THE MINISTRY OF Foreign Affairs is responsible for overseeing New Zealand’s relations with foreign countries. It is the government’s principal source of advice in areas such as foreign and trade policy, international climate change negotiations and diplomatic and consular issues.Collaboration and communications technologies are critical for its 1390 staff based in the head office in Wellington and in 59 diplomatic missions in 50 countries around the world.Over the past year, the ICT team, led by CIO Mike Pilkington, has worked on a range of projects including the replacement of the International Development Group’s program and activity management systems, upgrading of the HR systems, upgrading and consolidating web platforms onto the Common Web Platform, as well as a mobility programme.Pilkington is expecting the ICT budget to remain steady this year, but the business ICT project portfolio will temporarily drive up ICT staff numbers. He says the ministry will continue to have major technology investments on application modernisation, security/risk management technologies, infrastructure consolidation, enterprise architecture and video conferencing/telepresence.He says some of the challenges the ICT team will face in upcoming months are agility/speed of deployment of projects, managing complexity of systems and apps, and competing for skilled staff. Related content brandpost Sponsored by Palo Alto Networks x Accenture Making sense of zero trust - why a managed SASE solution is the ideal option for enterprises Security leaders are turning to SASE as their preferred network security solution amid a new era of cloud-powered businesses working from anywhere. By CIO Contributor Nov 28, 2023 4 mins Network Security feature 8 tips for unleashing the power of unstructured data For most organizations, data in the form of text, video, audio, and other formats is plentiful but remains untapped. Here’s how to unlock business value from this overlooked data trove. By Bob Violino Nov 28, 2023 10 mins Data Mining Data Science Data Management opinion What you don’t know about data management could kill your business Organizations without a solid data management strategy are on a collision course with catastrophe. Unfortunately, that’s most businesses, judging by the fundamental disconnect on the importance of strong data foundations. By Thornton May Nov 28, 2023 6 mins Data Architecture Data Governance Master Data Management brandpost Sponsored by Dell Technologies and Intel® Gen AI without the risks Demystifying generative AI: Practical tips for cost-effective deployment in your organization. By Andy Morris, Enterprise AI Strategy Lead at Intel Nov 27, 2023 6 mins Artificial Intelligence Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe