Intergen's newsletter, Smarts, now available for online reading. Intergen provides information technology solutions across Australia, New Zealand and the world based exclusively on Microsoft’s tools and technologies.

1. This is not only true in everyday life, it’s
true in other situations as well – such as
on the netball court. And that’s why, from
2012, Intergen is sponsoring the Intergen
ANZ Championship Umpires.
Since 2008, the ANZ Championship
has developed as one of the region's
hottest sporting competitions. Featuring
some of the world's best netballers in
a feast of trans-Tasman rivalry, the ANZ
Championship is a true showcase of speed,
skill, athleticism and teamwork. From
March to July, five Australian and five New
Zealand teams battle it out over 14 home
and away rounds, followed by the fiercely
contested Finals Series.
Not only is netball a leading sport on both
sides of the Tasman, but the fast-moving
nature of the game – and the decisions that
need to be made within it – have genuine
parallels with business life and delivering
business technology solutions.
As an organisation, Intergen understands
what is required to perform at the highest
of levels and therefore understands the
effort needed – by everyone involved – to
perform in the ANZ Championships. Our
services and solutions provide organisations
with the tools they need to make decisions
and guide their daily activities – much
like the work of the Intergen ANZ
Championship Umpires who have to make
split-second decisions to keep a netball
game on track.
Wayne Forgesson, Director, Marketing at
Intergen, says the company is proud to
have made this commitment. “We recognise
the effort required by both players and
umpires to achieve the level required to
perform in the ANZ Championships.
“Traditionally, the role of the umpire is much
like an information technology solution
within a business: essential to have, but often
not recognised. We’re hoping to recognise
the effort that goes into making the right
decision, at the right time.”
"Additionally, netball – and the ANZ
Championship specifically – reflect key
aspects of Intergen’s corporate values.
These include believing in what we say and
do, feeling and living our passion, being a
united team, and consistently performing
at the top level. Not only is this a way
of associating ourselves with a quality
sporting competition, this also gives us an
opportunity for our staff to enjoy netball and
its competition aspects,” says Wayne. “We
will be looking to embrace the championship
internally for some good natured inter-office
and inter-regional competition.”
THE INTELLIGENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE | ISSUE 28 | 2012
Success is about making
the right decisions
IN THIS ISSUE...
INTERGEN STAFF PHOTOS 2
INTRODUCTION 3
CASE STUDY 4
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE 5
MICROSOFT’S ROADMAP 6
USER EXPERIENCE 8
RETAIL UPDATE 9
SOFTWARE TESTING 10
SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT 11
CASE STUDY 12
Decisions count. And often they count for a lot. We need to make choices to keep
things moving – and every choice we make can have consequences.

2. 4. Tom Plunket, Graduate Developer brainstormsthe keys to success at Grad Bootcamp 2012.5. Intergen wins 2011 Windows AzurePlatform Solution of the Year at theMicrosoft New Zealand Partner Awards.6. Transitioning our 2012 Graduates intoIntergenites at Bootcamp, MakahikaOutdoor Pursuits in Levin.
1. The Auckland team and clients discover
Japanese Cuisine at Sachies Kitchen.2. Intergen Raptors winning their firstrace at the Wellington DragonboatFestival.
3. Our Dunedin team moves intothe North Dunedin old distillerypremises.
7. Krishant Lodhia, Graduate Consultanttreads carefully at Grad Bootcamp 2012.8. The Intergen team and Australian Schoolof Business celebrate going live on ASB’sSharePoint intranet ‘Connect.

3. 3SMARTS THE INTELLIGENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE ISSUE 28
Welcome to the new-look issue of Smarts.
Our previous design served us well for
27 issues and now, with issue 28, we’ve
embarked on a redesign to help Smarts
look more vibrant and contemporary.
We hope you like it.
As you would have seen on the cover, from
2012 Intergen is sponsoring the Intergen
ANZ Championship Umpires. This is a new
opportunity for us, and we’re excited by the
prospect of sponsoring a leading trans-
Tasman sports tournament.
Netball is a fast-moving sport that features
elite sportspeople at the top of their game.
At the same time, the technology industry
also moves quickly, and we strive to be the
best at what we do. There are some strong
parallels between the decision-making that
happens on the court and the decisions we
– our staff and our customers alike – need
to make on a daily basis. Decisions count,
and that’s a theme we will be focused on
this year and beyond.
