Technology in Christchurch
Christchurch has a reputation for being a world-class hub for technology innovation.
The City’s vibrant and innovative technology sector is New Zealand’s third largest region for technology
businesses. Nationally, the technology sector is the country’s third biggest exporter after dairy and tourism.
The sector is known for developing innovative products and services to meet niche markets, and for being
flexible, resilient and entrepreneurial. It creates a broad range of technology solutions and services for multiple
local and offshore markets – from Australia to Afghanistan.
Technology also enables many other business sectors – from supermarkets and clothing, to health and farm
services. Collectively, the sector supplies a broad range of national and international markets that includes:

Health / Medical

Gaming

Mining

Music

Agricultural Technology / Primary Industry

Human Resources

Energy Management

Retail

Infrastructure

Security

Communications

Transport

Aerospace

Marketing

Hospitality
Meet the players
Some of Australasia’s most inventive and successful software, hardware, electronic, telecommunication and
service companies call Christchurch home. These include:
Local iconic firms and now global leaders

Jade Software

Tait Communications

Dynamic Controls
Blue-chip multinationals

Sungard

Trimble

TE Connectivity

Eaton

Vodafone

Hewlett Packard
Listed companies

SLI Systems

Wynyard Group

Diligent
Supporting these larger organisations is a multitude of smaller, niche businesses that foster an industry culture
of entrepreneurship and innovation. Great examples include Yike Bike and Martin Jetpack – two pioneering
products, both of which were developed in Christchurch.
Fostering innovation and collaboration
Christchurch has a well-connected and active technology community. There are regular meet-ups, supportive
industry organisations and a dedicated home base for high-tech entrepreneurs in the heart of the city.
Click here to find out more.
Looking for a vacancy?
Christchurch technology companies are hiring now. Click here for a list of relevant job sites and recruitment
companies.
Electronics & Electrical
Christchurch’s electronics and electrical equipment manufacturers collectively contribute about 30% of New
Zealand’s total electronics output.
Meet some of the electronics players
Dominating the local sector is Tait Communications, New Zealand’s fourth largest manufacturing company and
employs over 800 people worldwide. It produces mission critical radio communications systems and networks,
and exports about 95% of its products from its Christchurch manufacturing base.
Other export-orientated companies include:

Enatel and its subsidiary Enasolar design and manufacture standby power solutions used in the global
telecommunications, networking, wireless and industrial industries, as well as grid-tied solar inverters and
motive power chargers.

AuCom manufactures industrial soft starters for the pumping, mining, forestry, marine, waste
processing and power generation sectors in Europe and Asia.

Eaton

Dynamic Controls

Trimble Navigation
Also servicing global niche markets from Christchurch are:

DesignA Electronics, which produces custom hardware solutions for clients in the aerospace, defence,
telecommunications and medical industries.

Salcom Technologies, which manufactures and distributes radio paging transmitters, receivers and
transceivers.
Supporting industry research
While companies such as Tait, AuCom and Enatel have based their manufacturing operations in Christchurch,
multinationals such as Trimble, Dynamic Controls and Eaton have research and development facilities in
Christchurch.
In this, they are supported by a healthy research hub based around the University of Canterbury and NZi3, the
national information and communication technology innovation institute based at the university.
Meet some of the electrical equipment players
Global multinationals with substantial manufacturing presences in Christchurch include:

TE Connectivity produces harnessing, cable, and wiring products and accessories.

General Cable is a Fortune 500 company with Christchurch as its Oceania headquarters, also
produces harnessing, cable, and wiring products and accessories.

Schneider Electric is a global leader in energy management, produces electrical equipment and
accessories for the domestic and industrial markets from its Christchurch operations.
The sector is supported by an elaborate local supply chain of component and contract manufacturers, which
includes sheet-metal fabricators and plastics companies, as well as:
Dedicated contract manufacturers

GPC

Assembly Specialists
World-class electronic design and consultancy services

Aiotec

ELMG

Brush Technology
Fostering innovation and collaboration
Christchurch has a well-connected and active technology community. There are regular meet-ups, supportive
industry organisations and a dedicated home base for high-tech entrepreneurs in the heart of the city.
Click here to find out more.
Looking for a vacancy?
Christchurch technology companies are hiring now. Click here for a list of relevant job sites and recruitment
companies.
Roles in the electronic sector in Christchurch generally reflect the specialist activity of the different companies.
They range from assembler, technician and test analyst to more specialist engineering roles involved in
embedded software, systems, control, signal processing, hardware and power management.
Gaming
Games studios in New Zealand are renowned for creating original intellectual property (IP) with creative flair.
They are growing at a phenomenal rate – 86% in the year to March 2013.
Meet the players
Christchurch has a growing number of gaming studios, most of which are based at EPIC – Christchurch’s
centre for innovation-based companies. These include:

