Catalyst has called on the New Zealand Government to put local technology firms at the front of public-sector procurement, saying recent spending on digital infrastructure offers a chance to strengthen domestic capability and reduce dependence on offshore suppliers.
The Wellington-founded open-source technology company made the case as ministers commit new funding to modernise systems in emergency management and to increase cyber security investment over the next four years, in...
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cluding work aimed at protecting patient information. Catalyst said those programmes should be shaped around open standards and local expertise rather than proprietary systems controlled from abroad.
Managing Director and co-founder Don Christie argued that procurement decisions now have consequences far beyond software buying, touching on economic resilience, sovereignty and control over critical public systems. He said central government should begin with local specialists when commissioning digital infrastructure.
Christie said New Zealand’s technology talent is capable of protecting important national systems domestically, but warned that current purchasing habits tend to favour larger overseas vendors. In his view, that can leave public agencies locked into one supplier for upgrades, pricing and technical direction.
He said the government should move away from defaulting to offshore proprietary platforms and instead prioritise providers that use open-source software and open standards. Catalyst also argued that greater reliance on a small number of foreign suppliers weakens competition and limits room for local innovation.
The company pointed to the broader policy debate around how governments build and run the digital services that support public life. Open-source software allows code to be used, adapted and shared, while open standards are designed to help different systems work together. Proprietary platforms, by contrast, are usually controlled by a single owner and can carry ongoing licensing costs and higher switching barriers.
Catalyst said countries including the UK, Denmark and France have used open standards in procurement to encourage innovation and reduce dependence on single-vendor systems. It argued New Zealand could follow a similar path, particularly in areas such as emergency management and health data, where reliability and security are especially sensitive.
The company has also been promoting its own role in that market. On its government and public-sector pages, Catalyst says it has worked with New Zealand agencies for nearly 30 years and offers services ranging from strategy and software engineering to cloud consulting and accessibility work. For local government, it says open foundations and on-shore hosting can help councils retain more control and reduce vendor dependence.
Catalyst Cloud, its cloud arm, has likewise positioned itself around data sovereignty. The company says it won an all-of-government cloud agreement with the Department of Internal Affairs, a deal that allows agencies to buy its services under standard terms while keeping data in New Zealand.
For Christie, the latest round of public investment is about more than upgrading systems. He said it is an opportunity to build durable local capability and ensure that public spending supports the New Zealand technology economy rather than simply flowing overseas.
Source: Noah Wire Services
