This document is the first issue of Intergen's company newsletter called "SMARTS". It provides an overview of Intergen as a company that offers a full range of Microsoft services and solutions. It highlights Intergen being awarded Microsoft Gold Partner status and recapping their recent launch party event. It also includes articles on various projects, technologies and staff profiles. The goal of the newsletter is to provide informative and entertaining content that demonstrates Intergen's approach of intelligent business solutions.

1. < Copyright 2001 Intergen Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission of Intergen Limited >
>> T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E
INTERGEN NEWS >>
PROJECT CASE STUDY >>
GOLD PARTNER >>
RECENT EVENTS >>
THE “EX” FILES >>
BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY >>
PARTNER NEWS >>
INSIDE STORY >>
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5
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Welcome.
As I sit here writing the introduction to this
newsletter, I find myself feeling a bit nostalgic. I
looked up the first ever newsletter we did as Glazier
Systems back in 1996. At that time we proudly
announced that we had grown to 18 staff, talked
about our staff gaining Microsoft qualifications
and an emerging technology call “Intranets”.
A lot has changed in the past five years but then a lot of things have remained
the same. We are still in the same offices we were five years ago, although the
fit out is much improved, we have grown to 40 staff, we have recently had our
Microsoft capabilities recognised by being admitted to the elite Microsoft Gold
Certified Partner Program and we are buzzing about SharePoint Portal Server
as a great new Intranet and Document Management solution.
What is new is our brand. We are very positive about our future after re-gaining
our independence from the Advantage Group. We had a great launch party early
in September, and I would like to thank all those who were able to attend. Your
enthusiasm for our new company was a great boost and we were all on a high
for weeks after.
As a new company we have spent some time thinking about where we are,
where we want to be and how we are going to get there. As part of our planning
we looked back at some work we did back when we had first started Glazier.
We were quite surprised to find how appropriate those early plans were, even
today. They needed updating because they made some references to specific
technologies, but the concepts are still valid. We identified four key values,
things that are so important that they have survived all the changes that have
happened and that will happen in the future.
Professionalism - We always act in a professional way. We always treat our
clients, partners and other team members with honesty and integrity. We strive
to understand the business needs of our clients and offer the best solutions for
their needs.
Innovation - We embrace innovation. We constantly review new technologies
and experiment with new techniques that enhance the solutions we can offer
to our clients.
People - We have fun and genuinely enjoy work. We work as a team without egos
and recognise the value of the diversity of the team members. We strive to learn,
to always do better and to help others in the team to realise their potential.
Value-driven - We always strive to add real value to our clients. We work hard to
improve our own processes to ensure they are appropriate, effective and add value.
We hope that you will enjoy this issue of our newsletter under its new banner
“SMARTS”. Our aim is to provide a cross section of articles that are informative
and entertaining and demonstrate the essence of Intergen, Intelligent Business.
tony.stewart@intergen.co.nz
I S S U E O N E
>> HOT NEWS:
Intergen awarded Microsoft Gold
Partner Status >> Page 4
>> NEW
TELEPHONE
NUMBERS:
Landline:
04 472 2021
Facsimile:
04 472 2027

2. >>2
< S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E O N E >
>> I N T E R G E N N E W S
Karen Young
What do you do?
Senior Developer
How do you make a difference?
Quality is really important to me, and
delivering something that will meet
the customer's needs. Along with
the people in my project teams here,
I've helped to deliver high quality
systems that do that.
What are you known for (famous
or infamously)?
Having an “annoying Australian
accent”.
What do you love about your job?
It's great helping to build a solution,
seeing it go from a concept, and then
working with a team to create
something that will be of use to
people and help them in their jobs.
Brief about yourself?
I'm from Wellington originally,
although I spent some time working
in Melbourne before I came here.
Although Wellington is a wonderful
place and has everything on a smaller
scale, I still miss the great food,
shopping, and all the events on over
there - I'll definitely have to go back
for a holiday sometime.
Who is Intergen?