Late last year we increased our focus
on business intelligence, with Tim Mole
moving from managing the Southern
Region to a new position leading our
business intelligence service line.
Some things change,
some stay the same
We’ve been creating BI solutions for
several years, but have decided to invest
in growing our capability now in order to
meet increasing market demand, and to
take better advantage of a new wave of
solutions which are being released.
We see a lot of potential in BI, and many of
our customers are looking to extract more
value out of their significant technology
investments.
This year promises to be as busy as ever,
with a number of activities underway.
Microsoft’s release schedule looks packed,
and the evolving market – and the further
embracement of the web and mobile
technologies, in particular – create new
opportunities for all of us to consume and
create information.
We’re several months into the year already,
and I hope it’s started successfully for you
and your organisation.
Tony Stewart
INTERGEN
In brief
»» Chris Auld was front and centre at
the Microsoft Tech Ready conference
presenting building cross-platform
mobile applications using
Microsoft .NET.
»» New Zealand Police smart mobile
application developed by Intergen
makes TV3 News as part of a six-
month trial of a written warning
process put in place by NZ Police.
»» We welcome Graeme MacKenzie as
our new Independent Board member
for Intergen Business Solutions
Pty Ltd.
»» Windows 8 Customer Preview starts
to roll out within Intergen with a
growing number of keen users.
»» The Australian School of Business
intranet, Connect, goes live with
great feedback from users.
»» Intergen builds keynote
demonstrations for two upcoming
Microsoft Corporation conferences
(more detail in the next issue of
Smarts).
»» Microsoft Windows Azure-based
Pixel to Cure Kids fundraiser website
launched by Intergen to help raise
funds for Cure Kids.
Tony Stewart is Chief Executive Officer
of Intergen. Contact Tony at:
tony.stewart@intergen.co.nz
© Copyright 2012 Intergen Limited. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced without the permission of Intergen Limited.
Intergen is a trans-Tasman information
technology services company that solves
challenging business problems using the
latest Microsoft solutions. We provide our
customers with a range of solution and
services, including financial and relationship
management, portals, content and
collaboration solutions, custom software
development, and consulting services.

4. 4
THE PROBLEM
Antarctica New Zealand wanted a better
handle on its financial information.
Budget reports were one month in
arrears and managers at Scott Base only
had access to information in Christchurch
using a slow satellite datalink.
Antarctica New Zealand Information
Services Team Leader, Greg Jack, says
the main driver was getting financial
information on the ice in a compact
format that could be accessed locally.
“We wanted to look at our actual
expenditure versus budget at any time –
to see how much we’d spent for the year
and how much we had left. We need to
plan our budgets a year ahead to ensure
most supplies are on the annual ship.”
Antarctica New Zealand Accountant
Brad Phillips says managers would
request an update on their budget versus
expenditure.
“I had to collate a spreadsheet which
involved the laborious task of cutting
and pasting data from different places.
I used to spend two days collating data
to generate reports for our budget. By
the time I’d finished, it might be half way
through the following month and the
information would be out of date.”
Antarctica New Zealand
improves its productivity
BUSINESSINTELLIGENCE
"We now have
access to
accurate financial
information that
is delivered in an
efficient, user-
friendly manner."
THE SOLUTION
With Intergen on board, the Ice Cube
project commenced. With only months
until the next annual shipment to
Antarctica, it was time to get stuck
in and develop a solution based on
Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services to
ensure budget managers could get their
financial planning underway.
The Ice Cube was implemented in time
for the budget managers’ annual trip on
the ice. Greg says they now have access
to accurate financial information that
is delivered in an efficient, user-friendly
manner. As he says:
“I like the idea of up-to-date
transactions. Before, our reports were
one month in arrears. The pivot table
displays the information easily and,
with Microsoft functions we’re already
familiar with, adoption has been
successful. We can log into the local
server down at Scott Base and can
see our financial information, which
replicates overnight. That’s the beauty
of having the Ice Cube down there.”
Brad says budget managers now have
direct access to the system where they can
view right down to single transactions.
“As a government-owned entity, we are
being directed to create productivity
improvements and this is clearly one
of them.”
He says Antarctica New Zealand is now
considering using Ice Cube to track orders
from request to delivery.
“This is especially important for our team
on the ice – so they can see what’s coming
down, when it’s coming and who it’s for.”
