Business Review Australia - November 2016

THE DIGITAL ECONOMY

November 2016

w w w.businessreviewaustralia.com

THE RAPID

RISE OF AUSTRALIA’S

TALKING Uniting,

BIZ WITH:

Fulton Hogan, & Mann Hummel

C

MANTRA GROUP

ROFILE P IO

THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

www.vittoriacoffee.com

EDITOR’S COMMENT

WELCOME to the November issue of Business Review Australia

T

his month is all about how technology is changing the region’s business landscape.

We have a Q&A with Ken Herron, CMO at Unified Inbox – an innovative company that is pioneering ‘internet of communications’ technology.

We also explore how Asia-Pacific is driving online global retail in an opinion piece from Ralf Ohlhausen, Business Development Director, PPRO Group.

Lastly, we examine the growth of New Zealand’s Powershop – the only energy company to receive Greenpeace approval in the country.

Enjoy the read, Nye Longman Editor Nye.Longman@bizclikmedia.com

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C O NCTOENNTTESN T S

F E AT U R E S The Internet of Communications

PROFILE

06

TECHNOLOGY

28 Mantra Group

How AsiaPacific is driving global online retail

12

ENERGY LIST

00

44 Uniting

Headline for the article

60

University of Sydney

Plain pricing for people’s power

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C O M PA N Y PROFILES RETAIL 28 Mantra Group

74

Statistics New Zealand

TECHNOLOGY 44 Uniting 60 University of Sydney 74 Statistics New Zealand

ENERGY 82 SAP 96 Mann Hummel

CONSTRUCTION 108 Fulton Hogan 124 Department of transport

82 SAP

and Main Roads 136 Schiavello Group

FOOD & DRINK

Loving 148 Villa Maria Estatechallenges

MANN-FILTER Motorsport

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Mann Hummel

PROFILE

THE INTERNET OF COMMUNICATIONS

UNIFIED INBOX

With the growth of IoT technology, companies are collecting more and more data and are using increasingly complex communication channels – Unified Inbox is creating clarity amidst this storm of information. We speak to Chief Marketing Officer Ken Herron to find out how.

Writ ten by: NYE LONGMAN

Business Review: What inspired Unified Inbox?

Herron: A personal experience with information overload. Our founder Toby had the idea for what would eventually become our intelligent IoT messaging platform UnificationEngine™ (UE) while he was living on Waiheke Island (off of the coast of Auckland, New Zealand). He was struggling with handling customer service on an increasing number of channels — information overload — for one of his businesses, and that’s when the idea of creating a “collaborative team inbox” popped into his head.

Herron: Six years ago, Toby filed for our first patent, recruited the initial team, and created the flagship collaborative team inbox product.

To rapidly (and cost-effectively) grow users, Toby signed up telcos as hosting and distribution partners.

And then came Edward Snowden.

This sudden new awareness of and need for greater privacy and

Business Review: How did the company evolve into what we see today?

Ken Herron, Chief Marketing Officer

PROFILE

security required a complete rebuilding of the technology.

As the development work finished up, Toby and the team realised that the exponentially larger opportunity for what we had created was with our platform and not with the products we ourselves created on that platform.

Toby created the concept of the Internet of Communications, we focused the company on IoT (smart homes, smart factories, and smart cities), and we have never looked back!

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November 2016

Business Review: Why have your solutions proved to be so popular with manufacturers?

Herron: In a word, interoperability.

Through UnificationEngine (UE), we enable manufacturers to have intelligent IoT messaging between their products (“things”) and their customers (“people”). Said differently, UE enables products and software to communicate with people and things — regardless of who made them!

Today you only have people in your

UNIFIED INBOX

smartphone’s contacts. Soon your contacts will include your house.

That one contact entry for your entire smart home, “Home,” will be able to handle your washing machine made

by Samsung, your car made by Tesla, and all of the connected devices made by different manufacturers you use at home, at work, and on the go. That’s true interoperability.

Communicating with any/all of them is as simple as sending a text or a tweet. UE is now compatible with over 20 of the world’s most popular social networks, messaging apps, chat apps, email, SMS, and other communications platforms.

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PROFILE

Business Review: What scope do your solutions – and IoT in general – have for growth in Asian markets? What challenges do they face?

It’s not an overstatement to say that every single Asian home, factory, and city will eventually be directly impacted (more likely disrupted) by IoT. The critical challenge we see

Herron: Each new analyst report pegs IoT as a multi-trillion global dollar opportunity with a large percentage of that opportunity being in Asia. We see the greatest growth opportunity in smart home, smart factory (also called industry 4.0), and smart city solutions.

helping people, businesses, and governments to overcome is the number of languages. We must provide intelligent, context-aware conversations between people and their things and interoperability between devices (the core

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November 2016

UNIFIED INBOX

problem which UE solves).

A quick note, by the way, on security, as that question is always raised.

Because IoT systems are so incredibly new and less than 10 percent of the population even knows what IoT is, there has not yet been a critical mass of hackers, good and bad, who have challenged IoT’s security.

Business Review: Where do you see the company in the next 5 years? How about the next 10?

Herron: In the next five years, we see the company as the global leader in providing the technology behind the seamless communications between you and all of your things.

This is also called H2M (Human

Toby Ruckert, CEO

to Machine) and M2H (Machine to Human). How seamless? It’s invisible — you don’t even know it’s there.

In the next 10 years, we see the company being instrumental in defining the unified communications protocol not just between humans and machines, but between machines themselves. This is also called M2M (Machine to Machine).

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HOW ASIA-PACIFIC IS DRIVING GLOBAL ONLINE RETAIL

TECHNOLOGY An expanding middle class, growing internet penetration, and improving infrastructure are all playing their part in APAC’s growing e-commerce market THE WORLD’S LARGEST and most populous continent, Asia, is made up of 48 countries and spans 44,579,000 square kilometres. With a widely diverse population of 5.096 billion people, the continent’s rich historical background offers a wealth of opportunities to explore, from the untouched steppes of Central Asia to the bustling economic centres of China and Japan. Iconic sights such as the Taj Mahal and the Temples of Angkor Wat may draw tourists from around the world, but strong economic growth and up-and-coming markets are providing new footholds for businesses and investors alike.

The key e-commerce markets

Writ ten by: R ALF OHLHAUSEN, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR, PPRO GROUP 13

TECHNOLOGY

“In China, E-wallets are the most popular form of payment online, being used for 48 percent of transactions” 14

November 2016

in the Asia region are China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. Together, these countries represent 86 percent of all e-commerce turnover in the Asia Pacific region, a figure which rises to 90 percent when Oceanic countries such as Australia and New Zealand are excluded.

E-commerce in Asia is flourishing – with $770 billion in transactions

G L O B A L O N L I N E R E TA I L

annually, the Asia-Pacific region leads the world. An expanding middle class, growing internet penetration and improving infrastructure means the region will continue to drive global online retail over the next five years.

Access to financial services is a key stimulus for e-commerce.

A lack of banking infrastructure in many countries in the region is exacerbated by barriers caused by geographical and physical access to

banking services. Increased internet penetration will aid in removing these barriers, but with some areas having an account penetration of as low as 2 percent, many countries will continue to rely on cash as the main method of payment for some time to come.

While, on average, 51 percent of the region’s population has access to an account with a financial institution, the extremely low income level of a significant proportion of the

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TECHNOLOGY

“Millennials are the most active group online, and use social media as their preferred form of communication” population results in a high overall percentage of unbanked people.

In spite of its growing middle class, China’s traditional rural economy and vast territory results in the country accounting for more than 12 percent of the world’s unbanked population.

The expanding middle class is making a significant contribution to the growth of e-commerce across the Asia region. This group is expected to reach 1.7 billion by the year 2020, with China, India and Indonesia experiencing the greatest growth.

With the increase in the number of options that e-commerce brings, consumers are also showing marked personal preferences. This, in turn, is leading to increased competition, with traditional retailers moving to having an online presence (either individually, or by using an online marketplace), and local businesses

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November 2016

experiencing pressure from regional and global brands which want a share of the growing sector’s profits.

Again, China is a leading force in both the regional and global economy.

Technology, naturally, is a major factor in changing economic patterns, with internet penetration playing a significant role. Notably, in spite of having the highest B2C e-commerce sales of any region in 2014, Asia has the lowest penetration of all regions globally (although Japan, Singapore and South Korea fall into the global top ten). As infrastructure becomes more ubiquitous, e-commerce will continue to experience high growth as a result; countries with a low penetration rate, such as India, with only 18 percent, are expected to drive future growth.

The young are traditionally the first to embrace new methods of doing anything, and it is no different

G L O B A L O N L I N E R E TA I L

in Asia. Millennials are the most active group online, and use social media as their preferred form of communication – Facebook has more than 270 million active daily users in Asia alone. This familiarity with the online environment results in a willingness to embrace cashless payment methods, and this group exhibits different patterns of consumer behaviour to other demographics.

The use of online payments varies throughout the region according to how developed the local market is.

The more mature the market, the more likely it is that consumers in the country will use cards in order to pay for online purchases: for instance, in Japan and South Korea, 63 percent and 83 percent of online purchases respectively are paid by card. In contrast, emerging markets such as India and Malaysia continue to prefer cash based payment methods.

In China, E-wallets are the most popular form of payment online, being used for 48 percent of transactions.

Whereas, in Indonesia, e-wallets and

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TECHNOLOGY

other forms of payment are the least preferred methods, making up 5 percent and 3 percent of transactions respectively. There, bank transfer is used in 39 percent of e-commerce transactions, with card-based purchases accounting for 29 percent.

The trend, though, we are seeing overall is that cash based payments are increasingly being displaced by electronic payment methods throughout the region.

R ALF OHLHAUSEN, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR, PPRO GROUP

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November 2016

G L O B A L O N L I N E R E TA I L

“E-commerce in Asia is flourishing – with $770 billion in transactions annually, the Asia-Pacific region leads the world”

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ENERGY

PLAIN PRICING FOR PEOPLE’S

POWER Writ ten by: JOHN O’HANLON

POWERSHOP

Powershop and its parent company Meridian Energy represent between them the future of power generation and retailing: firmly established in New Zealand and Australia Powershop is testing the waters in other markets ALMOST THE FIRST decision of the new UK prime minister was to put a hold on the proposed FrancoChinese investment in a new and controversial nuclear power plant at Hinckley Point. This news was received with satisfaction by Green MEP (Member of the European Parliament) Molly Scott Cato, who has long argued that a renewable strategy could, with commitment from the government, meet all Britain’s future energy needs at a fraction of the cost of new conventional and nuclear capacity. Political and commercial vested interests will doubtless preserve their favoured model for some time to come, but is it really naïve to say that the planet will, some day soon, turn to renewable power?

What has this to do with an Australian power retailing company like Powershop? Well, it was founded

by Ari Sargent in December 2009.

A veteran of the wholesale energy

industry he had spent the previous six years working for Meridian Energy, New Zealand’s largest energy generator and fourth biggest retailer.

What is unique about Meridian is that it is 100 percent renewable, with nine hydro-electric stations, six wind farms and a large solar installation on the island of Tonga. By 2006, it had been declared the only ‘green’ electricity company in New Zealand

by Greenpeace. And the following year it received CarboNZero certification from Landcare Research confirming that the generation and retailing of its electricity was carbon neutral.

Sargent had spent two or three years in Australia looking at the retail opportunities for Meridian. “I was trained as an engineer, and my career grew essentially on the wholesale and energy side of the business, I had never been involved in retail.

But I had increasingly wondered why retail pricing should be so 21

ENERGY

complicated. When you buy food you see the product on the shelf and make the decision to buy based on current price: why should electricity be something you pay for it after you use it, until when you have no idea how much it’s going to cost you?”

It was time for a bit of healthy disruption in the industry, he felt. Today Powershop, based in Melbourne and with support teams in both Australia and New Zealand, 22

November 2016

“A strategic driver was the inevitability of disruption across the energy industry” – Ari Sargent, CEO of Powershop

POWERSHOP

is Australia’s only electricity retailer to be certified 100 percent carbon neutral by the Australian Government and was ranked the greenest power company by Greenpeace in both 2014 and 2015. There were bound to be challenges, he admits: “Ten years ago we were seeing an increase in online

interaction with energy companies.

There was definitely an intensifying of competition back then. The other thing that was that energy regulators world wide are never satisfied with what’s going on, and energy markets are quite complex and tend to be quite political as well so there were signs 23

ENERGY of further regulatory interventions.

However I think the third strategic driver was the inevitability of disruption across the energy industry.”

Once a user signs up to Powershop, there is no need for them to visit the website ever again, because the company will buy the cheapest “Everyday” electricity for them automatically. Still, there are plenty of ways to be hands-on with the account. Consumers can choose the cheapest available energy, or the more principled can opt for 100 percent green power or even renewable energy derived from sugar cane. They can purchase their energy package daily, or if they prefer two months in advance.

Top-up packs are always available and can be used straight away. The difference is that control is in their hands, they know what it’s costing them and they can budget for energy just as they do for food or holidays.

Treating energy this way is not, he admits, something that people are used to it, so take up is not expected to be immediate or viral. But many consumers will get it straight away.

“You couldn’t engage with the utility companies in any meaningful way.

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November 2016

Given the inevitability of change, I decided it was better to be shaping the future rather than sitting on the sidelines!” he says. We took the opportunity to start the first ‘future retail business’ for energy supply - a digital business. We set about creating a way of engaging with energy usage that was simple and allowed customers to understand how their purchasing strategy related to ours.

Our motivation from the start was to turn the traditional, negative customer service experience into far more positive experiences for customers.”

Three quarters of New Zealand’s energy comes from renewable sources, and though Australia is heavily dependent, for now, on coal fired stations, the 14 percent that renewable generation contributes is certain to grow fast. There’s plenty of sun and wind there, lots of land and good reliable hydropower in limited areas. These were favourable conditions to test Powershop’s business model, and to them can be added a population generally sensitive to environmental concerns.

One of the markets that interests Ari Sargent currently is the UK, where he has been spending a

POWERSHOP

lot of his time. It is a very different market, dominated by the ‘big six’ energy companies. Disrupting this complex and entrenched retail environment will be harder, he admits.

Additionally, the UK still derives less than nine percent of its electric from renewables. But as pointed out earlier the country faces a crisis in supply as old generating stations come to the end of their life and the question mark over nuclear has reopened the debate. The common factor is a market that is fed up with

the very complexity and obscurity that Powershop is breaking down.

The UK is a bigger market than Australia and Australia is bigger than New Zealand, he points out. “Growing into bigger markets is where we see our growth coming from . But within each individual market we will want to innovate our proposition to remain relevant; we continue to evolve our proposition to make it more valuable to customers.” Last year Powershop committed to a franchise arrangement with the German firm 25

ENERGY

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November 2016

“I decided it was better to be shaping the future rather than sitting on the sidelines!”

POWERSHOP

– Ari Sargent, CEO of Powershop Npower that will allow it to use its brand and service platform in the UK. Npower manages around ten percent of the 50 million gas and electricity accounts throughout Wales, Scotland and England. “There’s not the same level of innovation in the UK as we see in New Zealand,” says Sargent. “There are innovative sales approaches but not innovative service models.” He believes that the big six, including Npower itself, are starting to lose their customers to smaller energy companies but that these energy companies are themselves lagging in terms of new technology and innovation.

Powershop’s business model will be launched in the UK during the course of 2016 and may well prove to be the answer for people who find that their only option so far, switching from one supplier to another, is so confusing that they might as well not bother.

Ari Sargent,

CEO of POwershop

Ari Sargent has been working in the power industry for over twenty years.

As an executive on the wholesale side, he used to wonder why things had to be so complicated for power users – indecipherable bills combined with complicated tariffs and contracts was often followed up with frustratingly unresponsive customer service.

So setting up Powershop was a way for Ari to use all his industry knowledge and combine it with his inner technology geek, to make things easier for electricity customers.

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THE

SKY

IS THE LIMIT:

The rapid rise of Australia’s fastestgrowing hotel group Written by Sarah Megginson Produced by Glen White

MANTRA GROUP

Young, agile, and on a growth trajectory that could give you whiplash, Mantra Group is blazing its own unique path in the competitive hotel space. While recent acquisitions in Asia and Hawaii are undeniably exciting, it’s clear that the main focus is to cement its reputation as Australia’s go-to hotel destination

F

or some, it boils down to convenience: a microwave to heat up meals, a small kitchenette to prepare breakfast, and enough beds and space for the family to comfortably cohabitate without driving each other mad.

For others, it’s all about the luxury: of fluffy robes and feather pillows, of opulent furnishings, and all the other trimmings that come with decadent five-star service.

Others still are happy to do without all the mod cons in exchange for a great value price-point.

The minds behind Mantra Group are all-too-aware of the many diverse desires of the modern traveller. They seek to appeal to the masses but

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November 2016

at the same time, they don’t want to risk cannibalising one brand with another – which is why they have cleverly developed just three distinct yet complimentary brands, Mantra, Peppers and BreakFree.

“We have a footprint that includes all key gateway city and iconic leisure destination around the country and

“Australia is still our core market and where we see most of our growth in the next 12-18 months” – Tomas Johnsson, chief operating officer

H O S P I TA L I T Y

we’re starting to grow internationally, and our aim is to cover what most of the consumer bases want with three brands. It starts with our value brand BreakFree; we then have Mantra, offering something for everyone with a broad selection of accommodation

Tomas Johnsson Chief Operating Officer

ranging from hotel rooms to apartment-style product, which is a real competitive advantage; and ends with our premium brand, Peppers,” explains Tomas Johnsson, Chief Operating Officer, Mantra Group.

“We’re a bit different to traditional hotel groups as we are based on

Tomas joined Mantra Group in July 2007 as the Executive Director of Operations. In March 2016 Tomas moved into the role of Chief Operating Officer and is now responsible for the overall accountability for Operations, Sales, Marketing, Revenue, Distribution and Digital functions across the Group. Tomas has over 25 years’ experience in senior management roles in the tourism industry and is currently on the board of The Arts Centre Gold Coast.

Prior to joining Mantra Group, Tomas was the Senior Asset Manager for General Property Trust responsible for its leisure portfolio including Sheraton Four Points Darling Harbour, Ayers Rock Resort and Voyages Resorts. Tomas has also held senior management roles with Mirvac and Rydges Hotels. Tomas is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

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JB HI-FI SOLUTIONS

JB Hi-Fi Solutions is a major supplier to the Hospitality industry, servicing a number of National contracts within multinational Hotels, Motels and apartments throughout Australia and New Zealand.

JB Hi-Fi Solutions offer an extensive range of innovative and quality hospitality specific products, to assist you to deliver the best experience for your guests. Our range includes televisions, IPTV, bar fridges, appliances, conference room equipment, AV systems, phone systems, wireless networks and security systems. We are also a major provider of Marketing and Loyalty club incentive programmes rewards.

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H O S P I TA L I T Y

the Gold Coast, compared to our competitors, who usually have a head office in the USA, London or France.

We are a proudly Australian company and we think we are a little more dynamic than other organisations in that we have grown from scratch and really created our own success.”

Through its three distinct hotel brands, the group offers upwards of 21,000 rooms each night in high-rises and hotels scattered throughout Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and Hawaii.

In recent years the company has adopted an aggressive growth strategy with a firm goal of becoming Australia’s leading hotel group.

It’s clearly working: in 2006 it boasted just 41 properties within their stable, and this number has trebled to more than 126 properties today.

“Part of why we have been so successful is down to the way in which we leverage our core operating model,” shares Michael MoretLalli, Director of Acquisitions.

“A large part of our business, is our own balance sheet risk. We own strategic real estate within

Michael Moret-Lalli Director of Acquisitions Michael joined Mantra Group in June 2008 as Regional General Manager for Southern Gold Coast and Northern NSW regions, and was appointed as the Director of Acquisitions in 2010.

Michael is responsible for driving the expansion of Mantra Group’s Peppers, Mantra and BreakFree brands into the Australian, New Zealand and South-East Asia markets.

Michael has more than 20 years’ experience in the hospitality sector including fund and asset management roles over the Park Hyatt Sydney and Sheraton Mirage Resorts, and various senior management roles for Accor Hotels, Outrigger Hotels and Resorts and Southern Pacific Hotel Corporation.

Michael holds a Bachelor of Business from The University of Queensland.

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MANTRA GROUP

our hotels and management rights Mantra Group portfolio. that anchor us as a business and “We have structured our corporate we are structured largely like an office to operate a centralised services owner-operator as a result.” platform, which provides for a lot of The ability to be flexible whilst financial savings at the hotel level of driving three brands forward with a the business. There are not a lot of $25 million-plus annual marketing extra cost structures in back of house, spend is as functions such “absolutely a as payroll, sales result of our and marketing owner operator and HR are all leaning,” Moretdone corporately Lalli says. and supplied “As an to each hotel,” organisation, we Johnsson says. are very agile “This translates and deploy our to some own capital to really strong secure hotel efficiencies and operating rights – Tomas Johnsson, chief operating officer the result for for ourselves, or our investors is work with third party owners under a a lot of cost savings, all because we management agreement, depending structure ourselves differently. We on the opportunity,” he adds. are also perceived as being the best Another key to success has strata managers in this country and been the ability to drive strong in the world, with some systems that cost efficiencies through a are very unique. All of this means we centralised approach to managing can offer our partners and our third the dozens of hotels within the party owners a really compelling

“We pride ourselves on our strong culture – there’s a real can-do attitude that is evident amongst our staff”

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November 2016

H O S P I TA L I T Y

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Our No1 Partnership VANITY GROUP and MANTRA GROUP together have redefined the customer experience with best in class national hospitality amenity programs.

At Vanity Group we deliver the highest quality products, with attention to detail and distinctiveness, which makes us a leader in global cosmetics.

8+

million units supplied annually to Mantra Group

150 + years

of combined beauty industry expertise

Represented in

38 +

countries

�The strategic partnership we have forged together is a foundation for long term differentiation and growth. Vanity Group have upgraded and enhanced our guest experience by introducing strategically aligned Australian retail brands through our national hotel amenity program.�

Tomas Johnsson Chief Operating Officer Mantra Group

vanitygroup.com

H O S P I TA L I T Y

the group has come a long way since its humble beginnings.

Though the business has undeniably grown in leaps and bounds, Johnsson counters that its core culture and “people ethos” remains as it was back in the day, when the group’s head office occupied a single floor of office space.

Today, with more than 5,000 staff internationally – including around 450 at the group’s head office on the Gold Coast – Johnsson estimates that around one in six employees has been story that leads to excellent returns; our average 50%+ gross operating profit margins at hotel level is best in class, which at the end of the day what investors are looking for.”

The business now operates the second-largest network of accommodation (by number of rooms) properties in Australia, with Mantra Group’s recent growth leading to its listing on the ASX in June 2014.

In its first year as a public company, it was elevated to the ASX 200 ¬– proof if ever it was needed that

“We’ve very agile in our approach and we have more fun than the average hotel company” – Tomas Johnsson, chief operating officer

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www.vittoriacoffee.com

H O S P I TA L I T Y

with the company since the beginning.

“First and foremost, we have a genuine culture. Many of us started here early in the piece when the business was formed, and so we know, like and trust each other as

a significant core of people that has worked with each other through those early years and has gone through many challenges together. The growth spurt and success that has come about from that, is really the result of

colleagues and friends. We knew we were building something prior to the curve and we’ve gone through those early years together with genuine engagement,” he says.

“Out of our current employee base of over 5,500 people, there is

all of those early years of hard work.”

Building and sustaining a positive company culture is no easy feat, though Johnsson believes its success may be owing to its hardworking but playful style, which he says is “part of our DNA”.

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MANTRA GROUP

“We pride ourselves on our strong culture – there’s a real can-do attitude that is evident within the team. We are agile in our approach and have more fun than the average hotel company,” he says.

With trust and purpose at its centre, the business has been able to build more formal employee retention and growth strategies from that platform.

For instance, it has cultivated a system to support the career growth of women within the company.

“Mantra Group offers flexibility and the opportunity to work either parttime or with flexible working hours, where possible,” Johnsson explains.

Mantra Group also offers ongoing training and leadership programs, and has an initiative designed to move people through the organisation – nationally and internationally – as ‘rising stars’. An employee that joins the company at a hotel in Sydney, for instance, could demonstrate exceptional skills and then pitch for a role at one of the group’s foreign properties.

This could see Australian talent redeployed for roles as far away

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H O S P I TA L I T Y

as Hawaii, the site of its newest international hotel, Mantra Ala Moana.

Offering six food and beverage outlets and more than 1100 hotel suites, its new Waikiki property is “a really good example of our growth strategy internationally”, Moret-Lalli says.

“We look for markets that our Australian customers know well and as such our brands have immediate penetration, so we see some great opportunities to expand and quickly achieve traction. We have some aggressive plans in terms of growth to complementary offshore destinations,” he continues.

“That said, Australia is still our core market and where we see most of our growth in the next 12-18 months. Australia is a mature market and opportunities are hard to come by, but because of the flexible business models we offer – from hotel management agreements, to leases, to management letting rights of serviced apartments and also franchising – it gives us the full spectrum of solutions to take to the market.”

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H O S P I TA L I T Y

Johnsson adds: “Hotels and hospitality are amongst the super growth industries in Australia. When you look at the broader picture, there have never been as many airports and planes being built here as there are right now, with more and more people travelling. It’s a really great space to be in and we feel very positive about our industry.”

For more on Mantra’s hotel brands visit: Mantra Group

www.mantragroup.com.au

Peppers

www.peppers.com.au

Mantra

www.mantra.com.au

BreakFree

www.breakfree.com.au

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cares that

Technology

Written by John O’Hanlon Produced by David Kulowitch

UNITING

Uniting, is the services and advocacy arm of the Uniting Church in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. To deliver greater value and cost effectiveness to the people who rely on it, it has embarked on a digital transformation programme

U

niting is a multi-service, not for profit (NFP) organisation, caring for the needs of a wide range of people from children to the elderly. It is proactively seeking out where the needs are in the community, and though it is financially successful with a total revenue of A$694 million in 2015, this is all ploughed back into the organisation.

Uniting is operationally independent of the Uniting Church in Australia (UCA), the third largest Christian denomination in Australia, founded in 1977 to draw together the major nonconformist denominations however its ethos imbues the care organisation.

And if one word springs to mind to describe that ethos it is inclusivity. You could point to the

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November 2016

church’s radical support for LGBTI communities (gaining Rainbow Tick accreditation in 2015, Uniting is the first faith-based organisation in Australia to be officially recognised as LGBTI friendly) or Uniting’s establishment, fifteen years ago this year, of Australia’s (and perhaps the world’s) first medically supervised injection service (MCIS) at King’s Cross in Sydney. This is not an organisation that shies away from a challenge.

In all Uniting operates a dozen or so ‘lines of service’ of which by far the largest is residential aged care; others include carer support, support in the community for older and disabled people to live independently, counselling and mediation services, children and young people, and crisis

COMMUNITY AND RESIDENTIAL CARE

RENZO Mostacci

CIO at Uniting

Renzo has more than 20 years’ experience leading and growing the IT function in large organisations. Before joining United in 2014 he was CIO of Coates Hire, Australia’s largest industrial equipment provider

“The challenge for us and the health industry overall is to see how we make technology part of a coherent way of working and interacting with clients” – Renzo Mostacci, CIO at Uniting

care. With more than 8,000 employees and 3,000 volunteers the NSW/ACT business is the largest part of the grouping of independent businesses that make up the Uniting Care network across Australia.

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COMMUNITY AND RESIDENTIAL CARE

IT is about people The NFP sector has tended to lag behind when it comes to innovation and the adoption of new technologies. However its needs are not that different from those of any customer-focused organisation like a bank or a telecommunications company. Uniting’s current CIO Renzo Mostacci, appointed in February 2015, came from a very different sector having spent six years as CIO of Coates Hire, Australia’s largest equipment hire company serving large construction as well as mining.

Before that he was CIO at the State Transit Authority in Sydney. “I like working in organisations that are highly operational,” he says, “and Uniting is certainly one of those when you consider the number of staff and the number of services we operate. I am pushing for a different view of technology. Rather than just tidying up what’s there already I wanted to bring some of the learnings from other industries.”

The care sector in Australia, as elsewhere, has evolved from

a block funding model to a much more flexible pattern whereby clients are in charge of their own budgets, with a strong emphasis on care in the community. “This so-called client-directed care (CDC) model means we have to reassess our capabilities around community services and how we can do that efficiently at scale.

To address these challenges we are executing some exciting strategies at the moment.”

Mostacci set out to transform the way Uniting works and the way it engages and interacts with its clients. A technology-led transformation, he was convinced, was the way to maintain the organisation’s market presence in an increasingly deregulated and competitive market, to adapt it to the changing models for delivering community and aged care services.

Uniting’s nursing homes are also being transformed. It is called the ‘household model’, where staff create environments where residents can enjoy spontaneity, and have choices in how they

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spend their days. This means Uniting has had to re-think the way it works. Freeing staff from officebased reporting by encouraging the use of mobile devices makes service delivery much more effective, he points out, even in a residential care situation. “Our technology needs to be mobile.

Our staff are ‘doing business’ in home-like environments – flexibility and mobility is key.”