CerebralFix

Stickmen Studios

Digital Confectioners

Desolate Spectre

Savant

123 Gaming
Supporting the gaming industry
The NZ Game Developers Association supports and develops the video games development industry by
building capacity and capability, attracting investment and promoting the sector.
The Canterbury Software Cluster – a non-profit organisation that aims to help the local software sector succeed
at home and worldwide – also supports New Zealand’s rising gaming industry.
Fostering innovation and collaboration
Christchurch has a well-connected and active technology community. There are regular meet-ups, supportive
industry organisations and a dedicated home base for high-tech entrepreneurs in the heart of the city.
Click here to find out more.
Looking for a vacancy?
Christchurch technology companies are hiring now. Click here for a list of relevant job sites and recruitment
companies.
Roles in this sector include: software developer, software engineer, tester, quality assurance (QA) engineer,
business analyst, account manager, business development, marketing, scrum master, project manager,
technical writer, product manager, team leader.
Health / Medical
Health technology is highly developed in New Zealand and medical devices and software are designed,
manufactured and marketed to the world, from Christchurch.
Meet the players
Leading global companies

Dynamic Controls, which designs and develops mobility controls for scooters and wheelchairs

McKesson, whose software helps hospitals manage operational performance in patient demand and
capacity planning

Orion Health, a leading provider of integrated health information and solutions
Local software companies selling solutions globally

Wellnomics, world leaders in the development of ergonomic software solutions

Comrad, specialising in radiology information systems

ARANZ Medical, using computer-generated images for wound imaging, measurement and
documentation system
Health manufacturing companies

Chiptech

Enztec

EPL

Izon
Supporting health technology
There are a number of agencies supporting health technology in New Zealand:

The IT Health Board provides leadership on the implementation and use of information systems across
the health and disability sector.

The New Zealand Health Innovation Hub nurtures and grows the country’s health technology industry,
and supports the widespread adoption of leading innovations developed in New Zealand.

The Health IT Cluster is an industry grouping of New Zealand- based health software vendors,
consultants and healthcare providers.
Fostering innovation and collaboration
Christchurch has a well-connected and active technology community. There are regular meet-ups, supportive
industry organisations and a dedicated home base for high-tech entrepreneurs in the heart of the city.
Click here to find out more.
Looking for a vacancy?
Christchurch technology companies are hiring now. Click here for a list of relevant job sites and recruitment
companies.
Roles in this sector include: software developer, software engineer, tester, quality assurance (QA) engineer,
business analyst, account manager, business development, marketing, scrum master, project manager,
technical writer, product manager, helpdesk operator, solutions architect, team leader, database administrator,
design engineer, test analyst, assembler, machine operator, test engineer, technical support.
Primary Industry / Agri-tech
With its temperate climate, high rainfall and fertile land, Canterbury is the food basket of New Zealand. It
provides a rich palette of produce from the famous chardonnays and sauvignon blancs of the north to
aquaculture and seafood, grains, dairy products and vegetables.
Not surprisingly, food and beverage is the largest manufacturing sub-sector in Christchurch by both number of
companies and number of employees, and the industry as a whole has been growing at an annual
compounded growth rate of 8.3% over the last 16 years.
Companies range from small artisan producers of fine foods supplying local and domestic markets to large
processing factories, some of which are major players on the global stage.
Almost 80% of food produced in New Zealand is exported. Dominating the export sector is dairy – New
Zealand controls over a third of the global export dairy trade and is a leading producer of high-value ingredients
such as powdered milk products, casein, whey, UHT milk, lactose and colostrum.
Canterbury companies have a reputation for innovation and improvement. Canterbury is also home to New
Zealand’s premier agricultural university, Lincoln University, which actively supports the development of new
technology for the agricultural sector.
Technology – the way forward
New Zealand’s primary sector is shifting away from its traditional base of producing commodities to investing in
higher value processed and packaged foods.
Technology is a vital component of this sector, with a focus on tools that can provide information for intelligent
decision-making to increase productivity, reduce waste and optimise results.
In today’s market, utilising these technologies is becoming standard practice. For example using technology to
help predict crop yield and date of maturation, improve water usage, effluent output and manage frost
mitigation.
Precision technologies are also offering opportunities for New Zealand in economically and environmentally
sustainable agriculture.
Meet the players
Technology companies

Crop Logic

Datacol

Indigo
Agricultural businesses using technology to differentiate themselves

PGG Wrightson

Ravensdown
Research and development organisations using technology for research, intellectual
property development and extension work

