A partnership agreement is being signed tomorrow (27 July) between the Te Mānuka Partnership, which consists of Te Tatau o Te Arawa, Datacom, Toi Ohomai and Rotorua Economic Development to work towards the establishment of a contact centre.
It signals a commitment from all entities to work towards creating a solution around how we can create employment opportunities in the technology sector for people in Rotorua.
The partnership is focused on developing a digital services hub that will start with a call centre/business process outsourcing services which represent jobs that create equitable access for all.
Who is involved in the partnership?
Te Tatau o Te Arawa, Datacom, Toi Ohomai and Rotorua Economic Development.
What does this mean for Rotorua?
Building a new resilient industry in Rotorua, minimising the reliance on primary industries and tourism while supporting a higher wage economy.
Te Mānuka will support Government to address social issues, by being able to access hard to reach whānau and provide education and pastoral support to ensure they can capitalise on the opportunities and grow.
Te Arawa/Te Mānuka will deliver solutions informed by whakāro Māori to foster participation, engagement, and overall wellness for potential employees (By Māori, For Māori and with Māori).
Datacom is able to support growth of the initiatives through pitching for national and off shore work from the private sector.
Should the partnership be successful then activating stage one will see 100 new FTE jobs established in Rotorua with the ability to grow to 300 FTE jobs.
What are the next steps?
A formal working group will be established to continue working towards stage one of the project which involves securing a sufficient number of contracts to make the hub viable.
Te Tatau o Te Arawa will also continue to socialise the opportunity with its constituency.
Background information
Who is Datacom?
Datacom group is an information services company offering management and consulting, cloud services, ITO data services, custom software development and payroll services. It is predominantly New Zealand owned and was founded in Christchurch as Computer Bureau Limited and has grown to become the largest technology services Company in Australasia with global operations in Australia, Malaysia, Philippines, United Kingdom and the United States. Datacom employ over 6,500 people across 23 offices globally with a reported annual revenue in 2018/19 year of $1.3billion.