Antarctica New Zealand manages
Scott Base, New Zealand’s Antarctic
research station. The organisation is
responsible for supporting scientific
research, conserving the intrinsic
values of Antarctica and the Southern
Ocean, as well as helping raise
public awareness of the international
significance of the continent.

5. SMARTS THE INTELLIGENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE ISSUE 28 5
ENTERPRISEAPPLICATIONS
Business intelligence solutions allow
organisations to make better decisions
based on hard data as opposed to gut
feeling or intuition. With the increasing
number of systems being used by
organisations, and the desire to make
better use of the data they collect and
generate, analysts believe business
intelligence will be one of the fastest
growing areas of 2012.
Microsoft has long had a business
intelligence (BI) story, and Intergen has
been helping organisations use Microsoft
products and technologies to deliver BI
solutions for our customers. In late 2011,
Intergen announced the formation of a
business intelligence service line, headed
by long-time Intergenite Tim Mole, who
was previously Regional Manager, Southern
Region.
“Organisational systems – from CRM to
finance and ERP – intranet and internet
sites and document management systems
are rich with information and insight that
can be surfaced to create value for our
clients,” says Tim.
“Many organisations don’t realise what
information they have, how easy it is to
get access to it, or how to harness it into
something they can actually use. Intergen’s
strength is that it not only has a BI focus,
but that it is also a broad organisation
in which many of our other service lines
complement and directly add value to our
BI offering.”
Intergen has had a dedicated BI team for
several years but the establishment of the
dedicated service line brings a greater
level of focus, with a view to helping our
customers extract the most value from
their information and solutions investment.
The release of SQL Server 2012, and the
Using business intelligence
to maximise value
BI features it possesses, will create new
ways of analysing and visualising data,
giving organisations a greater ability to
understand their data.
“Our focus is simple,” says Tim. “We want to
deliver optimal value to our clients through
a solid BI foundation that comprises a
strategy and roadmap, data quality and
empowerment through self-service. These,
coupled with our breadth of capabilities
across the wider Intergen, will help our
customers realise significant benefits.”
In addition to developing its own technical
and consulting capability, Intergen
is also developing partnerships with
complementary consulting and technology
providers, including Effectus and
WhereScape.
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 arrives
Most end users won’t realise that
Microsoft SQL Server – Microsoft’s
database platform – underpins all
of its solutions, including Microsoft
Dynamics ERP and CRM solutions,
and Microsoft SharePoint.
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 is the
latest release of SQL Server, and is
considered a major release – there
are a number of new and evolved
features that help to position this
platform as world-class. Given many
business-critical applications rely on
SQL Server, its focus on increased
availability and performance are
fundamental improvements that will
benefit organisations of all sizes. Other
capabilities of interest include the new
SQL Server Data Tools, which provide
a unified development experience for
database and BI projects, and SQL
Server Management Studio which
allows administrators to perform
snapshot backups to Windows Azure.
In addition to these ‘under the hood’
improvements, Microsoft has also added
powerful end user data exploration and
visualisation capabilities in the form
of Power View – a browser-based tool
that allows users to easily access and
manipulate data. It is these capabilities
that will likely expose the power of SQL
Server to a wider audience and will
also likely be exploited by subsequent
releases of Microsoft’s Enterprise and
Office applications.
Tim Mole is Intergen’s Service Line
Lead – Business Intelligence and can be
contacted at tim.mole@intergen.co.nz

6. 6
This year will be a busy year for Microsoft
as it updates many of its major products.
Over the next 12 months, Microsoft will be
updating many of its frontline products,
while continuing to evolve many of its
up-and-comers. While last year featured the
release of Dynamics AX 2012, Dynamics
CRM 2011 and Office 365, this year
promises to be even busier, with releases
of Windows, Windows Server, Windows
Phone, System Center and SQL Server on
the schedule. Just as interesting to watch
will be how the wider industry evolves, with
Google, Apple, Amazon, VMWare, Saleforce.
com and a myriad of other competitors not
standing still. Regardless of who you follow,
2012 promises to be an interesting year.