>> INTERGENITE:
DEVELOPMENT
& INTEGRATION
PROFESSIONAL
SERVICES
QUALITY
ASSURANCE
CREATIVE
STUDIO
TECHNICAL
SERVICES
The Technical Services team is experienced in configuring and deploying
the full suite of Microsoft server applications. They run our
internal infrastructure, as well as our hosting and ASP
environments and use the skills and experience gained there
to provide clients with up to date advice and assistance
via consulting engagements. They provide SQL Server
DBA and OLAP services to many organisations.
The Quality Assurance team ensure that all of the projects
we deliver achieve the required quality, and they contribute
at all stages of the project life-cycle.
All this capability is harnessed and delivered via our
Professional Services team who provide Project Management,
Business Analysis and Consulting in front of, along side and
around all of our projects.
wayne.forgesson@intergen.co.nz
Intergen is your one stop shop for anything you
want to do in the Microsoft environment. We are
a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for E-Commerce
Solutions but our services cover a wide range of
Microsoft technology sets and beyond!
We excel at delivering successful business solutions - both bespoke and package.
Over the years (as Glazier Systems, Advantage Group and now Intergen) we
have delivered over 400 solutions to more than 170 clients. Amongst other
things, we have a long history in delivering Intranets and Document
Management Systems, and are now supporting the current interest in
Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server. Intranets we have delivered
support more than 15,000 users for 19 clients.
As you can see in the pentagram, there are five 'parts' to the
Intergen service offer.
Our Creative Studio has expertise in online branding, site
design and Web Site usability. We are currently working to
deliver the latest generation of highly functional and easily
maintainable Web Sites with products like Microsoft Content
Management Server.
The Development and Integration team build and deploy the
solutions and are gurus in all the core Microsoft technologies -
ASP, Visual Basic, COM, Access, MTS, SQL, etc. Their days are spent
immersed in the Internet world - building Internet, intranet or extranet
applications. They are currently working with the new .NET framework
and will have live applications very soon.
>> The public face of Intergen. From left: Shane Hassan, Wayne Forgesson,
Andrew Jamieson, Richard Petrie and Gina Harper.

3. The Challenge:
In a year, the Community Organisation Grants Scheme (COGS) administered by
the Community Development Group, Department of Internal Affairs, distributes
$10 million to community groups. The time spent in processing and prioritising
paper applications in the order of 3-4,000 a year, was a duplicated effort across
17 regional offices, compounded by many different databases. But the far
greater cost in the bigger picture was that it was hamstringing CDG's vision to
place greater emphasis on delivering real community outcomes and initiatives.
It was an opportunity for COGS to be first out of the blocks with a web-based
grants service.
To Enlarge:
We didn't want the solution to dominate our business –
we needed a solution that would grow with us.
The strategy was clear to define. This was about people. From the outset,
Donald Shand Chief Advisor Strategy and Development, stressed the need to
think of the project not so much as a technology project, but as a business
improvement system.
"We needed to get into the mind of the customer in a way that would be useful
and valuable, so far more than tools, we wanted a partner that could personalise
what technology could do. Clearly, however, Intergen's ability to demonstrate
sites and experiences that were relevant to our business stood out in their
selection". Donald Shand, Transitional Manager
COGS Online went live 1 June 2001
To encourage uptake by the community, the site needed to be developed with
Community Funding goes On-Line
>>3
< S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E O N E >
>> P R O J E C T C A S E S T U D Y
strong community consultation. In
readiness, CDG and Intergen
facilitated 2 pilot studies to tease
out ideas that would make the site
work harder and smarter than paper.
The pilots showed 38% of applicants
had an email address.
A Model for the Future:
COGS OnLine is also seen as a valuable model for potential uptake by other
groups such as Lottery Grants who award over $70 million to a wide range of
community purposes.
The Business Difference:
Significant efficiencies and reductions are expected in administration costs as
more community groups register online. However, results won't just be counted
in the speed of processing applications or in greater accuracies in information.
