the private sector sitting at or close to the 3 percent mark. This was an increase from what we have seen in recent years with average salary increases in the previous four years closer to 2.5 percent in on council's balance sheet, and would make council exceed its debt limit. Chief financial officer Paul Davidson indicated that this would affect council’s credit rating. “Any impact on council’s credit quality would likely increase the cost of council’s borrowings” says Paul. Participating in the bid will enable council to continue discussions with both central government and other high growth councils on possible alternative financial and funding structures. Businesses must embrace change: KPMG Advances in technology are rapidly changing the way that companies do business, and as such, organisations are finding themselves having to respond faster and be more agile in the way projects are managed. A survey of New Zealand’s private and public sector project management professionals, senior executives and business representatives, released recently, looks into the project management profession and shows there is room for improvement. KPMG’s Project Management Survey 2017 revealed that around twothirds of projects undertaken in New Zealand are failing. The survey showed only 29 percent of projects are delivered on budget, 21 percent of projects are delivering on benefits and 33 per cent meet original goals or business objectives. Gina Barlow, director in the advisory team at KPMG New Zealand says that while the survey results may seem discouraging, they present New Zealand organisations with an opportunity to embrace new ways of working to increase their performance. “The survey shows that current project management methods are struggling to provide efficient project delivery, so there is a need for project management to take a big step closer to business strategy and agile project management this year.” The survey shows that the number and complexity of projects organisations are completing has risen, with 40 percent of organisations completing more than 30 projects a year. “We see that organisations have more projects, less time, and change is constant, so ensuring that change management activities are integrated with project management activities is important to achieve desired results and planned business outcomes. “Interestingly, despite project failure rates 61 percent of organisations feel project success rates have improved over the last two years, showing a disconnect between how well organisations think they are managing their projects, and reality.” The survey also highlighted a skills shortage in the project Commercial use for sea lettuce explored Sea lettuce is one of the less appreciated sights on our beaches in summer, however a new collaborative project between Priority One and the University of Waikato has used it to test ways of encouraging regional innovation. With scholarships provided by Priority One, the Summer Marine Innovation Lab involved university students working on projects that applied science, design thinking and business disciplines to investigate the value or benefit that can potentially be derived from sea lettuce. The project was supervised by Dr Ralf Schlothauer, with support from Professor Chris Battershill, chair in Coastal Science from the University of Waikato. Ralf was keen to find a model that worked for Bay of the private sector and around 2 percent in the public sector. Talking numbers for 2017 With employers still reporting talent shortages in key areas and salary projections sitting at 3.1 percent for the private sector, it will be interesting to see how wages will move in 2017. Strategic Pay have already published some industry surveys this year which are indicating increases in the private sector could be above 3 percent. We will however get a clearer picture how wage movement Plenty and did something a bit different by providing students with a great career experience and enhanced the engagement of businesses in science. “We used the tools of science and design thinking to come up with solutions that turn this thing that is considered a pest into something that is a source of environmental and economic benefit,” says Ralf. Suzy Twaddle, from the University of Waikato, looked at agricultural applications of sea lettuce. She created a worm farm and found that sea lettuce doesn’t kill worms or damage worm juice. She is now working at Comvita and undertaking her Master’s degree. Eva Lichtenberg-Cloo, from University of Auckland, mapped where sea lettuce is has played out over the last 12 months from our flagship New Zealand Remuneration Survey which is due for publication at the end of this month. This comprehensive remuneration survey enables us to understand market movement and remuneration practices. With more than 500 participating organisations, the survey also gives insight into regional pay differences which continue to be a hot topic. Strategic Pay will be running