Net possibilities "mind boggling"

Words like magic, mind boggling, cloud and global village flowed freely from a speaker at a Wanganui business get-together last week.

Melanie Morris, from Christchurch, is the owner of both Training and Beyond and Bookkeeping and Beyond. She was invited to Wanganui by the Wanganui Employers' Chamber of Commerce (WECC) as the main speaker to a group of about 150 business people.

She said the possibilities for Wanganui businesses with ultrafast broadband around the corner were mind boggling - and she urged people to try them.

They would be as easy to get used to as internet banking and would save time and money.

"It's magic. You don't really need to understand it," she said.

The programmes she talked about were made by New Zealand companies and offer free trials.

Xero, an accounting software programme, saved businesses 10 to 15 hours a week doing their accounts.

Each business could have several people using it, all with different levels of access. The programme could be dialled up from anywhere at any time, automatically added bank fees and changed figures as currencies changed, and sent invoices to linked companies.

On screen it had a dashboard, like a car, that gave an overview of accounts in one swift glance.

Every change was stored on the internet - "in the cloud" as it's called in the new cyberspeak.

New developments were even making it possible for business owners away from home to photograph their expense receipts and have them automatically added to their list of travel expenses.

Another programme Ms Morris praised was WorkflowMax. She said it was suitable for any business, linked with Xero and automatically updated timesheets, recorded staff work times, pays and holidays, and kept inventories of stock flow.

Again, it was backed up "in the cloud", so that information was available from anywhere.

Other speakers on Tuesday night answered questions, or spoke about their own experience with ultrafast broadband. Tawhero School principal Chris Dibben said he had made 70 to 80 per cent savings on his school's phone bill by using Voice Over the internet Protocol (VOIP).

Core Technology general manager Robbie McIntyre said The Wool Company in Utiku had increased turnover dramatically selling online to a global market.

Wanganui District Council has joined with WECC to inform Wanganui people about the advantages of ultrafast broadband. There are 10 groups in its Digital Leaders' Forum.

Mayor Annette Main said the cost of provision to users was still unknown. Providers were registering an interest in supplying it, but had not yet stated their prices.

She and Parapara resident David Matthews were lobbying hard to get equal access for rural people. "It's a rural economy in Wanganui. We can't make full use of it in the urban area if it's not also in rural."