Forging a strategy Renzo Mostacci was keen to take up these challenges and delighted to have been given all the support, financial and managerial, he needed to implement a new strategy that would shift the organisation from its legacy of underinvestment in IT to a market leading position.

Systems, hardware, networks and the entire telecommunications infrastructure came under scrutiny, and a strategy was designed to address the key opportunities and challenges facing Uniting.

The first strategy is all about

UNITING IT STRATEGY: 1. Connect with clients 2. Become leaders in the use of point-of-care technology 3. Understand our customers 4. Become a data-led organisation 5. Create a unified back-office system 6. Move to cloud based services 7. Become an agile IT organisation

improving customer experience across a diverse and, given the size of NSW, geographically scattered client base. To facilitate this the company has purchased a customer relations management (CRM) system, Microsoft’s Dynamics platform, which is part of the wider MS AX enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to which Uniting is currently migrating all its back office systems, from financials to procurement and asset

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management. The second follows on seamlessly. The sector is facing a point-of-care (POC) technology boom, with devices and software that automatically collect data and information about an individual. “The challenge for us and the health industry overall is to see how we make technology part of a coherent way of working and interacting with clients.

If that information is stored in multiple systems it will not be very accessible. We are calling on the marketplace to bring innovation to bear on better integration of POC technology.� Uniting is working with key partners, notably iCare in the field of residential care and Icon Global on the community care side.

What does it mean to become a data led organisation? Over

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in

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COMMUNITY AND RESIDENTIAL CARE

the last 12 months Mostacci’s team has established a strong capability in data warehousing and business information (BI) systems.

It’s one thing to sit on a large volume of information, another to use it to understand what is happening in the organisation in a way that allows better decision making and strategic planning.

“We are transitioning to using those analytics to understand the current state better and for real time decision-making and following a path through that maturity transition from the past to the present state.”

Delivery and execution The strategy has already delivered a new way of thinking within the business. When Mostacci arrived, it looked more like a federation, rather like a commercial group that has grown by acquisition.

A pitfall some organisations fall into when implementing large programmes of work, he says, is trying to build all the structures at one go. “It is not as cost effective

as it may appear. The size and complexity often then results in considerably more rework as well as risk mitigation, which increase the cost of the project.”

He doesn’t want users to wait until everything is in place before they see the benefits, so he will deliver a series of smaller projects that embrace specific functions, starting early in 2017 with procureto-pay (P2P) capabilities, quickly rolling out other areas such as finance, procurement and HR. That epitomises the key final point of the strategy, introducing a more agile mindset into United’s IT execution and its wider operations.

He has hired some senior people to effect that agile transformation, and the total size of the IT team in Sydney will grow from its current level of 80 to almost 100 next year as the project cycle ramps up.

Successful delivery of the IT strategy depends on making the right technology choices and sound investments that are cost effective and future proof. Back office and point of care transformation and,

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UNITING essentially, phasing out on-premise solutions in favour of the cloud are interdependent aspects of how this will be delivered:

KEY STRATEGIC APPROACHES TO TECHNOLOGY: • Platform First: Utilise enterprise grade solution platforms to simplify the technology landscape and provide consistent data, process and user experience.

• Mobile First: Provide the optimal user experience aligned to the changing work patterns of Uniting staff, where a high percentage of the workforce is working in non-desk and field based settings solutions are designed with mobility as a predominant user experience.

• Cloud First: Utilise cloudbased services as the preferred option for all technology investments to leverage future technology trends and take advantage of the significant investments and focus being made into cloud based services by the majority of technology developers and providers.

The move to the cloud will also be phased. “Cloud strategies are sometimes rattled off with little attention to business focus outcomes,” Mostacci emphasises.

“Our strategy to move to the cloud is designed to ensure we can get the best capabilities out of the marketplace. We see the future as being in the cloud. Our new ERP and CRM, new analytics platform and new collaboration platforms will all be cloud oriented – but we are not rushing to move all our legacy and line of business systems to the cloud. We will look for the appropriate trigger points, where there will be significant benefit or cost advantage.”

Last but not least, in a highly people-orientated business, security is a constant concern.

At every level, from strategy to architecture to design and implementation, a comprehensive governance and security framework is essential, implemented and managed according to business and government compliance requirements. “We are ramping up a whole end-user computing

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COMMUNITY AND RESIDENTIAL CARE

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approach to enable significantly more mobility in the way our users work. At the same time we are delivering security through better mechanisms that are not just about constraining what they can and

can’t do.” It’s important to have a consistent security theme across all the projects and programmes, and that security is set at the appropriate level for Uniting.

It should be emphasised that

“I like working in organisations that are highly operational” – Renzo Mostacci, CIO at Uniting

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the IT team sees itself very much as a front line agent in delivering Uniting’s services, sharing the single objective of making life better for the people of New South Wales. That’s why Renzo Mostacci

came here in the first place. “It has been and will continue to be quite a challenge to bring about a digital transformation that will help level the playing field for Australians, but it’s one I truly relish.”

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Diversity drives global innovation at

THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

Written by Sarah Megginson Produced by David Kulowitch

With a focus on innovating at a global level, the University of Sydney is pushing new boundaries in digital education delivery.

THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

“We have on-board lots of exceptional people, involved in real global innovation, so our work is massively diverse” – Mike Day, Chief Information Officer

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very business wrestles with IT management to some degree, but few deal with it to the extent of academic institutions. Technology impacts almost every part of university life, from enhancing the student experience and fostering an online campus, to maximising opportunities in research and development and developing curriculum.

Mike Day, who has been Chief Information Officer at the University of Sydney since January 2016, says he and his team are fully aware of the depth of opportunities and challenges underfoot. Yet, he believes one of the University’s biggest challenges – its labyrinth of moving parts – is also its biggest strength.

“The CIO role here is so interesting because it’s so diverse and complex. For instance, there aren’t many companies with 57,000 customers who are essentially allowed behind their firewall – but we’ve got that in our student cohort,” he explains.

Currently ranked in the top 1 percent of universities across the world, the University of Sydney has strategically worked to develop its reputation for innovation.

Its goal is to cultivate an environment where the community not only “embrace best practices, but push boundaries through experimenting and collaborating closely on cross-sector innovation”.

“We have on-board lots of exceptional people,

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THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

“Social media platforms play a huge role in everyday life for our students, so the University absolutely needs to be there too” – Mike Day, Chief Information Officer involved in real global innovation, so our work is massively diverse from that point of view,” he says.

Day oversees the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) department of more than 300 full time staff and around 70 contractors, and for their efforts, they monitor and

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manage a staggering number of projects and portfolios.

They are always looking to answer the question of how they can do things differently, more efficiently and with better outcomes, both within the university, and when preparing students for the real world.

“Working with our colleagues in the Education Portfolio, we investigate how we can use technology to support different ways of learning and teaching.

We’re also looking at how we can use tech to support the career development of our students, and give them the right skills to move onto workplaces of the future when they graduate,” Day explains.

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“We always have to consider, not only how does technology works best within our business as a university, but also, what is the best digital practice in each of the disciplines we teach? Our academics are succeeding in teaching and guiding graduates who are at the forefront of their discipline and this in itself is a huge feat. Consider, for example, law – digitalisation has impacts across a number of domains. How does digitalisation affect the law?

How does it affect the practice of law? The teaching of law?

And also the research of law?”

This is a revolutionary approach to the traditional model of higher education process, which assumes one teacher presents

to a large group of students.

Day says the University of Sydney is trying to flip the traditional classroom experience on its head by giving students the work before class.

They then come into the lecture for a more collaborative approach, where they work in groups and problem-solve as a team, making better use of both the academics’ and the students’ time. The opportunities that tech innovations afford the higher education industry are “enormous” according to Day. “We seek to blend on-line and on-campus learning, which creates all kinds of opportunities.

For instance, as a matter of routine now, we record all of our lectures. This helps students

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TECHNOLOGY

who miss a lecture due to illness get back up to speed on their coursework,” he says.

“There is quite a lot of evidence, both from Australia and overseas, that when you record lectures it can improve overall attendance, which I think comes down to

Improving the student experience through the University’s web portal, online campus and technology innovations is a huge initiative for the University, with certain advances available now that were almost impossible to imagine a decade or two ago.

the fact that in the past, it was all too easy to get behind and stay behind. Now, it’s easy to remain on track with coursework, as blended learning models mean you’re not constrained by your campus attendance.”

They also take advantage of tools such as videoconferencing to allow guest lecturers to connect virtually from across the country and overseas to deliver presentations in real-time.

This gives students access to

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experts in a specific field, which “mirrors and marries with what happens in the real world in professional practice,” says Day. “What we’re doing with educational delivery is designed to mimic what our students will go on to experience in the real world. So in medicine, let’s say, specialists in a particular area of diagnosis can videoconference in for a second opinion, in real time,” Day says.

“Obviously this type of technology also removes the challenges of distance, which is a particular challenge in Australia. It also means that world-leading universities like ours, where we have experts in subjects that are very specialized, can easily share expertise with others from around the world.”

Innovative educational tools further allow for learning to be delivered to remote areas, such as the University of Sydney’s One Tree Island Research Station on the Great Barrier Reef. The site spans four hectares of the reef and has had very little human

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MIKE DAY CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER Mike is an experienced CIO and accomplished digital leader, well versed in developing both technical and digital strategies, recognising and exploiting the differences between leading digital transformation and traditional IT management methods. A creative innovator, he balances opportunity and risk to place his team, department and organisation at forefront of digital delivery, making the most of new possibilities as they arise.

He collaborates across departmental boundaries, builds productive relationships with strategic partners and is adept at building high performing teams through talent management and succession planning initiatives. Based on long experience in hybrid roles in Higher Education, Public Sector and Defence, Mike has developed a wide range of both business and technical skills, including very strong financial management and in a variety of development methods, programme and project management, and business intelligence and analytics. He uses these skills to establish a single, combined digital and technical vision that spans both business and technology selection and he acts as a cultural broker in its delivery. He speaks at international conferences and events on digital techniques as they apply in Higher Education.

