Technology transformation for a heart disease-free Australia at the National Heart Foundation
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National Heart Foundation of Australia:
an agile technology transformation WRIT TEN BY
OLIVIA MINNOCK PRODUCED BY
MIK E SADR
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CIO Shane Riddle explains how bringing in an agile approach and developing a single view of the customer will drive the charity’s vital operations forward
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ith heart disease the biggest single killer of Australians, the National Heart Foundation of Australia is leading the
charge to change this frightening statistic – from fundraising and research to providing vital awareness and information about preventative health, the 60-year-old charity won’t be stopping any time soon. In fact, it is undergoing a significant technology transformation to enable its 250+ strong team to serve customers and the Australian public even more effectively. Sharing the organisation’s vision of an Australia free of heart disease is Shane Riddle – a CIO named among the top 50 in Australia – who joined on a temporary basis but decided to stay at the inspiring non-profit. “I got in very quickly and hit the ground running,” he recalls. His main objective as leader of the company’s IT operations was to help the National Heart Foundation deliver on its key objectives. While the previous team had been
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“ You’re working with people who want to make a difference, and we try to do everything for everyone” 06
Shane Riddle CIO, National Heart Foundation of Australia
focused on “keeping the lights on,” Riddle’s role evolved in the same way the CIO remit has across all industries: to create an organisation enabled by IT. With traditional elements such as the service desk and security functions outsourced, Riddle and his team now focus on ensuring the entire business meets its yearly objectives – through technology. Moving technology to a strategic function within the Heart Foundation meant the IT team to undergo a reorganisation which reflected what was going on within the business as a whole. The
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘LIGHTHOUSE HOSPITAL PROJECT - DAMA’ 07 foundation operated in a federated model
Drive, then moved to 365, SharePoint,
across Australia with business functions
Microsoft Teams, and eventually the
in each state, but technology has
full range of Microsoft Productivity tools.
assisted in bringing the organisation
Riddle mentions managing teams in
together to promote collaboration and
a charity can be very challenging,
efficiency. One example of this was the
where people are particularly passion-
organisation’s move to the cloud, which
ate about their end goals. “You’re work-
Riddle took control of upon joining the
ing with people who want to make
organisation. “They were getting
a difference, and we try to do every-
bogged down,” he comments.
thing for everyone – which sometimes
“I assumed the role of project manager
dilutes what we’re trying to do,” he
working with our vendor to ensure
comments. “Our One Heart Strategy
everything was done in a timely manner,
is all about placing focus on areas that
from testing to getting us on the cloud.”
have the greatest impact.” Moving to
First, the foundation migrated to One-
the cloud was key to unifying the w w w.he a r t fo unda t i o n . org . a u
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foundation’s business process and the
every aspect of the business. It was
way it engaged with customers. “The
also important not to view technology
previous work practices, the way we
as isolated from the people at the heart
collaborated, the way we engaged with
of the charity. “Technology was one
customers and stored our data all
component, but there was also the
represented our old business model –
organisational process and culture.”
it was disjointed, to survive as an
Conducting a high-level analysis,
organisation in a very competitivity
Riddle concluded that developing
environment, we needed to change.”
a project to provide a “single view of
Riddle therefore had to think
the customer” was the best way
carefully about whether any one
forward in this newly tech-enabled
technology would actually solve the
company. In a charity sense, custom-
organisation’s problems before installing
ers are usually donors to the organisa-
it, and made evaluations based on
tion, but Riddle stresses that there are
actually 52 different types of customer
point in their lifetime in order to deliver
served by the National Heart Founda-
something at the appropriate time with
tion – and it was important to under-
the appropriate message, material,
stand all of these, from various internal
product or service – whatever that may
perspectives. Initially, he recalls, “We
be.” Riddle’s development of this vital
had a very short view of what we call
platform took five stages, the first of
a customer typically using only a financial
which was a discover stage. This
lens – the lifetime of a donor averaged
involved creating a “roadmap” of how
about seven years. That’s great from
information and data was obtained, why it
a point of view of understanding
was collected, as well as how it moved
donor patterns, but donors are only
across the organisation and used.
one of those 52 definitions,” he explains.