The real success of the COGS OnLine strategy lies with CDG advisory staff being
freer to focus on being more mobile within communities, in contrast to carrying
the huge workload created by paper applications.
"COGS OnLine has bought us nearer to communities – virtually as well as
physically. Technology has created space for our Advisors to transfer more time
into value-added community development activities and to work towards
community change", Donald Shand.
paddy.payne@intergen.co.nz
>> TECH TIP:
Transact-SQL Debugging
Finding bugs in a stored procedure
used to be a major difficulty to
developers using SQL especially if the
stored procedure is complex and
you’re not the person who wrote the
stored procedure in the first place.
Stored procedures were designed to
perform a task, or set of tasks, with
the developer only needing to know
what needs to be passed into the
stored procedure and what is
returned. Most simple stored
procedures can be visually debugged
but complex stored procedures with
comparisons, loops, or nesting can
be time consuming to understand
and trace where the problem occurs.
With the introduction of MS SQL
2000, Microsoft has provided a
Transact-SQL debugger in the SQL
Query Analyser. This will let a
developer set breakpoints, step
through each line in the stored
procedure, and add watches to
analyse the results after each line is
executed, but best of all it can
automatically rollback changes
performed by the stored procedure
to preserve the integrity of the data.
This allows complex stored procedures
to be debugged in much the same
way as an ASP page or a VB
component in Visual Studio, which
will save both the developer’s time
and most importantly, your money.

4. < S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E >
>>4 >> M I C R O S O F T G O L D P A R T N E R
Partnership Programme Structure
The Microsoft Certified Partner Program has two levels - Member and Gold, each
with its own requirements and benefits.
Microsoft Certified Partners at the Member Level:
Microsoft Certified Partners at the Member Level (or Microsoft Certified Partners)
are the foundation of the Microsoft Certified Partner Program and are entitled
to receive technical, marketing, and sales information as well as Microsoft
Product Licenses to support their development, testing, internal business and
marketing needs.
Microsoft Certified Partners at the Gold Level:
A Microsoft Certified Partner at the Member Level can qualify to become a
Microsoft Certified Partner at the Gold Level (or Microsoft Gold Certified Partner)
through demonstrated expertise with Microsoft products and demonstrated
success in deploying Microsoft technology based solutions. Microsoft Certified
Gold Partners are qualified by areas of specialisation: e-commerce solutions,
enterprise systems, support centers, and ASP hosting. Microsoft Gold Certified
Partners receive the right to use a unique Microsoft Certified Gold Partner logo
with respect to the areas of specialisation in which they have qualified, plus
incremental benefits over and above those provided at the Member Level.
Intergen is one of only two Microsoft Gold Certified Partners for E-Commerce
Solutions in New Zealand. Intergen offers the earliest available access to technical
readiness materials and Microsoft technologies, including technology deployment
blueprints developed by Microsoft Enterprise Services.
Microsoft Gold Certification
The new Microsoft Gold Certified
Partner Program for E-Commerce
Solutions is an exciting natural
evolution for those Certified Partners
who are focused on e-Commerce.
The Microsoft Gold Certified Partner
Program for E-Commerce Solutions
identifies companies that have
proven their commitment and
expertise in building or delivering
e-Commerce solutions based on
Microsoft technologies.
E-Commerce Solutions
We’re back, and we’re Y
>> INTERGEN LAUNCH
1: Catherine Rusby, State Insurance. Tarah Nikora, Open
Polytechnic. Richard Petrie, Intergen. Mark Johnston,
Open Polytechnic. Marty Kerr, State Insurance. 2: Geoff
Laurie, Microsoft 3: John Jameson, Intergen. Stephen
Bell, IDG. Fulton Hargreaves, Intergen. 4: Tim John,
Domainz. Ian Morrish, Microsoft. Jeremey Moon, Icebreaker.