Microsoft’s release
schedule for 2012
MICROSOFT
WINDOWS 8
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was
unequivocal about the importance of
Windows 8 to Microsoft at the Consumer
Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January:
“There's nothing more important at
Microsoft than Windows”. With a release
anticipated in late 2012, an increasing
amount of information about Windows 8
will be fed to the community over the next
few months. Windows 8 is an important
release for Microsoft: tablet computers
and the growth of Apple and Google as
competitors threaten to weaken the hold
Windows has, not only at home, but in
the corporate world too. The introduction
of the Metro user interface, borrowed
from Windows Phone, will see Windows
8 delivered in tablet computers, while
Microsoft also has to support its existing
user base and the applications they run
– the industry awaits seeing how this
balancing act will be achieved.
OFFICE 15
Microsoft usually times its releases of
Office with the release of its new operating
systems. While comparatively little is known
about Office 15 – which will possibly be
called Office 2013 by the time it’s released
– it’s expected to comprise updates to the
end user applications we’re all familiar with
(Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access et al), and
its server-based applications: Exchange,
Lync and SharePoint. Any release of Office
brings a range of new features, but with
the adoption of the Metro user interface in
Windows 8, it’s also expected there will be
some user interface changes, although how
these will be delivered is yet to be seen.
Given the importance of Office to Microsoft
– it’s one of its main sources of revenue –
Microsoft will be laser-focused on ensuring
there will be enough to excite people into
evaluating Windows 7, while satisfying the
needs of existing users.
Apollo
SQL Server 2012System Center 2012
Tango
WINDOWS PHONE
WINDOWS 8WINDOWS 8 SERVER
Dynamics NAV
OFFICE 15
WINDOWS AZURE
Kinect
Exchange
SharePoint
Lync
Desktop Apps

7. 7SMARTS THE INTELLIGENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE ISSUE 28
MICROSOFT SYSTEM CENTER 2012
Microsoft System Center continues
to grow in scope and importance.
The systems management suite now
comprises several products aimed at
helping organisations manage the
various hardware and software running
in their data centres and on their
desktops. Widely expected to be released
at Microsoft’s Management Summit in
April, this particular suite looks to have a
broad mandate in the operations space,
and marketing appears to be focused
on packaging these different offerings
together as a private cloud solution.
WINDOWS PHONE
Microsoft will continue to beat the
Windows Phone drum in 2012 – the
smartphone operating system that is
widely lauded but has yet to grab any
significant market share. Two releases
are purportedly planned for this calendar
year: the 'Tango' release which appears to
be scheduled for Q2 2012 and is targeted
at lower-cost devices; and the 'Apollo'
release which is scheduled for Q4 and is,
overall, a more substantial release. The
latter will, inevitably, be designed to help
Microsoft catch up – and, ideally, leapfrog
– its major competitors. With Skype and
new versions of Office in the mix, it will
be interesting to see how Microsoft
synchronises its releases, although that
would be a big ask for any organisation.
MICROSOFT DYNAMICS
Following successful releases of Microsoft
Dynamics CRM 2011 and Dynamics
AX 2012, in 2012 Microsoft will turn its
attention to Dynamics NAV. Likely to be
released towards the end of 2012, the
next version of NAV will be available as
a cloud-based service in addition to its
traditional on-premise deployment.
WHAT DO YOU DO?
I’m a Senior Consultant in Dynamics
Solutions based in the Perth office.
It’s my job to understand how our
customers can get the most out of
their investments in Microsoft
Dynamics CRM.
HOW DO YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
I’m helping drive the newly formed
Customer Relationship Management
(CRM) Practice in Perth, acting as a
wing man to our Business Development
Manager, Nik Johnson. Along with the
rest of the Perth team, I’m focused on
client acquisition and developing long-
term revenue growth. We are seeing
a lot of positive CRM opportunities
and hope 2012 will be a great year to
expand the team in Western Australia.
WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT YOUR JOB?
I love that I get to work with Dynamics
CRM; it’s an incredible flexible and fast
moving technology which really keeps
you on your toes. Also, the satisfaction
of seeing the practice in Perth expand
will be very rewarding.
Given Intergen’s history in creating
innovating CRM solutions, I’m
looking forward to tapping into the
expertise and experience of the wider
organisation, and understanding more
about the many customers we have that
use Dynamics CRM.
A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF…
I’m from the UK, married to a wonderful
woman and have two very mischievous
boys, aged four and one. They demand
I play with them every waking moment,
so my skills also include being the
Green Samurai Power Ranger and
binomial nomenclature of all the Aliens
from Ben 10.
