By Chris Barton
IBM has shut down a software development group within its Customer Care and Billing unit at Petone to rationalise its New Zealand research facility.
Corporate spokesman Jason Dykes said the closure would result in some redundancies and staff redeployment, but would not comment on reports that up to 150
staff would be affected.
The unit, which employs about 400 of IBM New Zealand's 1000 staff, has discontinued its Customer Care and Order Management software development, also known as the Voyager project.
Mr Dykes said details of the project were commercially sensitive but confirmed it involved web-enabled customer management features - some of which would be incorporated into the unit's mainstay ICMS (Integrated Customer Management System) billing software used by Telecom.
He could not confirm if the Voyager project involved the re-engineering of the ICMS billing system to work on computer platforms other than IBM's proprietary AS/400.
The ICMS software evolved from a joint venture with Telecom in 1988 and has since been sold by IBM to telecommunications and TV cable companies in 30 countries. Former head of unit, Gowan Pickering, said last year plans were underway to move the product to other platforms, including Unix and Windows NT.
"Customer relationship management" software - an adjunct to core billing and customer databases - is designed to help companies retain and provide additional or bundled services to their customers.
Spokesman Glen Sowry said Telecom was reassessing its customer management requirements as part of a review of all of its information systems requirements, but as yet no decision had been made.