AgResearch

The Foundation for Arable Research

Landcare Research

Lincoln Agritech

Plant & Food Research
Fostering innovation and collaboration
Christchurch has a well-connected and active technology community. There are regular meet-ups, supportive
industry organisations and a dedicated home base for high-tech entrepreneurs in the heart of the city.
Click here to find out more.
Looking for a vacancy?
Christchurch technology companies are hiring now. Click here for a list of relevant job sites and recruitment
companies.
Roles in this sector include: software developer, software engineer, testers, quality assurance (QA) engineer,
business analyst (BA), account manager, business development, marketing, scrum master, project manager,
technical writer, product manager, helpdesk operator, solutions architect, team leader, database administrator,
design engineer, test analyst, assembler, machine operator, test engineer, technical support.
Services
Christchurch has a wide range of organisations specifically focused on supporting and providing services to the
wider technology sector, as well as a number who use technology to support the wider business community.

Assurity provides training and consultation in quality improvement, speed to market (business agility),
productivity and staff engagement, as well as outsourced software testing.

Communicate IT provides public relations and event management services.

Concentrate provides strategic planning and consultancy services, as well as content creation and
delivery.

Memia works with software firms and information technology (IT) organisations on strategic planning
and scaling.

Effectus provides consulting services to help clients get value from business processes and manage IT
changes in their business.
Other specialist companies using technology to support businesses include:

Aoitec and Brush Technology, which provide outsourcing of product design, development and
consultancy services.

GPC and Assembly Specialists, which provide contract manufacturing.

Halt & Hass and Specialist Rentals, which provide specialised manufacturing and technical equipment
for hire.
There is also a number of specialist IT recruitment firms based in Christchurch, including:

Absolute IT

Sapien

Sourced
Fostering innovation and collaboration
Christchurch has a well-connected and active technology community. There are regular meet-ups, supportive
industry organisations and a dedicated home base for high-tech entrepreneurs in the heart of the city.
Click here to find out more.
Looking for a vacancy?
Christchurch technology companies are hiring now. Click here for a list of relevant job sites and recruitment
companies.
Roles in this sector include: software developers, software engineers, testers, QA engineer, business analyst
(BA), account manager, business development, marketing, scrum master, project manager, technical writer,
product manager, help desk operator, solutions architect, team leader, database administrator.
Software
Christchurch has a large, vibrant, well-connected software sector that employs thousands of staff, across more
than one hundred organisations.
Locally developed software has a reputation for being innovative, flexible, resilient and entrepreneurial. Often
operating in highly niche segments, companies based in the city support markets around the globe.
Meet the players
Global leader, Jade Software has retained its research and development office in Christchurch where its
software was originally created. It now serves more than 2,000 enterprise clients in 90 countries around the
world.
Other blue-chip software multinationals that call Christchurch home include:

Sungard Financial Systems, which provides mission-critical software and information technology (IT)
services to the financial services industry.

Hewlett-Packard, one of the biggest IT companies in the world and one of Christchurch’s largest
employers of technology consultants and developers.

SLI Systems, a listed company and global leader in online search, with clients in Japan, the UK, USA
and Brazil.

Wynyard Group, a listed company that designs and develops powerful intelligence-led software for use
in risk management, intelligence and investigations.
Local software houses, application development and website companies create customised solutions for clients
in New Zealand and around the world, as well as producing their own products and services. These include:

Adscale

Appsecute

Canterbury Business Solutions

The Conversion Foundry

Digital Fusion

E2 Digital

hairyLemon

Intranel

Mogeo

NV Interactive

Polar Bear Farm

Smudge

Treshna

Trineo
Organisations in other sectors, such as Airways, Foodstuffs and Ravensdown, often use their own in-house
teams to provide software solutions. These teams could be working on anything from inventory control and
business decision-making to e-commerce and air navigation.
Supporting the software industry
The Canterbury Software Cluster is a non-profit organisation that aims to help the Canterbury software sector
succeed at home and worldwide. It runs monthly networking and speaker events, with technical and business
discussions. Each October it also hosts the annual, highly respected Software Summit.
There is also a number of software-focused Meetup groups – including .Net, Ruby on Rails, Test Professionals,
Agile, SQL, Java, open data and open hack.
Fostering innovation and collaboration
Christchurch has a well-connected and active technology community. There are regular meet-ups, supportive
industry organisations and a dedicated home base for high-tech entrepreneurs in the heart of the city.
Click here to find out more.
Looking for a vacancy?
Christchurch technology companies are hiring now. Click here for a list of relevant job sites and recruitment
companies.
Roles in this sector include: software developer, software engineer, tester, quality assurance (QA) engineer,
business analyst, account manager, business development, marketing, scrum master, project manager,
technical writer, product manager, helpdesk operator, solutions architect, team leader, database administrator.
Telecommunications
The current rollout of ultra-fast broadband in Christchurch is driving significant telecommunications activity in
the city. Adding to this is the large number of new subdivision and infrastructure projects as the city rebuilds
and grows post-earthquakes.
Telecommunications is already one of the largest technology sub-sectors in Christchurch, employing 16% of
the total local workforce and generating 48% of the region’s gross domestic product (GDP).
It covers the full range of telecommunications functions – from installation and maintenance of phone and
broadband, to internet and phone retailers, systems integrators, call centres, infrastructure providers and data
centres.
As cloud-computing continues to grow, Christchurch has an increasing number of data centres, serving clients
around the country and offshore.
There is also a number of telecommunication contact centres in Christchurch that provide entry into the
technology sector for other businesses, such as system integrators. The technical skill requirement for roles in
this area are typically high, in order to provide 24/7 first-line support.
Meet the players
The following telecommunication companies all have offices in Christchurch:
Network companies

