NetHui shows the potential of the Internet for NZ businesses

NetHui shows the potential of the Internet for New Zealand businesses

Kiwi businesses could add $34 billion to the economy simply by making better use of the internet, according to research presented by the Innovation Partnership at NetHui today.

The research, The Value of Internet Services to New Zealand Businesses, was funded by Innovation Partnership members Internet New Zealand and Google, and conducted by Sapere Research Group.

It shows that businesses that extensively use Internet services are six per cent more productive than average businesses in their industry. Compared to low-users, heavy Internet users are a massive 73 per cent more productive.

Getting all New Zealand businesses to make the most of the Internet could add $34 billion to the economy through increased productivity and efficiency.

Murray Sherwin, Chair of the Innovation Partnership, said the Internet could have been purpose-built for New Zealand, yet many businesses aren’t using it to its full potential.
“We talked to businesses across New Zealand, from the tourism and retail sectors, to dairy farmers and professional services businesses,” Mr Sherwin said.

“While we found that the Internet is having a positive impact on productivity, too many businesses aren’t using the tools available to unlock the Internet’s potential.

“Businesses need to adopt easy-to-access and cost-effective tools such as cloud-based business systems and transformative online supply chain management. Doing so can drastically increase their productivity and, ultimately, improve their bottom lines.

“We know that the real difference for business lies not just in being connected, but in how effectively they use the Internet to rethink and reorganise the way they do things.”

“Businesses like the Martinborough Top 10 Holiday Park demonstrate just how much of an impact using the Internet effectively can have on a typical Kiwi business.

“Kiwi businesses like these are using the Internet to find new customers, improve their business data-gathering and market-targeting, and facilitate customer interaction with real-time online services.”

Digital Journey
To help businesses make the most of the Internet, the Innovation Partnership has launched digitaljourney.co.nz a tool to help businesses make the most of online services and tools.

Digital Journey has been developed by the Digital Office, a New Zealand not-for-profit organisation focused on increasing use of digital services, with funding from Internet New Zealand and Google.

Digital Journey assesses a business’ unique situation and provides a digital action plan with clear steps to harness the potential of the Internet. Once their assessment is complete, they can check back in to update their progress and look for the next actions in their plan.

The Digital Journey tool is free to use at digitaljourney.co.nz

ENDS

About the Innovation Partnership
The Innovation Partnership is a group of organisations dedicated to New Zealand becoming a world leader in using the Internet to drive business growth, public sector excellence and educational achievement.

Notes on the research
Comparisons are between the productivity of firms that make high use of Internet services and the average productivity of firms within the same industry.

Estimates of the impacts of Internet services on productivity are derived from Statistics New Zealand data from the Business Operations Survey.

The survey covers private sector firms that are “economically significant”, which means they have six or more employees and GST turnover higher than $30k, and they have been operating for more than a year.

The Value of Internet Services to New Zealand Business research can be found at innovationpartnership.co.nz

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