Brent Anderson, DPMC. Robin Semmens, ERS. Paul Reiher,
Bexhill. Mike Peters, Steve Graham and Scott Wylie,
Microsoft. Tony Stewart, Intergen. 5: Wayne Forgesson,
Intergen. Peter Clemerson and Neil Upton, NZ Fire Service.
6: Lady Penelope, aka Gina Harper, Intergen. 7: Neil
Andrews, Recruitment Knowledge. Beith Atkinson, NZ
Immigration Service. Donna Cooksley, Recruitment
Knowledge. 8: Robyn Renouf, Robyn’s Agencies. Scott
Wylie, Microsoft.1 2
4
65
CraigSimcox

5. >>5>> R E C E N T E V E N T S : I N T E R G E N L A U N C H P A R T Y A N D B E E R T A S T I N G
>>AMBER DELIGHTS: We were privileged to recently host a tutored
beer tasting with Geoff Griggs, reknowned beer writer and commentator. A great opportunity
to socialise whilst learning about a non-IT topic for a change! Client attendees names will
not be revealed, but thanks for joining us in a hugely successful evening.
Mac's Nelson Reserve
Fine full-flavoured marzen-style
bronze lager.
Stella Artois 660ml - IMPORT
Crisp hop notes balance the biscuity
sweet malt flavours. Excellent dry
finish.
Malt Shovel Pilsener
Czech style pilsener with spicy, hop
aroma. Malt body and hop
bitterness, especially in the finish.
Malt Shovel Amber Ale
Soft-bodied Ale with creamy malt
flavours. Lightly spicy hop character;
and melony fruitiness.
Malt Shovel Porter
A dark beer with delicate complexity
from wheat and roasted barley, the
hopping and extra maturation.
Belle Vue Kriek (Lambic)
Lambic style made with fresh
cherries, a burgundy hue and a
refreshingly fruity taste.
Hoegaarden White
Classic Belgian white beer. Tart and
refreshing with distinctive coriander
and orange flavours.
Leffe Blonde
Rich spicy and malty with long
drying finish. The biggest-selling
Belgian abbey beer.
Leffe Brune
Dark brown Belgian abbey beer - a
full-bodied beer with a typical nose
of dark malts and fruity flavours.
Hoegaarden Grand Cru
Belgian Wheat Beer. Strong and
spicy complex pale ale from famous
Belgian brewer.
All product supplied by Regional Wines &
Spirits, Basin Reserve, Wgtn.
www.regionalwines.co.nz
e YELLOW!
All launch photographs Craig Simcox
2 3
87

6. http://messenger.msn.co.nz). I'm also excited about the new Pocket PC (2002).
When combined with a GPRS or CDMA phone it allows lots of freedom. I was
recently up in Gisborne, checking and responding to emails on my Compaq IPAQ
over GPRS. Surfing the net while on a surfing holiday, fantastic!!
Big for developers is Microsoft.Net, the most significant programming environment
upgrade for about 4 years. You've probably heard of Microsoft's .Net push but
have no idea what it is. You're not alone. It has not been well communicated
yet. My understanding of what .Net is, follows
1. a new set of libraries and tools for developers to access the many rich
services of Windows and the Internet.
2. technology that makes it easy for applications and for business to
communicate with each other
3. a set of compelling web services from Microsoft
So why is .Net important for business? Well, while technologies like Active Server
Pages have been great for quickly developing web based applications they have
turned into a maintenance headache. With .Net web programming matures to
a much more structured and manageable activity. This will reduce maintenance
and increase affordability of web based apps.
With our US company it makes absolute sense to leverage the skills and cost
advantages of NZ developers. It's about 1/3 the price of having work done in
the US. Another big difference is that local developers seem to have a broader
skill range. I'm excited about working with some of the new Intergen stars like
Alan, Derek and Jeremy on our project.