The second phase involved understanding who the customer was. “Why
“I wanted to create a platform where we engaged with our customer at every
do they choose to engage with the Heart Foundation? What is our point of
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Shane Riddle Shane Riddle became CIO of the National Heart Foundation of Australia in February 2017, having come onboard the previous year as National ICT Manager. Prior to joining NHF, Riddle held roles at IBM, The Warranty Group and BIG4 Holiday Parks of Australia. Riddle holds a Master’s in Business Administration and Management as well as qualifications in Human Resource Management. He specializes in IT Management, Business Transformation and Program Management, and was named among Australia’s CIO50 in 2017.
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Digital Transformation = Strategic plan + Tealium The National Heart Foundation (NHF) has one main goal, to bring to life their vision of an Australia free of heart disease. This vision started with a strategic plan to position the organisation for a data-led future and included undergoing a significant technology transformation to enable its team of 250+ to serve customers and the Australian public even more effectively with an execution strategy that delivered both short term and long-term benefits for the NHF.
Tealium now sits at the heart of the single customer view strategy enabling programs like the Heart Age Calculator and campaigns such as the recent “Serial Killer” campaign to have an impact well beyond the campaign or program.
“These programs and campaigns drive traffic to our website where we can provide a personalised experience for each person using Tealium technology. Having 52 different types of customers being able to personalise is really difficult, but One of the first tasks newly appointed CIO, Shane also really important so we remain relevant. We Riddle of the NHF, tackled was building a data want to be engaging customers on a lifetime and technology foundation that would empower the journey about staying healthy, exercising and NHF to unify disparate datasets within the organi- being heart smart, not just when they have a sation and be able to think and act smarter using heart episode, which was the traditional apthat data. proach,” stated Riddle. “I wanted to create a platform where we engaged with our customer at every point in their lifetime in order to deliver something at the right time with the most relevant message, material, product or service – whatever that may be,” said Riddle.
The Tealium technology includes the Universal Data Hub which collects and correlates online data that is then enriched and segmented in real time according to NHF determined variables. It is then triggered for action through any of the marketing channels and vendors, including With 52 different types of customer, this focus on email, SMS, website, retargeting or call-centre. the customer and a ’single customer view’ re“The digital marketing team loves quired technology that was agile, flexible, and powerful enough to funnel all the datasets, that we’ve done the hard work augment that data, and help to activate the to make the data accessible and resulting insights. “Tealium provided not only the technology to unify and action data in real-time but also became a business partner as passionate about our objectives as we were,” commented Riddle. “We were entering a new space when we engaged with Tealium so they were fantastic about taking us on that journey as well – their implementation and the support they offer us as we go through that learning curve has been fantastic.”
ready for action,” – said Riddle.
The National Heart Foundation is now able to live and leveraging their data-led future in real time thanks to Tealium!
We are proud to partner with the National Heart Foundation of Australia and other nonprofits around the world
Get nonprofit offers from Microsoft Microsoft.com/nonprofits
“ I wanted to create a platform where we engaged with our customer at every point in their lifetime”
involved examining business processes to find a product that would deliver on all the needs that had been uncovered so far. “A lot of that informed the business case and our request for proposal (RFP) for various vendors,” he explains. “We had a closed selection where we identified key vendors across the industry that we felt would be able to deliver, or had insight to deliver, what
Shane Riddle CIO, National Heart Foundation of Australia
we were trying to create.” Of 15 nominat-
difference? What are they looking for
three that were then challenged to
when they come to us?” This involved
create prototypes. This lengthy process
deep analysis, understanding what the
outlines Riddle’s approach to vendors.
business did, and examining its customer
“I’m fairly tough in trying to negotiate
base until those 52 different definitions
something that works for us,” he says,
were formulated. “When creating a single
qualifying: “I understand the business
view of the customer, it’s important to
they’re in as well, so it has to be fair.
understand the context of the customer
I think when you’re truthful with your
for internal users,” says Riddle,
business partners, and you say ‘we want
“because when we create something
this, but this is what we can afford or are
and then introduce it, we need to
capable of at this point in time, but we
represent what they see as their
want to bring you on the journey and
customer. That is important.”
we can see the growth aspect,’ partners
ed vendors, 10 put forward a proposal which were narrowed down to a final
The third stage – at which point
buy into that and it’s mutually beneficial.”
