CIO 100: Kordia

KORDIA IS A specialist telecommunications, information security and media business. With headquarters in New Zealand and operations on both sides of the Tasman, Kordia employs nearly 900 highly skilled engineering, network operations, fi eld technician staff and information security specialists, who design and maintain networks and media products and services, and provide contracting and consulting services.

The company is now also providing cybersecurity services and has seen an unprecedented growth in demand for services in this area. In 2015, Kordia acquired Wellington-based Aura Information Security. The merger propels Kordia into becoming one of the largest cybersecurity service providers in New Zealand.

Thus, Kordia CIO Geoff Leigh says cybersecurity is one of the top business technology focus of the teams across New Zealand and Australia.

The acquisition, he says, will equip Kordia to further advance its cybersecurity strategy and its work on the cybersecurity needs of the company’s current and future customers.

Cybersecurity has long been recognised as a global issue, but has also manifested itself right here in New Zealand. “Cybercrime is New Zealand’s third most prevalent crime and costs the country up to $150 million per annum,” says Leigh. He says 54 per cent of SMEs identified cyber risk as the biggest threat to their business over the next 24 months.

In the past year, the ICT team had major works done on transforming to PaaS and SaaS platforms. “These resulted in significant improvement in mobility, flexibility and opex savings,” says Leigh

For 2016, Leigh says the ICT teams across New Zealand and Australia will continue working on the shift towards cloud services, streamlining business processes, consolidating systems and expanding the company’s mobility programme.

He says Kordia is also looking at investing further in business intelligence and analytics, as well as security products in order to enhance core products and services.