Kordia Board supports trans-Tasman cable

Kordia Chairman David Clarke says that the Board is very pleased with the progress being made on Kordia’s development of a project to deploy a trans-Tasman submarine cable, and confirms that work will continue to ramp up over the next six months or so.

The new cable will reduce New Zealand’s connectivity risk on international routes to Australia and beyond. The introduction of the OptiKor™ cable brings competitive pressures, lowering prices for New Zealand businesses and broadband users. The new cable will mean more direct and improved services, and will de-risk business access to Australia.

“Kordia’s intention is to deliver the economic benefits of fast, competitively-priced international access to all New Zealanders,” says Clarke.

The structural limitations of New Zealand’s international cable market provide a unique market opportunity for OptiKor™. While the in-situ cables have capacity and upgrade potential to meet likely short-term demand, a lack of competitive choice and options for physical diversity have contributed to the growing support for an alternative service provider.

“Our proposed cable will take the most direct, quickest and least expensive route for New Zealand customers. OptiKor™ is a better proposition for New Zealand than any other cable project – we are the most direct route to Australia and through our partners, we can deliver New Zealand traffic all the way to the United States,” Clarke says.

“And of course, Southern Cross has dropped its prices in excess of 75 per cent in the 18 months since we announced our plans.   The Kordia project has already provided a catalyst to encourage competition and lower prices for New Zealand customers.”

Clarke says the key objective is to award a contract in early 2010 for the installation of the cable. “In the meantime, we are working closely alongside foundation customers and other significant partners to deliver a truly customer-centric and economically sustainable project.”

Media release date: 30 September 2009

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For more information, please contact:

Emma Morrison

KORDIA®

Corporate, Communications and Brand Manager

DDI. +64 9 916 6476

M. +64 21 916 647

P. +64 9 916 6446

E. emma.morrison@kordia.co.nz

W. www.kordiasolutions.com

A transformed Kordia delivers strong second half

The Kordia Group has posted a strong second half net profit after tax of $4.7m before restructuring costs, which reversed the first half loss and produced a full year net profit after tax of $1.1m before restructuring costs. Restructuring costs of $2.2m after tax, driven substantially by redundancies in the New Zealand engineering consultancy business, resulted in a full year overall net profit after tax loss of $1.1m on revenues of $254m.

Kordia CEO Geoff Hunt says that this result is particularly pleasing given the difficult economic times, and the recent high levels of capital investment Kordia has made in the telecommunications and related sectors.

“We have been through a very challenging last 18 months which has seen us transform Kordia Group from a sunset, analogue, broadcast-centric business to a technology, media and telecommunications business with new services and products implemented to produce sustainable profit flows into the future.

“Today, our revenue mix has changed dramatically. The service offerings from the New Zealand businesses are strongly weighted towards the telecommunications market, with our rich broadcast heritage remaining one of our key differentiators.

“In Australia, Kordia Solutions is operating an excellent and well-respected business that is achieving over 80 per cent of its revenue from activity in the telecommunications market.

“Kordia Networks in New Zealand is re-energised and focused on developing business in the corporate and ICT sector through a number of new offerings like OnKor™ (carrier Ethernet) and KorKor™ (integrated, two-way, digital radio). Orcon continues to grow at more than 30 per cent per annum, and is likely to turn over in excess of $52m this year,” says Hunt.

Hunt says that Kordia is now focused on improved customer service, and leveraging its recent investments for a more profitable future.  He cites the development of a new fibre-optic cable from Auckland to Sydney as another potential string to Kordia’s bow.

“What is compelling about the OptiKor™ trans-Tasman cable initiative is the fact that Kordia’s project development work has provided a catalyst for real competition in the wholesale international bandwidth market,” he says.

Over the last three years, Kordia has invested a total of $167.2m in the transformation of the business from pure broadcast, to a broader telecommunications, media and technology offering, while continuing to pay the shareholder dividends totalling $26.0m.

Over the next three years, Kordia will focus on driving returns from its network business investments and reducing debt to provide a gearing of approximately 40 per cent, down from the current 52.1 per cent. ROI is forecast to rise steadily over the next three years.

Click here to view the TABLE OF RESULTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2009.

Media release date: 30 September 2009

MORE INFORMATION

For more information, please contact:

Emma Morrison

KORDIA®

Corporate, Communications and Brand Manager

DDI. +64 9 916 6476

M. +64 21 916 647

P. +64 9 916 6446

E. emma.morrison@kordia.co.nz

W. www.kordiasolutions.com

Kordia pushes virtualisation envelope

A four year virtualisation journey is taking network infrastructure company Kordia places many would fear to go.

The company successfully virtualised its Citrix and SQL environments two years ago and is now rolling out trans-Tasman applications, including a new CRM system.

Stephen Beckwith, Kordia’s IS infrastructure manager, says Citrix and SQL are two systems most people advise against virtualising, but he says Kordia has succeeded in doing so.

“You just have to be careful how you do it,” he says.

Beckwith says operating system kernel limitations mean it would normally not be possible to have more than eight or nine users on a virtualised Citrix server. Using virtualisation, he says, you can “stand up”, say, four servers on a box, giving you 32 users or more.

Around the same time, Kordia rolled out SAP to 800 users trans-Tasman and is now deploying Microsoft Dynamics CRM, to go live before the end of the year.

Running SQL over VMware allows Kordia to keep a server running while performing hardware maintenance, he says. Maintenance was one of the major drivers of deploying the technology along with improved speed of deployment.

One key to successful virtualisation is matching it with the right storage environment, Beckwith says. Kordia opted for EMC because it allowed quality of service capabilities, including the ability to allocate I/O resources to particular applications at particular times.

So, for instance, in the evening I/O can be allocated to backup rather than to Exchange, he says.

VMware has also found a home on the desktop, allowing Kordia to run DOS and Win95 microwave dish applications that are pushing 20 years old, Beckwith says. 

Beckwith says in the case of the CRM project, virtualisation is cutting costs, through the use of less hardware and boosting deployment time. Servers can be set up in hours rather than having to be bought, shipped and commissioned.

Kordia Takes Out TUANZ Education Award 2009

Kordia is delighted with its win at the annual, black-tie, TUANZ Innovation Awards 2009, which were hosted at SkyCity in Auckland last night.

Kordia, in a joint submission with the Liggins Institute and the National Research Centre for Growth and Development (NRCGD), outshone two other finalists in a presentation to judges only hours before.

Kordia’s education-based innovation is a solution that “brings schools and scientists together”.

For the first time in New Zealand, conversations between senior biology students and leading international scientists take place through a unique collaboration between the Institute, the NRCGD, the University’s Information Technology Service (ITS) and Kordia.

Jacquie Bay, the Director of the Liggins Education Network for Science (LENScience), says that this programme has succeeded in connecting world class experts with young New Zealanders.

“This is about delivering accessible, user-friendly technology that meets a 21st century educational need.

We know that Kordia will one day help New Zealand achieve the level of broadband connectivity we need to really prosper, but in the meantime, this unique collaboration has solved a problem and is creating opportunities for young New Zealanders,” says Bay.

Kordia CEO, Geoff Hunt, is pleased with the win, and says that this initiative is testament to Kordia’s commitment to bringing people and technology together.

In 2008, Kordia’s satellite technology was used to broadcast three seminars to around 300 Year 13 biology students. In 2009, this was extended to over 100 schools and 1000 participating students, with planning for future learning events underway for students at other levels. 

Media release dated: 4 September 2009

MORE INFORMATION

For more information, please contact:

Emma Morrison

KORDIA®

Communications and Brand Manager

P. +64 9 916 6476

M. +64 21 916 647