Riddle had to gain approval at board
To complete this undertaking, the
level to move past – was “very much
National Heart Foundation needed the
getting down into the weeds.” This
support of key partners to the business w w w.he a r t fo unda t i o n . org . a u
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allowing us to focus on what the
Microsoft for the company’s cloud
business needs,” Riddle adds. “They
migration, as well as Microsoft Azure
look after the back office operating our
has been utilised for the development
service desk and offer additional support
of the Single View of the Customer
as needed across our infrastructure,”
platform. Riddle outlines its scalability
he explains, reiterating the way his
and access to Azure Services which
team’s role has gone from “keeping the
allowed prototyping, working towards
lights on” to thinking about how technol-
a full solution, growing the environment
ogy can truly drive change across the
and services as needed. As this has
organisation. Another vendor which
grown, the organisation has also been
was an integral part of forming the
utilising Data#3 as a Microsoft
Single View of the Customer platform
Preferred Partner to navigate the
is Tealium – perhaps the best example
intricacies that come with building out
of the vendor management strategy
a complex environment. “Brennan IT
embraced by Riddle. “We were
also play a very big part in actually
impressed by their buy-in because not w w w.he a r t fo unda t i o n . org . a u
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“ You need bottom-up buy-in because you’re looking at people’s processes, and change management is a key component of this” Shane Riddle CIO, National Heart Foundation of Australia
only did we interview them, but they interviewed us to see if their business was suitable to what we were trying to achieve. I got a lot of comfort out of that,” he comments. “We were entering a new space when we engaged with Tealium so they were fantastic taking us on that journey as well – their implementation and the support they offer us as we go through that learning curve has been fantastic.” With vendors and products selected, the fourth phase NHF went though was development and implementation, bringing in BAs, developers, data scientist, testers and even an Agile coach to ensure the technology transformation ran smoothly among staff, too. This laid the path for the currently ongoing final stage – “taking all those learnings we went through in phase four and actually doing something about that.” For Riddle, getting passionate people on board with the changes the organisation was experiencing – in terms of bringing customers to a single point as well as unifying the organisation itself – was key in managing the significant culture shift involved in any technology transformation. “You need bottom-up buy-in because you’re looking at people’s processes, and change management is a key component of this. You’ve got to be aware of how it impacts them and how they are involved in the whole process,” he explains. “I try and understand the emotional life cycle people go through with change,” Riddle adds. “Another aspect is when you communicate with w w w.he a r t fo unda t i o n . org . a u
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people, people like different mediums – some like written word, others like face to face. Some like to be in a group and sit back and listen, others like it to be more intimate or a one-on-one discussion. I try to build all those aspects in and communicate on a level people actually want to receive so they take in what I talk about.” At the foundation’s Melbourne office, the IT team is located in the centre of the building, which Riddle believes symbolises its place at the heart of the business as well as 18
encouraging people to ask questions and understand what they do. For Riddle’s team, communication
“ We’ve built a new platform with which we can totally engage the customer, and start measuring how they’re choosing to engage with us” Shane Riddle CIO, National Heart Foundation of Australia
involves gathering together every morning for a few minutes, a part of the Agile philosophy he’s brought in. “People talk about what they did yesterday, what they didn’t get through and what they’re going to do today. That gets communication working across the team – people can chime in if they hear of a roadblock and offer suggestions. Other groups have now started to pick up on that as well and for me that was encouraging as I didn’t want to push
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Agile. It was more about introducing it
start dynamically understanding their
to staff, showing how it’s used so peo-
behaviour, and dynamically changing
ple get serious about it and want to try.”
the way we approach that through
Across the whole country, as a newly
the variety of media and information
unified and tech led organisation, the
we supply, tailoring it back to what their
foundation is all set to relaunch with
need is at any particular time.”
what Riddle calls a “revitalised” brand. “With single view of customer, we’ve built a new platform with which we can totally engage the customer, and start measuring how they’re choosing to engage with us,” he explains. “Ultimately, we want to have an individual conversation with those people, so we can w w w.he a r t fo unda t i o n . org . a u
The Heart Foundation Australia Melbourne Level 2 850 Collins Street Docklands Australia T +03 9329 8511 www.heartfoundation.org.au