Computer specialist

Tu Tangata, Issue 11, 1 April 1983, Page 33

Computer specialist

Alan Eriwata was raised by his Grandparents Eddie & Winnie Eriwata of Fitzroy New Plymouth and attended New Plymouth Boys High School “I left at 15 with no qualifications or anything to even state I had been to a school.” He now heads a Computer Company that is about to teach people a revolutionary way to program Micro-com-puters, a computer language that is taking Japan by storm. The parent company SORD COMPUTERS of Japan whose computers Alan’s company specialises in has been placed as the number 1 super growth company in Japan out of 600,000 surveyed. Courses for this revolutionary computer language have already begun. “I would like to see a few Maori businessmen come along and learn the modern way to do business”. Alan left school and joined the Royal New Zealand Navy firstly as a boy seaman and then Radio Operator, after leaving the Navy he worked for the Dept of Civil Aviation as a Communications Officer at the Control tower New Plymouth Airport then the Sydney International Airport. While in Sydney he spent some time working for a large communication company which was linked to computers and Earth Satellite stations around the world, “this was my first taste of computers and I loved it”. On returning to New Zealand Alan obtained a position as a trainee computer operator in Invercargill (beating 10 other University Entrance holders in a computer aptitude test).

After 3 years, by then Operations Manager, he left to travel overseas, firstly Australia Singapore Malaysia Thailand Tanzania Zambia Malawi Botswana Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) South Africa Swaziland Mozambique, mostly overland taking about a year and a half, a fascinating experience. Alan then settled in Zimbabe working for a company as a computer programmer. Spent a bit of time in the computer section of the Rhodesian Airforce during the course of the war. After a few years there Alan returned to New Zealand and worked for a New Plymouth software house as a consultant. After approximately 8 months he decided to set up a company of his own in the more viable but competitive area of Auckland where he now has an office right in the busiest part of the City. Alan would like to get more Maori youth into the industry but as he says “without money I can’t do a lot, maybe some businessman will help finance a course for training young Maori’s who have the aptitude. Why should most of our people be subjected to mainly manual tasks or menial administrative duties, why not computers, if I can do it that means so can many others”. Alan sees an extremely bright future for the computer industry “95% of all companies in NZ have not touched any form of computerisation therefore within a few years the demand will be extremely great, that is what I set the company up for and am anticipating”.