IT Professionals New Zealand was founded in 1960 as the Computer Society. Photo / Getty Creative
The local tech industry’s oldest organisation, ITP, is going into liquidation after a messy bellyflop – but it could be reborn, with two organisations emerging as contenders to take it under their wing. Meanwhile, KiwiSaaS, which suffered Death by Budget 2024 last year, gets another shot at life.
Members of IT Professionals NZ voted 94 to eight in favour of liquidation at a special meeting held online from 4pm yesterday.
The vote followed a Q&A, and members being shown year-to-date accounts and other previously unpublished financial data confirming the shock revelation earlier this month that the organisation was insolvent, with its books in much worse shape than its leadership team had thought.
That’s in part to newly uncovered debt to the British Computer Society (BCS), which provided certification services under a licence.
IT Professionals NZ (ITP) president Jamie Vaughan says he is now in talks with a liquidator, whom he expects to be formally appointed later today or early next week.
As things stand, ITP members will only be able to keep their Chartered IT Professional (CITP) status once it comes up for annual renewal if they join the BCS, which costs £178 ($406) a year, with a 20% discount for those who sign up before December 9.
Vaughan earlier said it was “gutting” to wind up ITP, which began in 1960 as the NZ Computer Society and has played a key role in industry training and administering professional certification.
But this morning he also had some brighter news for Tech Insider.
Progress had been made on a new set-up that could result in ITP – or at least a reborn version of the body – continuing its work under the wing of another tech industry organisation.
Vaughan told Tech Insider he had talked with NZTech chief executive Grame Muller.
It was also possible an arrangement could be reached with the Australian Computer Society, or another party.
“Ideally it will be local, but ultimately it will be a case of whatever works best for members,” Vaughan said.
Accounts revealed to members showed ITP was up to $48,000 in debt to the BCS.
The UK terminated licensing contract with ITP on September 9 in a move that Vaughan says came as a shock to the board.
“We knew we owed them money, but we didn’t realise how much. We thought we would be extending the MoU [memorandum of understanding]. It was horrific. I don’t blame them.”
A newly formed financial committee and an overdue audit, triggered by the BCS surprise, also saw close to $100,000 of “doubtful debt” reclassified as “unrecoverable bad debt”. A lot of the bad debt involves members who had not paid their dues.
Exact sums are still being determined. A cashflow forecast for September 2025 to March 2026, compiled for the special general meeting, included an “optimistic” note next to membership and partnership fees and an “unclear” take for revenue, expected to be well south of 2024’s $592,567. It predicted ITP would be at least $95,010 in the red by March 31.
ITP chief executive Liz Foxwell-Canning had only been in the role for days at the time of the accounting shocks. Her predecessor, Victoria MacLennan, resigned in August after three-and-a-half years in the role (her LinkedIn bio now reads: “Enjoying sabbatical travelling the world.”
Vaughan could not immediately say how the BCS termination could have caught everyone at ITP on the hop.
“There is going to be an investigation once we’ve handled the insolvency situation,” he said.
There are other issues. ITP did not file accounts with the Companies Office’s Incorporated Societies Register for 2022, 2023 or 2024. Vaughan says there were difficulties securing an auditor.
With its demise this week, ITP has just a quarter of its pre-Covid revenue. Its 2019 accounts recorded revenue of $2.01 million, with a $30,318 surplus.
Vaughan said cutbacks in Government IT spending and staff, plus various support programmes, had been a factor in recent revenue decline.
Tech commentator Peter Griffin – who lost his gig writing for ITP members with its collapse – told Tech Insider there were other factors in play, too.
Younger tech workers were more likely to turn to Discord or LinkedIn for advice, putting membership revenue under pressure.
Another tech body has already been reborn under NZTech’s wing.
Last year, Technology Minister at the time, Judith Collins, defunded KiwiSaaS, an industry group formed to foster and promote local software companies.
Four years of funding, for a total $11m, was terminated a year early on June 30, 2024. KiwiSaaS’s six staff (paid by the Crown) were shown the door.
Cloud or “software-as-a-service” (SaaS) software runs over the internet. New Zealand’s Xero was an SaaS pioneer. The sector has had 15% compound annual growth since 2016 and earned $3.6 billion in revenue in 2023 – most of it from export receipts.
KiwiSaaS boosters said the body was useful vehicle for the Crown to further accelerate the sector’s growth.
The Taxpayers’ Union cheered the decision, however, saying the tech industry should foot the bill.
That solution has come to pass. This week, KiwiSaaS has been relaunched as part of NZTech, with several events and workshops lined up.
The private sector version is leaner.
There is one dedicated staffer, executive director David Clearwater, who is contracted for three days a week.
But it could have more oomph as part of a larger NGO.
“I’ll be supported by our board, our community volunteers, and NZTech Group staff who provide marketing events and IT services,” Clearwater told Tech Insider.
NZTech’s members range from big tech players like AWS to local SaaS start-ups, universities and big users of tech like the major banks.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.