Nathan Small
Intergenite
'NAV 7,' as it’s codenamed, will run on
Windows Azure and will be the first of
Microsoft’s ERP solutions to be available as
a cloud service (from Microsoft, at least);
the other Dynamics ERP solutions will
follow NAV to the cloud in due course.
MICROSOFT SQL SERVER 2012
Underpinning many of these solutions is
SQL Server, the latest version of which will
be released in 2012. Comprising a broad
range of back-end, management and
end-user features, SQL Server 2012 could
most likely be remembered for its data
management and visualisation capabilities,
enabling end users – and, over time,
compliant applications, to take advantage
of its business intelligence capabilities and
the insights such capabilities could provide.
SKYPE
After spending US$8 billion on purchasing
the ubiquitous communications firm,
Microsoft will be looking to leverage the
Skype brand and incorporate its technology
into a broader range of products in 2012.
Skype on Windows Phone isn’t far away,
while integration between Microsoft Lync
and Skype will likely be explored in 2012.
Timeframes for all of these are unknown,
but could well be timed to coincide with
the next release of Office.
These products and services are many of
the high profile releases of 2012, but it’s
expected there will be updates to Office
365, Dynamics CRM, Internet Explorer and
Windows Azure, amongst many others.
In addition, Microsoft will also look to
encourage innovation through the wider
availability of its Kinect technologies, which
could open up the door to a new range of
business and consumer applications. 2012
promises to be a busy and exciting year for
users of Microsoft solutions.

8. 8
One of the major buzzwords in 2011 was
the concept of responsive web design
(RWD). RWD involves to designing
a website in a manner where the
layout changes according to the user’s
behaviour and context – based on screen
size, orientation and platform.
RWD eliminates the needs for separate
phases of work to design across the
plethora of devices available now and in
the future.
The RWD trend will continue to gain steam
in 2012, especially as content authors gain
confidence using multiple mobile devices
and what it means to access content
across them. Closely paired to this will
be a growing understanding that mobile
devices are a core web experience, not a
design afterthought to cater for people
“on the go” – an approach which has been
commonplace until recently.
With the evolution of technology, people
can multitask more than ever before. We
can now sit on the couch at home to catch
up on our favourite pre-recorded shows
from the week, order our dinner online
via a tablet device and check emails on
our smartphones – simultaneously. It’s
becoming clear that browsing the web
using a mobile device is here to stay, and
it’s rapidly changing the way we consume
information and media.
MOBILE FIRST
The concept of ‘mobile first responsive
design’ is also gaining momentum. This
flips the standard practice of designing for
the desktop experience first and focuses
on the mobile site in the first instance,
progressively enhancing the experience
for larger screen displays. At its core, the
PORTALS,CONTENT&COLLABORATION
mobile first concept boils down to tried and
true best practice usability standards – in
other words, it forces us to focus on core
content, functionality and cater to our
user goals.
This multi-device web design can appear
somewhat daunting at first. Where do you
start? Do you need a native application or
will utilising RWD techniques suffice?
Do you need to design for mobile first?
Initially, you need to spend the time to
create a mobile web strategy involving
careful planning, time and evaluation.
It's worth bearing in mind that, at the end
of the day, the web remains the entry point,
no matter what device you are using – it’s
simply the best way to get in front of the
largest audience possible. We often hear
customers saying, "We need an app for
that...", but over the long term, mobile
solutions need to be more varied than
a single application, depending on your
business context and user goals.
Don’t be afraid to start small. You don’t
need to know everything about mobile –
take what you know about designing for
the desktop and start thinking about
how this might be translated into the
mobile realm.
FUTURE-FOCUSED
Responsive web design requires redesigning
a site’s core structure and changes the way
we approach designing for the web. You
cannot simply shrink the desktop site down
and expect it to be a success. Designing for
mobile devices is much more than dealing
with a reduction of pixels that are at your
disposal. First and foremost, you need a
progressive mobile strategy taking into
consideration your audience, the content
and context. You will then be able to begin
the task of realistically prioritising your
mobile solutions for your business, and
then work through them one-by-one.
Responsive web design does not provide
a silver bullet for the constantly evolving
mobile environment. We are in a period
of transition and the industry as a whole
is still exploring techniques to improve
the user experience across these multiple
devices. In the next issue of Smarts, we
will share some tricks and tips we have
learnt for creating an optimised mobile
experience.