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disruption or influence; here, the students, so we absolutely need University of Sydney’s pioneering to be there as well. It comes down research has helped facilitate to each teaching practitioner and breakthroughs in climate change, how they want to bring in and use geology and marine observation. that technology; whether it’s using All of this, and Day still believes social media directly, or leveraging we’re “really only at the beginning tools and techniques that use the of exploring what technology can same principals, it doesn’t really do to contribute matter. Either way, to industry, the it has an impact community and on how students government, and to expect to be enable our students engaged with to be significant the University,” contributors locally Day says. and globally”.

“That said, One of the we also must more interesting consider what spaces to watch students want.

– Mike Day, Chief Information Officer develop is social In one of my media, he adds. previous roles, I The demographic of students asked my students whether they and the unrelenting popularity would allow lecturers to engage of social media platforms with them on Facebook, and they such as Twitter, Facebook, said they would welcome it much Instagram and Snapchat, means the same way they would welcome these types of communication their Dad dancing at their 18th channels cannot be ignored. birthday party: reluctantly, but only “Social media platforms play a knowing that it was inevitable!” huge role in the everyday life of our

“What we’re doing with educational delivery is designed to mimic what our students will go on to experience in the real world”

STATISTICS NEW ZEALAND: AHEAD OF THE TECH CURVE

As a government agency that delivers critical insights for economic and social growth, it’s essential for Statistics New Zealand to be ahead of the technology curve. Chief Digital Officer Chris Buxton shares that they’re not just ahead: they’re innovating at levels that have other government agencies queuing up to follow suit.

Written by Sarah Megginson

C

hris, whose previous roles saw him in various positions with the UK military including Cryptography, Intelligence and developing electronic warfare software has had a broad career that has seen him live everywhere from Cyprus to Germany, Italy and the Gulf.

Now, he’s leveraging his global experience and expertise in using the latest technology in his role at Statistics New Zealand, where he’s

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Produced by David Kulowitch

relishing the opportunity to “drive the transformational journey and look for ways to harness these capabilities for the betterment of the citizen.”

Statistics New Zealand’s technology transformation journey began several years ago and is now entering its second phase, Chris explains.

“What they really focused on during the initial phases was risk mitigation, along with a migration

“We collect the data that nobody else can collect… there’s a huge breadth and depth to what we do” to new technology solutions – but there was no real transformation of the operating model or the way that Statistics New Zealand delivered the business,” he says.

“Now we’re really starting to look at how we deliver services and how to shift to the right space, looking at the cloudbased capabilities we can use.”

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This has involved a big transformation for Statistics New Zealand internally, where they’ve established a technology risk management program and refreshed their organisational strategy.

“From an operating perspective, the traditional technology silos just weren’t working for us and so our new IT strategy is far leaner

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and more agile,” Chris says.

“We now have ‘digital service lines’ built around our services, rather than an IT department, and though it’s still early days, we’re starting to see a different conversation happening across the group. It’s very much more open and outcomefocused. Moving forward, it’s really about leveraging IT as a Service, growing collaboration, and driving an open source cultural approach to the delivery of digital services.”

“This has been a challenging process at times and certainly not without its hurdles, however, I am really pleased with the position we are now in.”

About a year ago, they also began moving towards Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), a form of cloud computing that provides virtual computing resources over the internet.

At the same time, they started exploring the benefits of converting their buildings to Network as a Service (NaaS), which is a business model for delivering

network services virtually, on a consumption based model.

“A number of government stakeholders came together last year, under the leadership of the Government CIO, and signed a new agreement, around the delivery of Telecommunications as a Service(TaaS). We were partners within that piece of work and so far we’ve converted two of our buildings to TaaS, as a governmentshared capability,” Chris explains.

“A lot of people see the TaaS as a negative, but what we’re seeing through this is that the service is really going above and beyond; what we’re getting is more than we expected. We’re effectively paying the vendor for a connectivity service, so we don’t have to worry about the underlying infrastructure and how it’s all put together. We have three wireless networks built into the building so we get multiples networks and connectivity, and a lot of different services as standard.”

Other agencies are now looking at what they’re doing at Statistics

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S TAT I S T I C S N E W Z E A L A N D

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New Zealand, to see if they can replicate the same efficiencies, shared economies and resources within their own departments.

It all started, Chris explains, with an Act of God – the earthquake that brought the city of Christchurch to its knees in 2011.

The Government commited to rebuilding and when they relaunched in our new building February 2016, it was in a completely new coworking space – one with no fewer than nine different government

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departments working side-by-side.

“It really is a true, co-located shared services buildings, as no agency has a private space, other than for specific business needs.

There are shared meeting spaces and it’s built in such a way as to allow other government agencies to share mutual resources and services. It’s also fully Wi-Fi enabled so you can BYOD (bring your own device),” he says.

“We’re just converting our Wellington building now to support

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“Moving forward, it’s really about leveraging IT as a Service, growing collaboration, and pushing down an open source cultural approach to the delivery of digital services” 800, from 2 agencies. Next will be Auckland. Overall, this allows for co-located, shared networking facilities with as many agencies as necessary within each building – and they are all able to operate as they want to within those spaces, in an agile, autonomous and open way.

It’s proven quite an exciting model.”

It’s just one of a raft of exciting

initiatives Chris is driving as CDO. Technological evolutions in the data realm mean organisations can now “do so much, so quickly” – and in the statistics world, this translates to the digitisation of massive and meaningful data collections.

“We collect the data that nobody else can collect. We have a survey force of around 120-plus people

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“With up to 10 agencies within each building… they are all able to operate as they want to within those spaces, in an agile, autonomous and open way. It’s proven quite an exciting model.”

Chris Buxton

Chief Digital Officer and around 200 surveys in the field at any one time. We also go into supermarkets and collect pricing information, so there’s a huge breadth and depth to what we do,” Chris explains.

“Interestingly, up until about six months ago, most of our data collection processes were primarily paper-based. What we’re working on now is the digitisation of that process.”

This has involved much

organisational change in company structure and infrastructure, and their previous processes didn’t fit the new cloud-based approach. Capturing pricing data at supermarkets is one such example.

“The traditional model used to capture this pricing information previously involved filling out paper, but now we give them a tablet to scan these prices in immediately.

The final piece of the puzzle will be moving to a wholly mobile device environment,” Chris says.

“There was a lot of change management strategy involved in this transition; we exposed our workforce to the tablet before they had to start using it and invested

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in socialisation and support.

As a result of this collaborative process, a lot of suggestions and improvements came through and we’ve achieved a better outcome.”

Another big initiative they have been running for the last two years is the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI), which was created to bring together government data statistics for policy, research and analysis.

In essence, it takes the capabilities of the Census and leverages it further, as the IDI combines 27 large government data sets and a number of smaller ancillary data sets, in areas as diverse as education, health, welfare, tax, business and the Census.

“Using this, we’re starting to put together a really rich picture of New Zealand,” Chris says.

Their biggest challenge now, he adds, is managing their next move, as they’re almost guilty of “being a little bit too successful”.

“Our recent changes have generated a lot of real excitement, as we’re one of the first agencies in New

Zealand to be doing things this way, and a queue of other agencies are wanting to pick it up. The customer demand for IDI has outstripped capacity. The demand for shared services has outstripped capacity.

These are good problems to have, but they do create challenges.

The great upside is that we’re going through a heavy recruitment process and it’s attracting really high caliber candidates,” Chris says.

“Everything we’re doing now is a reaction to the recognition that we can’t take several years to evolve. For Statistics New Zealand as an agency, we have to move quickly – because the data environment is moving very quickly, and we have to keep up.”

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Driving value in the digital economy Written by Sarah Megginson Produced by Josef Smith

A cloud-based marketplace for modern business, SAP Ariba enables simple yet intelligent exchanges between millions of buyers and suppliers.

But it’s much more than sourcing and procurement software: as a platform that drives value as its core function, SAP Ariba aims to transform businesses for the digital economy

E

very day, millions of companies use the SAP Ariba Network to manage their business relationships and allow their customers to shop, share and save.

As a cloud-based business network, SAP Ariba enables users to discover, connect and collaborate around more than $1 trillion in commerce every year and build, manage and deepen their B2B relationships. Or more accurately, as SAP’s Lorraine Longato explains, “We don’t sell software, we deliver business outcomes.”

As the Value Engineering Director

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– Procurement & Business Networks in ANZ at SAP Ariba, Lorraine is part of a team that delivers strategic advice to their major customers, with an overall goal of streamlining business analytics, improving procurement processes and engaging with the digital economy at an optimal level.

“We have a structured methodology that we follow, which is centred around value with the customer at the core,” Lorraine explains.

“The organisations we work with are all at different stages of their digital transformation. Some are

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The source of value

Procurement executives across the globe continue to see the potential they can unlock throughout the supply chain. They understand that business today is about engaging, collaborating, adapting instantly to evolving needs, and finding new sources of value. Getting that value, however, can prove a challenge.

Deloitte + SAP Opportunity unchained In search of answers, many are turning to enabling solutions such as SAP® S/4HANA, a digital core platform that can help streamline business processes and support real-time analytics for decisionmaking—whether onsite, via the cloud, or via mobile. They also continue to turn to SAP® Ariba® solutions, which provide access to a robust digital marketplace of suppliers, as well as capabilities for supplier management, spend visibility, and related sourcing and procurement execution needs.

Increasingly, many organisations are attempting to align their SAP S/4HANA integrated approach to leveraging insights, identifying new opportunities for value, and simplifying business. Among these organisations, leaders understand that managing a business today has become about more than managing the enterprise.

It’s now about managing the entire chain of goods, services, and activities that extend from the supplier all the way to the customer and the customer’s experience.

