2degrees’ post-merger tech upgrade complete
2degrees has finished stitching together 2.3 million mobile, broadband, and energy customer accounts after its merger with Vocus Group, a technical feat the company claims is the largest ever customer migration by a New Zealand telco.
Over the past three years, the $1.4 billion-a-year company has been developing a unified system to bring together groups of customers that were spread across disparate IT platforms. It created a homegrown platform, “Tahi,” designed and built by its local tech team. The merger and subsequent IT merger brought together customers of companies like CallPlus, FX Networks, Slingshot and Orcon, as well as existing 2degrees customers.
While tech migrations often became cautionary tales, 2degrees says its transition was seamless, on time, and invisible to users.
“Unlike most large-scale integrations that rely heavily on overseas vendors, 2degrees chose to design, build, and operate its own hyperscale platform in-house,” said Mark Callander, 2degrees chief executive officer.
“We now have a tech backbone that we own, that we control, and that we can evolve to meet the needs of our customers faster than anyone else.”
Callander said the custom-built system allows for more flexibility in the types of services 2degrees can offer customers. One software service called Flex, is a new self-service portal for business customers. One NZ is also in the process of completing a multi-year project to unify its core systems.
Q&A on 2degrees’ new unified IT system - anatomy of a tech migration
What is Tahi?
Tahi is what’s known in telco land as a business support system (BSS). In layman’s terms when a customer joins 2degrees, they get an account in Tahi. Then everything they do, or we do, is recorded, tracked and done via Tahi. That’s everything from getting new services added to the account and up and running, to billing recordsand bill generation. If we build a new product or plan, it is added to Tahi, and then the website can show that plan, people can buy it, we track their use, and ultimately charge for it and issue a bill. It does it all. It is the heart and the brain of our business.
Why was the Tahi platform developed in-house rather than using off-the-shelf systems?
At 2degrees, we’ve always backed ourselves to do things differently – and better. Building Tahi in-house meant we could design a platform that truly fits our business, our customers, and the New Zealand market. It avoids the bloat of legacy systems and gives us flexibility to innovate quickly. We didn’t want to be boxed in by third-party vendors or systems built for someone else’s reality. Tahi was built for us, by us. It’s grown over x decades, and (in a different form) the originally powered CallPlus and Slingshot.
Is this really New Zealand’s biggest digital migration?
Yes, we believe it is the largest coordinated customer migration ever completed in the NZ telco market. Almost two million mobile, broadband and business customers have been successfully migrated to the Tahi platform over three years. This was a massive technical and operational effort, and we did it without major disruption to customers.
What makes Tahi different from legacy systems used by other telcos?
Legacy systems often mean fragmented data, slower rollouts, and limited flexibility. Tahi gives us a single, unified view of the customer, no matter what services they use: mobile, broadband, or electricity. That means faster support, smarter service design, and easier innovation. It’s built for today and tomorrow, not for patching yesterday.
Was this just about cost savings?
Cost savings have come as a welcome benefit of taking control of our software stack. But Tahi is really about capability. It simplifies how we operate, improves the customer experience, and sets us up for the future, including smart automation and AI tools. It’s a strategic platform, not just an accounting one. The cost savings will allow 2degrees to invest more in the future growth of the organisation. We will be able to bring new products to market incredibly quickly – watch this space.
How were customers affected by the migration?
We put a huge amount of effort into making this a seamless change for our customers. Most customers didn’t even notice the transition, which is exactly how it should be. We used an incremental approach by first moving across small groups of customers to eliminate any teething problems. We then moved onto larger groups of customers as we progressed. The great thing about this approach is that customers did not have to do anything to make the change happen. Hand on heart – we have some tidy up to do, and customers will see a range of CX improvements dropping regularly. In fact some days we release as many as 50 changes to Tahi.
What kind of innovations has Tahi already enabled?
One of the first examples is 2degrees Flex, our self-service platform for business customers. It lets them manage complex services easily in one place. There’s no back-and-forth, no clunky systems. Flex wouldn’t have been possible without Tahi’s unified structure. And we’re just getting started. The system is already being geared for AI integrations and dynamic customer tools.
How does this fit into the overall 2degrees strategy?
It’s central. We’ve always positioned 2degrees as the challenger, fighting for fair and keeping things simple. Tahi embodies that. It lets us support all our customers under one strong brand, and continue to push the market forward with new, smart offerings. Whether you’re a home user or a nationwide business, Tahi is the engine behind better experiences.
Why haven’t you integrated Orcon and Slingshot into the 2degrees brand?
They currently use Tahi, and brand consolidation is coming. It was more important to get to a single platform first.
How long did this take – and is it really finished?
This was a three-year project and we’re proud to say it is fully complete as of August 2025. We’ll continue to optimise the platform through minor enhancements but the heavy lifting is done. Tahi is now fully live and operating as the single software platform behind 2degrees.
What’s next now that Tahi is live?
Now the fun begins. With the plumbing in place, we’re free to build faster, better tools for our customers. We’ll continue rolling out enhanced digital experiences, launching new products, and exploring smarter automation and AI. Tahi isn’t just a system – it’s our foundation for what comes next.