Mark Delaney is a User Experience
Designer at Intergen. Contact Mark at
mark.delaney@intergen.co.nz
Designing for
multiple devices

9. 9SMARTS THE INTELLIGENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE ISSUE 28
Dynamics AX for Retail 2012 provides
new back-end features, while embracing
evolving consumer needs.
Launched in February, Microsoft Dynamics
AX for Retail 2012 provides end-to-end
transaction support – from promotion, to
point of sale, to financial reporting – and
adds new capabilities to improve the end
user and consumer experience.
This is the third release of AX for Retail
since 2010 and, in this latest release, the
application builds on Dynamics AX 2012’s
strengths in usability and integration, while
adding new capabilities for multichannel
management, managing special orders and
merchandising.
Following the standard platform principles
embraced by Microsoft, Dynamics AX for
Retail extends its predecessor using the
same model-driven unified architecture.
It ensures that transaction data flows
automatically across the solution: from
point of sale (POS), to order management,
to financials, to reporting, to the supply
chain. This approach not only helps to
reduce the amount of up-front planning
time that’s required to implement a
solution, it can also reduce integration
costs and deployment time, while support
costs can also be lowered due to the
reduced overall complexity.
IMPROVING THE USER EXPERIENCE
Historically, the retail sector has featured
high levels of staff turnover, and the need
to train staff is a perennial challenge for
retailers of all sizes. Any solution that helps
bring employees up to speed faster, while
also empowering them to solve customer
problems, should be of interest to retailers.
Role-based views can be set for every
employee or group of employees logging
into the application, giving tailored
access to the parts of the application
that are most appropriate to that person.
By providing retail staff with an intuitive
interface that matches their role, training
costs are reduced and it’s easier to get staff
up and running more quickly, presumably
helping retention at the same time.
DON’T FORGET THE CONSUMER
Most of us are consumers, not retailers.
Multichannel capabilities have been
added to Dynamics AX 2012 for Retail,
with support for mobile devices and social
commerce. Retailers can use the system to
offer promotions or coupons through their
websites or social networks, extending the
reach of their retail presence. We customers
can then use our devices – such as
smartphones and tablets – to find the offer
and present it at the retailer for processing
at the retailer’s POS.
Dynamics AX 2012 for Retail provides a
solid, end-to-end foundation for retailers to
create efficiencies across their organisation,
while embracing newer mobile and social
media technologies. Combining this
platform with other Microsoft technologies,
including the location features of
smartphones, gesture-driven Kinect and
touch-based Surface displays, all bode
well for the future retail experience. And
at the back end, just-in-time updating of
inventory and sales forecasts helps retailers
to anticipate and plan for trends and make
them more likely to be able to sell what
consumers demand.
Extending the retail
experience
WHAT DO YOU DO?
My role is Regional Manager – Southern,
based in Christchurch. I am ultimately
responsible for representing Intergen
among our South Island customers and
for representing our customers within the
Intergen leadership team.
HOW DO YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
I have held a variety of roles enabling me
to work with, or for, various organisations
across a range of industries. I am focused
on using that experience to continue to
build and align the long-term capability of
Intergen to ensure this lines up with the
ever-changing and growing expectations
of our current and prospective customers.
WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT YOUR JOB?
Intergen is made up of some very clever,
yet fun people all focused on delivering
world-class business outcomes for our
customers. We continue to work with
a number of the South Island’s most
influential organisations, helping them to
be more successful. It is really powerful
and rewarding to just be a part of that. I
guess it simply comes down to two things
– the great people at Intergen and our
great customers.
A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF…
I’m a Mainlander having lived and worked
in Invercargill, Dunedin and Christchurch.
I enjoy socialising and doing stuff. In
particular, I enjoy the outdoors – not the
mosquitos – and playing sports but sadly
that makes me a jack of many trades
rather than a master of one. I’m proud of
my two – now grown – boys, and watch
with interest as their lives start to really
unfold as they take over the reins. My wife
I and can slip comfortably into that third
phase of life, now that the nest is empty.
Martin Gale
Intergenite
RETAILINDUSTRY

10. 10
Steve Willsher, Business Development
Manager of testing services provider Qual
IT, reflects on some testing principles and
what you can expect to see with a tester
on your project.
Qual IT has been working with Intergen
for more than a year. Late last year both
companies announced they had entered
into a partnership to make it easier for
clients to embed testing best practices into
their projects, and to incorporate more
effective and timelier feedback as part of a
development or implementation project.