Tony has invited me to get involved with a few things and I'm more than happy
to spend time with any Intergen customers. Just contact Tony or send me an
email at rod@drury.net.nz
>>6
< S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E O N E >
>> T H E “ E X ” F I L E S
We asked Rod to write a few paragraph's for this month's newsletter:
Hi everyone, it's good to be back working with the Intergen team. Congratulations
to Tony, Paddy, Wayne and the rest for buying back the business. I'm really
impressed at how the team has matured and the facilities. The new fit out is
fantastic and the hosting environment looks great.
I've always thought that having quality hosting facilities near a strong development
team would be a powerful combination. For building rich web based applications
its really difficult and expensive to do it with the bigger providers, and you need
the hosting staff to understand (and care) what the applications do.
Bandwidth is starting to get there as well so with the economy being tight there
is great opportunity for small to mid size organizations to move their mail and
application servers to 'boutique' providers, reducing their costs and getting all
the big company features that make life easy like web mail and not having to
worry about monitoring viruses and backups etc.
The things that are exciting me at the moment is how computers are becoming
more of a communications tool. MSN Messenger is one of the most exciting
tools I've used for a while. Watch over the next year as Messenger becomes a
platform for all sorts of new services like alerts and notifications (try it out at
Since leaving Glazier, Rod has
started Context Connect, a US
based company working on a
Directory Assistance product
for Mobile Phones. Rod has
been based in Wellington for
most of the last year, however
and is using Intergen to develop
the application software which
will be deployed in
New Zealand, Australia, UK and
the United States.
>> What's he doing now?
Many people have asked what Rod Drury (one of the original
Glazier founders) has been doing for the past couple of years.
Well Rod has been spending quite a bit of time in the Intergen
offices over the past few months.
>>INTERGENITE:

7. Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server
>>7>> B U S I N E S S T E C H N O L O G Y T R E N D S
Intergen and Viatx recently worked
together to build the official Web
Site for the TelstraSaturn Hyundai
New Zealand Golf Open. The site
(www.open2002.co.nz) was designed
by the Intergen Creative team and is
built on the Viatx Xpand Portal
platform. The Viatx platform provides
a basis for delivering content rich
Web Sites with management of the
content available via a browser over
the internet. During the lead up to
the Open and during the Open itself
the web site will receive regular
updates to ensure it always reflects
the latest available information.
Intergen has a long relationship with
Viatx with some of the original R&D
for the Viatx product set coming out
of work done by Glazier Systems. The
partnership with Viatx gives Intergen
access to a set of highly functional
and highly scalable applications that
are designed to be offered via an
Application Service Provider (ASP)
and access to a highly scalable
development framework. For more
information on Viatx visit
www.viatx.com .
SharePoint Portal Server is an application with a
huge feature set. We struggle to demonstrate it in
less than 2 hours.
Formally known as Tahoe, SharePoint Portal Server is built around the Microsoft
Office personal productivity tools that are used by many organisations and is
a very cost effective way to implement a platform for Document Management,
Intranet, Knowledge Management and Team Collaboration.
The feature highlights are:
>> Browser based delivery. All of the Sharepoint functions are delivered through
the browser, including those provided for systems maintenance. Features are
also delivered through tight integration with both Windows Explorer and the
Microsoft Office suite (Office 2000 and above).
>> Digital Dashboard. SharePoint provides users with the Microsoft Digital
Dashboard. Users are able to aggregate information from many different sources
into one convenient place.
>> Web Part Integration. Plug and play Web Part technology is available to
further extend the feature set and scope of SharePoint. Organisations can develop
their own web parts for use within SharePoint.
>> Document Management and Publishing. Within SharePoint is a fully-fledged
Document Management and Publishing system that includes of document check-
in and checkout, version tracking, application of searchable meta-data, approval
workflow routes, web discussions for on-line document comment and control of
document access.
>> Index and Search Services. SharePoint offers a comprehensive index and
search functionality that allows organisations to index not only documents but
also databases, web sites and meta data stores. Search capabilities offered
include Full text, categories, 'best bets', combined content sorces and subscriptions.
