By ADAM GIFFORD
The first fruits of a $13 million Trade New Zealand project to develop online services and e-business initiatives are visible on its revamped website.
The site is broken into four sub-sites, one for New Zealand exporters and the others for foreign audiences with an interest in New Zealand
- buyers, investors and students.
Trade New Zealand marketing general manager Rod MacKenzie says content is gradually being added, with the intention that the site will be constantly updated by Trade New Zealand staff here and in posts overseas.
New Zealand companies which list their capabilities and products on the site will also be able to update their profiles.
The site uses Vignette Story Server software to manage content and control access. Vignette is also on high-traffic sites like Stuff, Nzoom, Xtra and the BNZ.
Mr MacKenzie says that although the site gets only about 1300 unique visitors a day, Trade New Zealand expects the numbers to climb sharply once it starts promoting it overseas.
"It will be the basis for a lot of the services we put on line."
Market intelligence services, which include country profiles and other information of value to exporters, will now be available free through the site.
"We're also changing the emphasis to encourage small and medium enterprises to export."
Mr McKenzie says three people are working full time on the site, and Trade New Zealand will shortly advertise for a content manager.
Trade NZ chief executive Fran Wilde says the investment in new technology is part of a significant change in focus in the organisation.
"We have adapted many of our business processes so that we can deliver up-to-date market intelligence to New Zealand companies and provide them with many of our core services via the website."
The $13.1 million e-business project is being delivered by a consortium led by KPMG Consulting and including TelstraSaturn, Microsoft and Cisco.
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