While many companies that develop
software also offer in-house testing,
there can be advantages to using an
independent tester.
Developers and testers often have a
different mindset and set of skills –
developers build things and testers like
trying to find out where they are broken.
That’s why having a specialist testing team
can be so valuable to a customer.
In our experience, we find it’s better to
include testers at the start of any project
– right from the initial project briefing. In
this article, we look at some of the key
principles we believe are important to
ensuring the delivery of a successful project.
KEY PRINCIPLES
A fundamental testing principle is to test
early – it's far less costly to fix errors early
on in the development life cycle. Testing
should start with assessing and validating
any source material – the business case,
project scope, requirements – as early as
possible to ensure what is being described
is testable. Even if you haven’t written any
of those documents yet, invite your tester to
any workshops or discussions that may help
them better understand the project. Testers
have a knack for asking difficult questions
and exposing risks before they come back
to bite you as issues.
When testing, you should always test the
most important things first. The effort
should be prioritised, based on the level of
business criticality and solution risk. Based
on our experience, we know there’s no
one-size-fits-all testing process. We believe in
tailoring the test process and techniques to
suit the context of the project and what our
customer wants to achieve.
Often forgotten or disregarded, it’s also
important to put time into developing the
documentation and producing any reusable
test artefacts. It’s likely that any systems
may be enhanced in the future and will
require further testing – that’s when this
documentation can come into its own.
Reuse helps justify your initial test dollar too.
Communication is critical to any business
situation, and testing is no different.
Clear and timely communication of test
status is important throughout a project.
Information on coverage and test progress
– how much of what we said we’d test have
we actually done and how much is there to
go – needs to be provided.
WEBINNOVATION
Steve Willsher, Business
Development Manager, Qual IT
Key principles for
software testing
In our engagements, we also advise on the
level of quality: how many defects have
we found, how serious are they and how
quickly are they being fixed. Lastly, there
is also value in maintaining traceability –
from defects to test scripts, requirements
and benefits. It also helps with the
communication.
Beyond the process, there are also test
tools and technologies that facilitate
productivity, collaboration, knowledge
retention, traceability and communication.
We find it pays to be open-minded and not
be beholden to any tool vendors – it’s best
to select the right tool for the job.
Applying these principles should result in
better projects, and increases the likelihood
of success – both in the short term and in
the longer term.

11. 11SMARTS THE INTELLIGENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE ISSUE 28
MANAGEDSERVICES
Ed Rouse
WHAT DO YOU DO?
My role is the Solutions Manager in
the Managed Services division and
I’m based in our Wellington office.
I’m responsible for developing,
refining and refreshing the portfolio
of managed services we offer our
customers.
HOW DO YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
I understand the expertise that
my fellow Intergenites possess
and appreciate the pressures that
organisations are under today, and
will be in the future. I combine the
two to create solutions that enable our
clients to gain the most from their IT
investment.
WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT YOUR JOB?
My role is very mixed and enables me
to utilise all of the knowledge and
experience I have gained in the IT
industry – both here and in the UK.
I enjoy learning lots of new things
on a daily basis. I also love being
surrounded by smart people who are
always looking to utilise technology in
smart and creative ways.
A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF…
I’m a typical English guy who enjoys
nothing better than a good chat with
mates over a beer. I’ve been in New
Zealand for a few years and consider
it to be home now (especially after
the English Rugby Team decided to
concentrate on playing off field in last
year’s Rugby World Cup).
Intergenite
Microsoft System Center provides IT
professionals with an array of powerful
products enabling them to manage
their physical and virtual environments
throughout their data centres, client
computers and devices.
The upcoming release of Systems Center
2012 further integrates these products
into one unified solution, while also
providing private cloud provisioning
and management. The solution provides
monitoring, provisioning and configuration,
ITIL-compliant Service Management and
workflows, extendable automation and self-
service portals.
System Center 2012 becomes a complete
toolbox to your hybrid, multi-vendor
infrastructure. It pools resources to deliver
a dynamic and elastic infrastructure and
provides deep insight monitoring tools that
enable you to understand the state of your
applications and services.
Intergen’s Infrastructure Consulting team
are eagerly awaiting the release of System
Center 2012, and are actively involved in
helping their clients adopt it as early as
possible.
“The team has been putting the suite to
the test and participating in a number
of System Center 2012 beta and TAP
(Technology Adoption Program) programs
with our customers and internal systems,”
says Mark Fenwick, Infrastructure
Consulting Manager at Intergen.