The traditional supply chain has transformed into a value chain, in which each step of the business process— from sourcing to sale—represents an innovate, and to deliver value.

Making strategy count Though the vision of new value is clear for

of SAP Ariba and other supporting SAP solutions requires more than vision. It requires strategy, experience, and an ability to execute. It requires help.

© 2016 Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

With more than 16,000 practitioners dedicated to SAP solutions in our worldwide network, and a leading global Strategy & Operations/Sourcing & Procurement practice, Deloitte stands ready to help businesses on their journey to new value through the use of SAP Ariba and SAP S/4HANA solutions. As an awardwinning Global SAP Services Partner and a long-serving value-added reseller for SAP Ariba, we understand the full potential of SAP solutions.

Armed with decades of sourcing and procurement consulting know-how and IT experience, our network of professionals operate at the intersection of business and technology— moving nimbly to help processes, and then put in place powerful tools to help them reach their business objectives. Our testedå methodologies, playbooks, templates, and accelerators for delivering solutions will help you get to results swiftly—in any industry and in any market.

Why collaborate with Deloitte to transform your business with SAP solutions? There are plenty of reasons. Here are a few.

Business focus. approach means we begin with understanding your current business processes, how you can improve them, and how a realigned set of processes can work within a modern SAP landscape to deliver new value for your organisation.

SAP Ariba know-how. We’re more than a reseller of SAP software licenses and an experienced SAP implementer. We

implementations that pre-date SAP’s acquisition of Ariba. We have extensive experience in system integration, with a long history of delivering projects on time and on budget.

Tools for moving fast. We understand that speed is critical. Building on the SAP Activate innovation adoption framework, we use the Deloitte Enterprise Value Delivery for Agile approach to guide your supply chain transformation, using proprietary tools to jump-start and then accelerate the transformation.

Comprehensive capabilities. Our global network of business and technology means we can address needs across the enterprise. More than that, we can customise SAP Ariba, SAP S/4HANA, and other SAP solutions to meet the unique needs of your business.

SAP alignment. We have a lengthy history with SAP solutions—with a global SAP alliance that extends back to 1989.

Our long-standing experience plus our mean we deeply understand where SAP solutions are going. And as recipient of the 2016 SAP Pinnacle Award for SAP S/4HANA Adoption Partner of the Year, we understand how to unlock the solution’s value and align it with your procurement activities and your business goals.

To learn how Deloitte can help you leverage SAP Ariba and SAP S/4HANA to discover new sources of value in your procurement process, please contact us at SAP@deloitte.com.

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small and nimble and can change quickly. Others are undergoing a huge transformation by working through a multiyear program of change; if you’re a big Fortune 500 company, then it’s important to plan for longevity.”

Lorraine, who began her career in engineering, takes her role as a trusted professional procurement practitioner very seriously, as she knows precisely what is possible with optimal systems and technologydriven strategies in place.

“We become strategic, trusted advisers, helping our clients by guiding, advising and collaborating with them to streamline their analytics and procurement process,” she says.

Take the example of Malaysiabased Alphamatic Systems Sdn BhD. As a largely manual, paperbased business, they realised their old-school procedures and systems were hampering their growth and moved to digitise their operations by joining the Ariba Network.

The company started by collaborating on purchase orders and invoices electronically with its customers, and soon set up an

online catalogue showcasing its products and services. As a result of its efforts, Alphamatic has seen revenue from its largest customer increase by 40 percent, while its payment cycles cut in half.

Closer to home, a SAP Ariba/ Deloitte collaboration was recently successful in combining both a leading cloud-based software solution with deep procure to pay industry knowledge and experience, resulting in two significant joint engagements with a large Australian health insurance provider and public sector transportation organisation.

Meanwhile in the utilities sector, SAP has worked with many providers such as Ausnet Services, AusGrid, and Synergy.

Ausnet Services operates an electricity and gas energy network in “a dynamic environment that is characterised by regulatory changes, technology advancements and shifting customer behaviours and values relating to their energy usage”, says Cor Van Der Scheer, Procurement Processes & Systems Manager.

“Ausnet worked closely with SAP

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Ariba as we implemented our new ERP platform with a view to achieve transactional efficiencies, while greatly enhancing the way we manage the energy network asset base,” Cor says.

“The most significant contributor to achieving that goal was our opportunity to leverage the Ariba Network integration with both our Plant Management (PS) and Project Management (PM) modules in SAP and our significant key suppliers.

The combination of work order to purchase order automation in SAP, generated from the work orders, transmitted to suppliers through the Ariba Network as well as receiving Service Entry Sheets from suppliers through the same medium. This automatically integrated into SAP natively and created both an efficient and effective end-to-end process management enhancement. This type of system integration use is amongst the very first instances in the world, enabling us to stay ahead of the game on a technology platform to harness benefits back into the business.”

She adds, “The innovation delivered through the cloud and improved

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integration into SAP ERP coupled with the desire to assist their customers realise value from their investment make SAP Ariba the leader in its field.”

Undoubtedly, superior technology equals greater efficiency and in the utilities sector in particular, it’s imperative to turn to an optimised and efficient digital platform, Lorraine says.

“The Australian Chamber of Commerce recently released a report about which sectors are growing, and utilities and professional services are the last two on the list. There is no forecast of growth. So by helping them to define value and simplify the way they do business, we can help them leverage what they have to improve their overall operations,” she explains.

The SAP Ariba team is passionate and proactive about transforming businesses to maximise returns in a digital economy, Lorraine adds, that they are currently “releasing an innovation every quarter to scale and grow in this environment”.

“Our goal is to understand how we can improve our clients’ processes and programs, to minimise their cost to transact and to do business more

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efficiently. That way, they are able to deliver more to their bottom line, saving funds for the public sector that can be better deployed to front line services that make a real difference, or in private sector return savings that directly translate to P&L benefits and in turn shareholder value and/or dividends.

It’s a compelling position,” she says.

“When I think of how procurement has changed over time, it’s interesting – we have actually challenged most of the people in our team to stop using the word procurement, as we’re fundamentally involved in a company’s total financials. It’s commerce across the board, and our toolset with a collaboratively established sustainable business case offers a quick way to find and drive value.”

Leveraging Ariba’s technology is not just about driving efficiencies and improving productivity, however; it’s also about creating transparency and building organisational reputation. This is achieved through a commitment to sustainable procurement, finance and business practices. Every C-level executive and or shareholder has a vested interest in transparency,

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governance and value, delivering on all these key criteria with a simplified user experience ensures business integrity and continuity. In a digital world where the rate of change is constant, and fraud and cyber security risks prevail, it is imperative to have a business benefits plan, an implementation road map, change management process defined and a collaborative environment where these benefits can be maintained and sustained over time.

Interestingly, Lorraine was head of sustainability in one of her previous roles. By applying her end-to-end operational engineering with her sustainable procurement experience, Lorraine is able to get right to the heart of the matter, which centres on the fact that technology and sustainability essentially go hand-in-hand.

“We have a lot of sustainability initiatives, not just around our environment but also around people and programs. One is our One Billion Lives initiative, which involves combining SAP, our products, our people, our passion and our time to engage with NGOs, government agencies and our ecosystem to

deliver social outcomes in various areas, including health, education, and disaster and emergency management,” Lorraine says.

One major project commenced in March 2016, when the SAP India team pitched their One Billion Lives Cancer Research Project. Dr. Ramesh, a seasoned oncologist, highlighted the need for a solution to consolidate cancer patient data, in order to prescribe the best treatment and medication for each cancer patient in India.

“As a survivor of cancer, not once but twice, it’s important to me to be associated to an organisation that aligns with my personal values and beliefs. Of which finding a cure for cancer resonates,” she says.

The project is data collation, analytics and insights. To date, SAP has built a Proof of Concept and it’s now in testing phase – putting the project well on track to reach the initiative’s overall goal to change one billion lives, this is only one amongst many to really impact lives and make a real difference.

Taking the concept of sustainability one step further, Lorraine says it’s

SAP Ariba and EY: The powerful joint venture driving digital value EY and SAP Ariba have come together to advance our clients’ digital strategies. In collaboration, we have been experiencing regional and global success by coming together early in engagements, thus harnessing benefits and fostering transparency with customers.

EY’s unique offering is its business integration approach, which takes a functional view of capability, rather than just a systems view. A business integration approach considers the required business outcomes and improvements to enable a better way of doing things, now. In the future, this approach will provide a platform for organisations to adopt continued automation and digitisation as it evolves.

EY and SAP Ariba have commenced work with a global consumer products company to provide its digital support journey. As a direct result, the company saw considerable improvements across productivity of the source-to-settle cycle, and it made their journey “Run Simple”.

It is not just about introducing a more streamlined way of buying things. It’s also about planning for future automation and providing a new way to collaborate with suppliers, all powered by the SAP cloud.

The power of having the business advisor and software solution provider working together can help our clients to get real value and results from their investment.

Catherine McCourt Partner, Advisory at EY

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Lorraine Longato Director of Value Engineering, Procurement LoB (for ANZ)

Lorraine Longato joined the SAP Procurement LoB team to lead the Value Engineering (VE) function for the ANZ region.

The VE team works closely with our major customers to streamline business analytics and improve procurement decision making, by delivering strategic advice, undertaking program planning and business case analysis.

Longato has nearly 20 years industry experience across a range of sectors covering FMCG, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Heavy Freight & Logistics, ITC Management Platforms, Energy and Sustainability, with the past seven years focused on Strategic Procurement and Change Management Initiatives.

Longato has strong industry networks, having held roles representing industry and both the public and private sector. Lorraine is also an active contributor to procurement associations, including the Faculty Round Table, CIPSA, PASA and Procurious (Foundation Member).

Her broad operational experience, coupled with her strategic procurement background and qualifications, enables her to develop and facilitate cradle-to-grave programs, yielding savings and efficiencies throughout the ANZ region.

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crucial to also consider brand longevity.