Chorus

FX Networks

Kordia

Downer

Enable
Internet service providers

Telecom

Vodafone

2degrees

Gen-i

Snap
National data centres and IT service providers

Datacom

CCL
Systems integrators

Industrial Controls

CSE-W. Arthur Fisher Limited

Professional Electronics Limited
Fostering innovation and collaboration
Christchurch has a well-connected and active technology community. There are regular meet-ups, supportive
industry organisations and a dedicated home base for high-tech entrepreneurs in the heart of the city.
Click here to find out more.
Looking for a vacancy?
Christchurch technology companies are hiring now. Click here for a list of relevant job sites and recruitment
companies.
Roles in this sector include: cable installer, cable technician, telecommunications network engineer, account
manager, business development, customer service, project manager, technical assistant, design engineer,
network manager, field engineer.
Connectivity of the Christchurch
Technology Sector
What’s On?
The Christchurch technology scene is well connected and vibrant. Below are links you might find useful in
seeing what’s going on around the City on a regular basis in the tech sector.
Canterbury Software Cluster
A non-profit organisation aimed at helping the Canterbury software sector succeed at home and worldwide.
This is an active group with monthly networking and speaker events covering both technical and business
topics.
Each year they also run the successful Software Summit.
Meetup User Groups
The Software Cluster has a list of user groups on their website or you can look up a broader range of events
at http://christchurch.events.geek.nz/.
iBuzz Purely Social
Purely social drinks for those in the technology sector – and anyone else who wants to join in. Monthly drinks at
different venues around the city. To find out the latest venues check out Facebook orLinkedIn iBuzz Purely
Social groups.
EPIC Innovation
EPIC (Enterprise Precinct and Innovation Campus) is a community of hi-tech entrepreneurs running their
businesses under one roof. The campus was born after the earthquake when people shared office spaces and
realised working together and sharing ideas was highly effective in growing business. The building itself is in
the heart of the new Innovation Precinct and attracts speakers and events from all over New Zealand and
globally. For more information go to http://www.epicinnovation.co.nz/.
Export New Zealand
Export New Zealand run a number of events each year in Christchurch, many focused on the technology
sector.
Institute of IT Professionals (IITP)
The IITP aims to be the voice of the IT profession in New Zealand and hold regular events in Christchurch.
Finding Work in the Tech Sector
If you have the right technical and personal skills Christchurch would love to welcome you. Many technology
skills are in high demand so check out the Immigration New Zealand Skilled Shortages List.
Many businesses are growing at fantastic rates and whether you want to work in a large or small organisation
there is likely to be a role for you. Most vacancies in the technology sector will be posted on one or all of the
following job sites:

Seek

Trade Me Jobs

My Job Space
You can also keep an eye on these sites which are specifically aimed at people who don’t live in New Zealand
right now:

Workhere
Highlighting the fact there is a huge range of opportunities in Christchurch, there are a number of recruiting
companies who specialise in the technology sector.
These companies only recruit technology roles:
Sapien
Sapien specialises in placing IT professionals – business analysts, product developers, software/web
developers, testers, technical writers, database administrators, system administrators and project managers.
Sourced
Sourced are IT and technology recruitment specialists and are heavily focused on supporting our local industry.
Absolute IT
Sunstone Talent
Sunstone Talent recruits across the whole IT vertical, whether it be graduates, support (applications or
infrastructure/networks), web/software developers, testers, BA’s, PM’s through to senior management –
CIO/CTO’s.
Farrow Jamieson
Farrow Jamieson recruit at all levels of the information technology and telecommunication industry, from senior
leadership roles, through consulting assignments to any level within an organisation and have a strong track
record in finding alternative sourcing strategies for hard to fill roles and within candidate dry markets.
Kelly IT Resources
Kelly delivers talent solutions that are driven by the new IT: where CIOs are reimagining the IT workforce to
amplify its contribution through integrated technologies, processes, and information management.