“Our objective has been to gain a thorough
understanding of System Center 2012 so
we can help organisations reap the benefits
that the solution offers and enable them to
move towards building and operating their
own private clouds.”
System Center 2012 provides centralised
management of the virtual infrastructure
in the private cloud environment. With
support for Microsoft, Citrix and VMware
virtualisation platforms, System Center
provides a single presentation layer to give
administrators more effective control of the
underlying hardware. Support for multi-
vendor virtual infrastructure means you
can leverage your existing investment and
manage your virtual environments from a
single console, creating a single view of the
cloud infrastructure.
Mark says this gives flexibility and better
use of resources, further reducing overall
server costs. “It reduces risk and changes
the way IT is managed,” he says.
With such deep integration, you can build
very powerful automated processes. These
include self-service forms, which users can
subscribe to. System Center Automation
can then perform tasks such as create
and update change requests, incident and
problem cases, deploy applications and
services, and create user accounts and
mailboxes. The possibilities are endless.
Using workflows and automated process
such as this not only allows IT processes to
be followed, but also gives constant and
reliable results. The upshot: IT can focus
on delivering real value rather than being
caught up in day-to-day manual tasks.
Unified systems
management
Mark Fenwick is an Infrastructure Consultant
in Intergen's Managed Services team.
Contact Mark at
mark.fenwick@intergen.co.nz

12. AUCKLAND CHRISTCHURCH DUNEDIN PERTH SYDNEY WELLINGTON
PORTALS,CONTENT&COLLABORATION
THE PROBLEM
Tracy Carter, project manager at the
school, says they had a range of different
communication channels, which just didn’t
work in it’s favour.
“We needed one platform for everyone.
Everything was spread across a number
of platforms ranging from email, a shared
document directory, to variations on
standard operating environment.
Some academics used letters and face-
to-face contact.
“Research is also a big return on investment
for us. We have over 40 research staff.
There’s a lot of paperwork when applying
for a research grant and finding out how
to do this can be a real hassle. Some
researchers would spend a good two to
three hours trying to find out how to
acquire and submit a grant. Having a
‘how to’ section for tasks like this would
increase productivity and just make life so
much easier.”
The school’s strategic direction was to
have a strong brand identity and presence
across all activities. But staff struggled to
understand and apply its brand due to lack
of easily accessible resources. As Tracy Carter
says: “Introducing an intranet would give
us the chance to clearly showcase brand
guidelines, help grow the brand and ensure
all staff have resources to present a united
front to our students and stakeholders.
“I knew from past experience we needed
a vendor that could successfully deliver an
interactive, user-friendly intranet, or it would
just be a waste of money.”
THE SOLUTION
The school sat down with Intergen; it
didn’t just want an intranet, it wanted
a communication portal that was fully
customised and made for the Australian
School of Business.
“Intergen got it and understood our focus,”
says Tracy. “We needed the right mix of
people and Intergen nailed it.”
The intranet, called Connect, uses Microsoft
SharePoint 2010. This allows users to create
team sites where staff can upload common
resources, policies and procedures. Work is
no longer being duplicated.
Tracy believes the staff are the backbone
of the organisation. “Without them, there’s
no school.
“The leadership team needs to ensure staff
are involved in business decisions. Having
a place to share what’s happening, and
opening the stage to staff to collaborate
and exchange thoughts, is important.”
Tracy says Intergen delivered more than
what was anticipated. “They under-
promised and over-delivered. It’s blown
everyone’s minds. We have showcased it to
five other faculties and shown them what
you can do when you get the right vendor.
“We didn’t even need to continue the
training we had scheduled for the users –
the design was made for our staff and they
navigate around Connect beautifully.
“Productivity has increased, with over
90 processes and procedures under our
‘How to’ page. Staff can directly access
information. Our Dean can now post
regular blogs and get feedback from staff
across the board.”
“It’s really nice to be able to get the
feedback from the staff – it’s opened up the
vision of what the school is all about.”
Now the Australian School of Business
is looking to extend Connect to other
counterparts within the school such as
alumni and students. “There’s a lot of
opportunity there,” says Tracy.
Australian School of Business
intranet improves communication
The Australian School of Business, employing over 1,000 staff, needed to break
down communication barriers as part of its strategic direction.
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