remuneration briefings in Tauranga and Hamilton in May to highlight the key findings from this survey. Our regular clients and survey participants are invited to attend these free events and find them useful additions to their remuneration forecasting and budgeting. This year our Hamilton briefing will be at the Novotel Tainui on May 16 at 4pm and our Tauranga Briefing will be at Trinity Wharf on May 17 at 7:30am. You must register before the event to attend. If you are a new to Strategic Pay and would like to attend one of the briefings please get in touch with your local consultant for more details. growing and where it is best to collect. After she found the main barrier to growing sea lettuce was regulatory as no aquaculture is allowed under the Fisheries Act, she worked with the Ministry of Primary Industries to develop a comprehensive guide to the regulations that apply to this area. Meanwhile Miles Buob, from University of Wisconsin- Madison, investigated the ability of sea lettuce to absorb nutrients and pollution, eg bromide. In Australia, it is used “We are confident that ongoing conversations will ensure we maintain our credit quality.” The process of applying for the HIF has initiated good discussions with both the Government and other high growth councils such as Hamilton and Auckland facing the same debt-related issues. The process has also shown the commitment from all parties – Government, Tauranga City Council, SmartGrowth partners and developers – to work together to bring forward housing supply. Cathy Hendry Senior consultant Strategic Pay Tauranga + mob 027 498 9812 + cathy@strategicpay.co.nz management profession. The survey found the skills project managers were most lacking in included: leading change in the organisation, managing conflict, political smarts, resolving grey issues and communications skills. “A lack of skilled project managers, an ageing workforce (60 percent of Project Management Institute members are more than 40 years old), merging technologies, a lack of training of new talent and existing shortage of skills supply is a concern for organisations and is also contributing to clean water and it seems to work well. He found that the sea lettuce can absorb pollution, turn it into biochar and then be returned into the soil as a nutrient. The students have presented to the community and produced a website which Should Tauranga City Council be successful in this bid, further work would be required to prepare detailed business cases for the Government to review before delivering the funding. This will give the council the opportunity to further assess whether to take up the funding and commit to completing the four projects in the advanced timeframes. This assessment needs to be made within the wider context of the 2018-2028 Long Term Plan and the other projects and priorities for Tauranga City. Nigel Murphy Consultant Strategic Pay Hamilton + mob 027 403 1242 + nigel.murphy@ strategicpay.co.nz www.strategicpay.co.nz the failure results we’ve seen in the survey. “There is a need for organisations to take a strategic approach to talent management, providing for the future by creating suitable career paths and investing in developing talent to ensure project delivery capabilities do not impact the outcomes from strategic initiatives. “It is no longer enough to focus on talent hiring and development for those who only have technical project management skills,” says Gina. gives an overview of all they have found: ttps://regionalinnovationlab.squarespace. com. A number of science and commercial opportunities are now in development arising from the students’ initial work.
BAY OF PLENTY BUSINESS NEWS April/May 2017 15 Scion celebrates 70 years’ of science Crown Research Centre Scion is celebrating its 70th year in operation. The organisation began when in April 1947 the then State Forest Service established a Forest Experiment Station beside the existing nursery at Whakarewarewa Forest. Its decision to centralise forestry research laid the foundation for today’s Scion research institute that supports New Zealand’s third largest export industry. In 2017 Scion employs more than 300 people at offices in Rotorua and Christchurch. Scion’s research areas have evolved dramatically in the past 70 years. In the 1950s research into growth modelling for forests and timber engineering had only just begun, but some of the timber drying, preservation and fibre production that were developed then are still used today. Scion now has science capa- bility stretching across the value chain with work in fields from genetics to the design and use of wood, fibre and other forest resources. This reflects the enormous increase in uses for forests and their products over the last 70 years. Forests and their products are now used as sources of energy for liquid biofuels, feedstock for high performance bioplastic in car components and adhesives in sustainable wood products. Scion chief executive Dr Julian Elder says “In our 70 years, Scion has undertaken research that has brought benefits to forestry in New Zealand and around the world. It was our scientists who helped analyse the brown-rot fungi in Auckland leaky homes in 2004, and it was our science that helped resolve technical issues Some of Scion’s Rotorua staff celebrate this year’s milestone. with the production of wooden beams for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. “Trees are very important to New Zealand, for our economy, our lifestyles and our environment. Going forward their significance will continue to grow. And we will continue to serve New Zealand by optimising forests and protecting them from potential risks and diseases. “This 70th anniversary is an opportunity look back on those achievements but also to look forward as we continue to grow New Zealand through trees.” Celebrations at Scion commenced with an in-house event on April 10 and a commemorative staff photo. Activities and events are planned throughout 2017 to honour Scion’s past and look to the future. To TLA or not to TLA Three Letter Acronym a language of its own Having lived in a number of countries and been involved in a wide cross section of industries, I have seen my fair share of the TLA. The ‘Three Letter Acronym’ sometimes appears to be a language of its own. It appears in every day conversation from travel (AKL, LAX, SYD) to finance (GBP, EUR, AUS, NZD) and of course more commonly text language (LOL, BTW etc.) The IT industry is no different and in many of cases worse. As an outsourced IT department, Stratus Blue Limited translates Geek to Human and vice versa, yet sometimes we need to go simpler and tell the team to ‘paint by numbers’ to get the explanation and solution clear. As it is financial new year for most, and as you are communicating with your IT department/ provider, included are some common acronyms and their brief meanings to assist you in future discussions. ICT: Information and Communications Technologies WWW: world wide web! CBA: Cost Benefit Analysis. More of a business term in general but one that is important for IT decisions. BCP: Business continuity planning. IT is one part of this for your business. What happens in a state of disaster? Or how does the business continue to operate if a failure event occurs. DR: Disaster recovery and plan. Remediation and recovery plans in a state of disaster. Forms part of the BCP. OTS = ‘off the shelf’, referring to product or service that is bought and implemented with no changes. Common when looking at software, applications and business tools. An OTS may do 80 percent of the work you want and have to adjust 20 percent processes to fit it. This goes hand in hand with OOTB (out of the Box) or PNP (plug and play). WAN: Wide area network. Multiple branches or cloud based applications use a WAN to communicate with each other. LAN: Local area network. Your immediate workplace/ workspace network. That is local to you. RDS: Remote Desktop Services, also known as terminal services. Allows support teams to take control of a device remotely. RDP: Remote Desktop Protocol. Provides a user with an interface to connect another computer over a network connection. VPN: Virtual Private Network. Allows you to send/ receive data across public or shared networks as if you are connected to a private network. RAM: Random Access Memory. Computer Storage which stores frequently used programmes (eg. OS) The bigger it is, or more gigabytes (GB) the faster the machine can be. OS: Operating system, like Windows 7 or MacOS Sierra. MSP: Managed Service Provider (Like what Stratus Blue is). Providing managed services for IT support and operational continuity. SLA: Service Level agreement. Agreement which defines response criteria and applicable charges MSA: Managed Service Agreement, Containing SLA and charges for support and services outside the SLA SSD: solid state drive. The common modern replacement of the hard disk drive (HDD). SSDs have no moving parts so are faster, quieter and less to maintain. Combined with a RAM upgrade is an economic way to improve operational performance. NAS: Network attached storage. A cheaper alternative to a data file store than a server. UFB: Ultra fast broadband. If there are others that you don’t know and want to know more, feel free to contact us. TECH TALK > BY TONY SNOW Director Stratus Blue Ltd. Tony@stratusblue.co.nz | Mobile 022 122 8669 T 07 777 0010. PROPERTY VALUATION SERVICES Covering the Bay of Plenty and Coromandel - lakes to sea! Let us take the stress out of your residential and lifestyle property decisions. 0800 463 378 adrienne.m@propertyindepth.co.nz www.propertyindepth.co.nz 40255 WAN WHAT DOES IT STAND FOR? Read Our Full Article To Find Out - or visit: www.stratusblue.nz TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS FROM GROUND TO CLOUD
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Bay of Plenty Business News April/May 2017

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