“You have to think about every aspect of your procurement journey because these days, people are very savvy. People are on devices 24/7 and they know everything about your business. They demand transparency and if you don’t align with these growing winds of change, you are isolating yourself,” she says.

“The world is a fast-moving place and reputational risk is now first and foremost a priority as part of the procurement function. There are a number of supply chain risks, such as slave labour in the supply chain or fraudulent behaviour. The information is out there, we can source it for you in one place - Ariba. There are no excuses for not knowing what’s going on with your supply chain and there should be no knowledge debts, because technology has enabled us to understand every link in the chain.”

Embarking on a digital transformation journey requires you to know of these trends, Hyper-connectivity, Big Data, Cloud, Smart Devices and an awareness of Cyber Security risks enables us to map together with our

clients their capacity and capability gaps. This enables us to collaborate to define their road map towards benefits that will optimally leverage technology within their own organisation. It needn’t be as drastic or confronting as you may expect it to be, Lorraine adds.

“From our perspective, it’s about enhancing what you’ve got, rather than ripping everything out and replacing it. We start by asking: Why, then Where do you want to be, and where are you now? Our job is to work with you to get from here to there and that conversation is always based on value delivery,” she says.

“What we do as a value engineering function is to define value in what we call the four value levers: price reduction, compliance, process savings and cash position. We also have a value realisation team, they have a process around full life cycle analysis to deliver maximum value constantly. As we said previously, you don’t buy our software – you buy a business outcome.”

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SMART FILTER TECHNOLOGY

MANN+HUMMEL has recently opened its IoT lab in Singapore, a hub for digital innovation that will boost technological expertise and cement the company’s position as global leader in filtration

Written by Tom Wadlow Produced by Josef Smith

MANN+HUMMEL

I

in the future, smarter.

The group’s product portfolio includes air filter systems, intake manifold systems, liquid filter systems, and technical plastic parts, as well as filter elements for vehicle servicing and repair. For mechanical In the filtration industry, MANNengineering, process engineering HUMMEL is leading the way and other industrial applications, in digitisation, innovation and the company’s product range embracement encompasses industrial filters, of IoT. Already “In two years’ time I want all membrane the leading filter producer parts of the organisation to be filters for water and supplier on a digital roadmap or path” filtration and filter systems. in the world, – Nicolas Payen, MANN+HUMMEL In the last the company Group’s Director of IoT Lab years, due the manufactures growing concern associated with more than 700 million filter elements reductions in air quality, the group each year – elements with the is developing an extensive range potential to become smart. of air filters for various applications Its 20,000-strong workforce like cabin filters, air purifier filters, across more than 70 locations worldwide help to produce and and filters for HVAC system. With sell about €4 billion-worth of such solutions, buildings and filter products each year, helping transportation systems are able automotive and mechanical to provide the right air quality to engineering industries become their occupants and so at the cleaner, more efficient and, lowest energy cost. This is also ndustry 4.0 and the Internet of Things (IoT) is everywhere. The digital economy is impacting upon almost every individual and business’s lives, from smartphonecontrolled central heating to M2M communication on production lines.

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MANN+HUMMEL

an opportunity for the group to help build a healthier society.

Determined to maintain its position as worldwide filtration leader, MANN+HUMMEL is moving fast.

With the acquisition of the Affinia Group earlier this year around 4,500 employees, some 10 locations and approximately €900 million in sales had joined MANN+HUMMEL. But it is the addition of expertise, in the form of a dedicated IoT lab in Singapore, which will continue to set the company apart in years to come.

A unique challenge

Nicolas Payen is MANN+HUMMEL Group’s Director of IoT Lab. Having spent several years at Schneider Electric working on innovation projects, Payen moved to Singapore last year and has overseen the development of MANN+HUMMEL’s Centre of Excellence for IoT. A global pioneer in smart cities, Singapore has a thriving smart technology hub and has been base of Asia operations for the company for more than four years.

“I have been here a year but there

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is certainly much more I could learn about the place,” Payen muses.

“I joined MANN+HUMMEL at the end of March as this presented a unique entrepreneurial challenge for me, something that had to be created completely from scratch.

“There are a lot of challenges but with that come a lot of potential rewards. This is a great opportunity for me to make a real difference and apply the knowledge I have picked up through my career.

The team is in place and the lights are on, but it is too early to

“We need to create a network of people from inside to company who understand how the lab can drive forward their own parts of the business” – Nicolas Payen, MANN+HUMMEL Group’s Director of IoT Lab

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already entrenched across suggest the job is done and that the multinational, multifaceted the rewards are there just yet. business, it is Payen’s job to “The economy and industry of communicate the digital innovation today are embracing technology ethos that will be harnessed at a rapid pace, and we have to be by the Singapore lab, bringing ready to bring technology into our together all parts of the business industry where it makes sense to do to embark on an IoT journey. so. How do we use electronics and “One of the main challenges I software and blend it with our have been working on is current knowledge on communicating what filtration, knowledge which spreads right we are doing in the around the world? lab with the many That is the question business units in we are always MANN+HUMMEL,” asking ourselves.” he explains. “We need Number of employees The lab officially to create a network of at MANN-HUMMEL opened on July 11 in people from inside to the Fusionopolis Tower company who understand in One North, the heart of how the lab can drive forward Singapore’s burgeoning start-up their own parts of the business. community. It marks an era where We have a very strong support digital innovation very much sits base in the form of our top management in the company alongside MANN+HUMMEL’s foundational set of values by which it – our Group Vice President Technology,our CEO, and the operates, known as FILTER (Focus, chairman of the supervisory board Integrity, Leadership, Teamwork, are right behind us and helping the Excellence and Respect). project to create momentum. The With the FILTER values

20,000

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main priority for us is to understand the needs of our business units, which we treat almost as our own customers, and then to understand what their customers need.

However, we don’t lose sight of the fact that there is a balance to be struck in terms of executing our own IoT vision, while at the same time being pragmatic and designing what our customer wants.”

Next level

Payen already has 30 projects in the pipeline, with 10 being actively worked on by the lab team, currently made up of five to 10 locallyrecruited technology experts.

The lab’s work in digitisation will impact the business and filtration industry in three major ways: how filters are made; how filters are sold and how filters are used by customers and consumers. “IoT encompasses a very broad range of possibilities, and this means we must be flexible with the work done in the lab,” Payen adds. “This will of course depend on the customer,

ENERGY

what their demands are and how we can enhance their value chain.�

One area of focus for the MANN+HUMMEL lab at the moment revolves around maintenance and filter replacement. Information and data farmed through IoT and displayed to customers through connected devices will be able to inform users when filters are likely to need replacing. Payen also revealed that the lab team is looking at smart solutions for the air filtration sector, where the company provides products for automotive and construction partners. In time the lab will become a showcasing facility for MANN+HUMMEL, demonstrating to existing and potential clients what the firm has to offer away from conventional filters and parts.

As the team expands, it will the base of expertise from which MANN+HUMMEL can draw upon. The company already has partnerships with universities in South East Asia, Germany and the USA, and will be interacting much more with disruptive start-ups and

Nicolas Payen Director of IoT Lab French national, Nicolas Payen has 15 years of experience in both engineering and marketing/commercial leadership roles. He started his career in the IT services industry as software engineer.

His IoT journey started in 2008 as the co-founder of a corporate start-up for Schneider-Electric to develop a Smart Homes / Smart Grid solution. In 2013, he moved to Hong-Kong to head the Smart Space Category for Asia Pacific. In March 2016, he joined MANN+HUMMEL to support its digital transformation and lead its IoT initiative. He has a deep interest in social and technology innovation.

He lived in France, Netherlands, Sweden, Hong-Kong, and Singapore.

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MANN+HUMMEL

“The economy and industry of today is embracing technology at a rapid pace, and we have to be ready to bring technology into our industry where it makes sense to do so” – Nicolas Payen, MANN+HUMMEL Group’s Director of IoT Lab

IoT specialists in the near future.

With 30 projects already on the table, the temptation to press full steam ahead must be there, though Payen exercises sensible caution at this early stage.

“We have an agreed plan of direction with the Head of Technology for the coming months, and it is important to stay focused and understand that the mission of the lab will change over time.

Today, we do not have a dedicated portfolio of digital products – over time this will be developed and there will be a need for a team to manage this new portfolio. The lab may have a role to play in this.

“It is important to stay focused in the near future and not to grow too fast – we must get it right to maintain our leading position in the industry. In two years’ time I want all parts of the organisation to be on a digital roadmap or path.”

THE ROAD TO SUCCESS Helping keep Australia on the move, civil engineering and construction major Fulton Hogan is responsible for some of the country’s most important infrastructure projects.

Written by Adam Turner Produced by Erika Kracer

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ounded in New Zealand in 1933, Fulton Hogan started in the asphalt business – building state highways – and soon grew to tackle major construction projects. Expanding across the Tasman, today Fulton Hogan is responsible for building major Australian transportation projects such as upgrades to Melbourne’s M80 Ring Road, Queensland’s Bruce Highway and the Princes Highway south of Sydney. Fulton Hogan is also involved in the construction of airports, ports and rail links across the country, as well as wind farms and hydroelectricity stations.

While Fulton Hogan’s interests stretch far and wide, with 25 regional businesses across Australia and New Zealand, it has maintained a decentralised business structure which empowers each region to deliver local projects. This freedom allows a large business like Fulton Hogan to remain agile, but in return it creates challenges in terms of supply chain management and making the most of its

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Jane Falconer, Executive GM Procurement Jane was appointed to the Executive General Manager Procurement role in March 2014. In this role she is responsible for establishing and leading a central procurement function to support Fulton Hogan’s third party purchasing activity across New Zealand and Australia.

Jane joins Fulton Hogan’s group management team from the automotive and energy sectors in Australia where she has spent over ten years developing and implementing strategic procurement teams and processes into organisations to reduce operating costs, manage suppliers and create sustainable value for organisations.