>> Collaboration and Document Sharing. Through Team Services, SharePoint
provides organisations with the ability to have team based services of
Announcements, Event Management, Contact Management, Task Lists, shared
document libraries, surveys and project status information.
If you are thinking about implementing Document Management or upgrading
your Intranet make sure you take a look at SharePoint Portal Server.
paul.quirk@intergen.co.nz
Steve would be one of the longest serving staff members were it not for the year he took out to manage the Development team
at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young in Wellington. Steve started with Glazier Systems in 1995 fresh from the UK with very little IT
experience and is now considered somewhat of a Guru. AKA: Brookesy and inaugural winner of the “Brookes Award” What
do you do? Manager, Development & Integration Services. How do you make a difference? I’m very passionate about what
I do. I love using technology to help clients be more successful. I also love solving problems if someone has something that does
not work or can’t figure out how to do something, I won’t rest until I have a solution. Share one thing you love about your
job? The challenge. There is always something new to do and learn and always someone keep you on your toes. A bit about
yourself? I emigrated to New Zealand from the UK with my wife 6 years ago. I have a son, William, who turns one in December.
I enjoy Motorsports, playing Golf and read Physics books for relaxation. I have a degree in Applied Physics.
Steve Brookes
>> PARTNER NEWS
>>INTERGENITE:

8. < S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E O N E >
>> I N S I D E S T O R Y
>> TWILIGHT
SEMINARS:
Our Twilight Seminars are informal
evening sessions held at our place
running from 4.30 to 5.30. They
are designed to inform you about
current trends and happenings in
the space where business and
information technology overlap.
These are some of the topics we have
covered in the past few months:
>> industry trends – mobile
computing; emerging business
models; Intranets; document
management
>> technology briefings – Microsoft
SharePoint Portal Server; Microsoft
Content Management Server
>> customer presentations - case
management systems; application
capturing & processing
The seminars consist of an
interactive presentation followed by
open question and answer
discussions. Drinks and nibbles are
served and you are welcome to stay
round for a drink and discussion
with the topic experts.
Our next topic is User Interface
Design and Content.
Contact ginah@intergen.co.nz or
472-2021 if you would like to
receive invitations to our Twilight
Seminars.
We look forward to seeing you there.
The Creative team has been very busy over the
past few months. Not only have they completed a
number of client engagements but they were given
the job of developing the new brand and all the
associated brand assets for Intergen. One of the
major tasks was to develop a design for a new
Internet site. The objective was to have the Web
Site work as a showcase, not only for the Creative
team but also a technology show case. The decision
was taken to develop the Web Site in Microsoft’s
new Content Management Server.
At a business level the advantages of using Content Management Server are
well understood. We are able to delegate the task of managing the content to
the appropriate people and put in place an approval process to ensure that
everything is verified and checked before it goes live.
The decision to use Content Management Server did, however, put added pressure
on the team charged with developing the Web Site. It has always been our policy
to try new technologies out on ourselves before our clients. Usually we start
simple but this time we went for probably the most complex implementation we
could. The Creative Director designed a user interface that appears simple, but
“pushed the boundaries” of CM Server.
In typical internal project fashion, our launch date loomed and we still had not
been able to begin the development. The creative concept for the Web Site was
Microsoft Content Management Server
completed only 3 days before our launch. The Development team then had to
work day and night to bring the designs to life in Content Management Server.
In the hours leading up to our launch it was all hands to the pump. We had a
large number of people creating, entering and checking content. These people
were using Word Processor like features to enter content into pre-defined
templates. There was no requirement for HTML skills. There was no way we could
have got so much content up on our Web Site in such a short time without using
something like Content Management Server. Our Web Site is not finished, nor
will it ever be, that is part of the point of doing it in CM Server. We will be
constantly updating and improving it.
We learned a lot about CM
Server in a compressed time
frame. We plan to use that
knowledge to benefit out
clients. We also plan to offer
CM Server in an ASP
environment so we can share
the cost of the platform across
many clients to further
improve the value proposition
for using CM Server.
www.intergen.co.nz