Jane’s qualifications include a BSc in Chemistry and an MBA.

bargaining power with suppliers.

Fulton Hogan operates its own asphalt manufacturing plants for its road-building and maintenance businesses, and operates a number of quarries throughout New Zealand and Australia.

“In a traditional manufacturing supply chain, all roads lead to the manufacturing facility and then on to the customer,” says Jane Falconer – Fulton Hogan’s Executive General Manager, Procurement.

“Our world is different because our supply chain is largely focused

on the provision of materials and services to project or work sites around the country, where these materials and services are consumed in the field.”

“We are a vertically-integrated business which means we can use internal resources, such as asphalt and aggregates, to meet our regions’ needs for their projects.

We are constantly reviewing our supply chain to determine what is best for the project and community. For example, if our quarries are located close to the

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F U LT O N H O G A N

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Nick Miller, Managing Director Nick was appointed Managing Director of Fulton Hogan Ltd and Fulton Hogan Construction Pty Ltd, Fulton Hogan Industries Pty Ltd in January 2010. He is the director of a number of Fulton Hogan subsidiaries and joint ventures, including Blackhead Quarries Ltd, Allied FH Ltd, WFH Properties Ltd and Pokeno Village Holdings Ltd. He is also a Board member of the Australian Contractors Association (ACA). Nick was formerly the Chief Executive of Fulton Hogan Pty Ltd and he has over 20 years’ experience in various civil engineering and management roles, including as Chief Executive of Isaac Construction. Nick’s qualifications include a BE (Hon) in Civil Engineering from Canterbury University and a New Zealand Certificate of Engineering.

site, it makes sense to use them.

In other instances it may be more economical to use an external supplier if they are closer to the site.”

“We also leverage our size and negotiate national agreements with suppliers,” she adds. “Our centre-lead procurement team and national, or Trans-Tasman, supplier agreements are available to our people. They also have the flexibility to look elsewhere if they find better value. This means that we are constantly evaluating and balancing individual supply

verses our national agreements.”

“We’ve always been a decentralised business, almost like a federation of regional businesses, and part of my team’s role is to ensure that everyone understands the supply agreements that are in place. Having a nationwide supplier deal on paper is one thing, but the benefits only come when we realize the real value and savings in the field.

With around half of its 6,400 employees procuring goods and services in some way, Fulton Hogan is looking to implement a business-

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Rob Woodgate, Group Chief Financial Officer Rob was appointed to the role of Fulton Hogan’s Group Chief Financial Officer in September 2016.

As Group Chief Financial Officer, Rob is responsible for the company’s fiscal strategy and risk governance frameworks, along with the delivery of shared services and IT across the entire operations. He has previously held senior executive positions in New Zealand and the United Kingdom, and across a range of sectors, including Chief Financial Officer of PGG Wrightson Limited, and more recently Chief Financial Officer of Silver Fern Farms Limited.

Rob’s qualifications include a BCom, and he is a Chartered Accountant and a Member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors.

wide purchase-to-pay system.

The system won’t be designed to centralise approvals and stifle autonomy, which Jane says would go against Fulton Hogan’s enduring principles of empowerment and autonomy. Instead the purchaseto-pay system will standardise and streamline processes, and offer greater insight into Fulton Hogan’s purchasing habits. The results will help Jane’s team strike more efficient procurement deals and develop more targeted sourcing strategies.

“We can leverage scale across

“We’ve always been a decentralised business, almost like a federation, and part of my team’s role is ensuring that everyone is on the same page and makes the most of the resources available to them” w wwww. fwu.lttm o nr.hqol d g .agno. vc .oam u

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Robert Jones, Chief Executive Officer – New Zealand Robert was appointed to the role of Fulton Hogan’s Chief Executive Officer New Zealand in July 2015, and is responsible for the leadership of the combined Regional and Infrastructure businesses across the country. He joined Fulton Hogan in January 2012 as Chief Operating Officer – Infrastructure, responsible for leading the company’s infrastructure expansion in the New Zealand market.

He came to New Zealand as the Project Director for the Northern Gateway Alliance and was subsequently appointed as the Country Manager for Leighton Contractors.

Robert has over 40 years’ experience in the construction sector.

His career includes extensive experience in managing major engineering projects around the world.

Robert is a Board member of the New Zealand Council for Infrastructure Development. He is also a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building (UK), and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Building. He sits on the Board of Trustees for the Camp Bentzon Trust which runs a children’s and community camp on Kawau Island in the Hauraki Gulf.

the business, but it can only be done from the centre – which means striking the right balance between regional autonomy and centralisation. As we do this it is critical to get the stakeholder engagement right,” she says.

The new purchase-to-pay system must be mobile and accessible to frontline staff. This will involve

“We can leverage scale across the business, but it can only be done from the centre – which means striking the right balance between regional autonomy and centralisation” w w w. f u l t o n h o g a n . c o m

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CONTACT US

02 7 435 9437

www.ackcontractors.co.nz

issuing them with devices so they can process purchases on the move and with no downtime to our activities. As such the deployment and change management aspects of the project will be critical.

“A large part of the process will be teaching people how to use this technology both in the office and out in the field.”

“We need to approach the project’s deployment and training in a way that staff will see the benefits and embrace the change.

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colin@ackcontractors.co.nz

“We’re excited about working with our regional businesses to deploy this technology right down to the front line, to facilitate our business becoming very tech-savvy in the 21st century”

CONSTRUCTION

Bob Fulton, Director Investments & Associates Bob was appointed as Director of Investments and Associates in July 2015, and is responsible for the management of our associate businesses including Land and Fulton Hogan’s Fijian investments. Prior to that he was the Chief Operating Officer of Fulton Hogan’s New Zealand operations. He is also a Director of Fulton Hogan Ltd, Fulton Hogan Construction Pty Ltd, Fulton Hogan Industries Pty Ltd, Horokiwi Quarries Ltd, Allied FH Ltd, WFH Properties Ltd and Rangititikei Aggregates Ltd. Bob has held various roles in Fulton Hogan Ltd from 1991 to the present day, with previous engineering positions in the UK and with a Local Authority. Bob’s qualifications include a BE in Civil Engineering.

We’re excited about working with our regional businesses to deploy this technology right down to the front line, to facilitate our business becoming techsavvy in the 21st century.”

Fulton Hogan is also looking to the future in terms of sustainability, aiming to minimise carbon emissions, improve energy efficiency and reduce waste. It is a member of the Clean Energy Council, the peak body for the clean energy industry in Australia.

Each business region is encouraged to develop its own environmental initiatives to encourage greater ownership at the local level.

“Sustainability is something we take seriously and our efforts include using more biofuels, such as biodiesel, to reduce our reliance on diesel and gas in terms of how we operate on sites and run our plants,” Jane says.

“Another aspect involves the installation of solar panels on all of

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NZ Prime Minister, John Key and Waimakariri MP, Matt Doocey, visit our project team constructing the Western Belfast Bypass, Christchurch

our major plants across Australia, which is helping to manage our carbon emission exposure. With the advent of more affordable battery storage devices we believe this will continue to drive value across our business”.

With many of its projects in regional and remote areas, there is also a strong focus on engaging with communities, and in particular indigenous communities, to increase their participation in the construction sector.

“We’ve been working on establishing processes and strategies which allow us to identify indigenous companies and then procure from them. For example, working with Supply Nation in Australia to identify suppliers that

are relevant to our businesses and project locations,” Jane says.

“At the same time and within our Australian business, we’re in the process of developing a reconciliation action plan, finalising an indigenous engagement strategy and strengthening relationships with our local communities. Procurement is just one area where we can create strong connections with communities.”

With Fulton Hogan’s unique and successful business model, optimizing the supply chain offers great opportunity and challenge to drive value throughout the business and to our shareholders.

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DELIVERING THE GOLD COAST’S TRANSPORT NETWORK Early engagement with stakeholders is one of the innovative approaches helping the Department of Transport and Main Roads deliver an extensive capital infrastructure program

Written by Lucy Dixon Produced by Vince Kielty

D E PA R T M E N T O F T R A N S P O R T A N D M A I N R O A D S

I

n 2014 the 1700km Bruce Highway in Queensland was named as one of the world’s most dangerous roads, accounting for a fifth of Australia’s road death toll. Just two years later, thanks to a safety program from Queensland’s Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR), the number of crashes on this road has continued to drop.

Amanda Yeates, General Manager Program Delivery and Operations, explains: “Two years ago we had 50 deaths and last year this was down to 15. We carried out some safety work where we moved the centre line further apart on the road, which has reduced the possibility of headon crash impacts.” An impressive achievement that has come as part of the $9 billion Bruce Highway upgrade, although this particular improvement wasn’t at a high financial cost. Yeates adds: “I’m really proud of the fact our innovation doesn’t have to come through massive capital investment.

We’ve got some very, very clever people who are looking at world best practice and then having the

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courage to implement those things.”

This is just one of the programs Yeates heads up since being promoted to General Manager in May this year. She is responsible for about $4 billion of capital infrastructure expenditure annually, with overall responsibility for the transport network. “I am responsible for all of the capital upgrades across the transport network, both the road network and the rail network,” she adds.

Aside from the Bruce Highway upgrade, current projects Yeates is delivering include the $1.1 billion Moreton Bay Rail Link project – a 12.6km dual-track passenger rail line between Petrie and KippaRing – and the $1 billion, 41km Toowoomba Second Range Crossing, that will take heavy vehicle highway traffic around north of Toowoomba rather than through it, as well as the second stage of the Gold Coast Light Rail.

Game plan The light rail stage two, and about

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Amanda Yeates, Professional Business Women of the Year Award 2016

D E PA R T M E N T O F T R A N S P O R T A N D M A I N R O A D S

$160 million of major Gold Coast road upgrades need to be delivered in time for the Commonwealth Games, which are heading to the Gold Coast in 2018. Yeates says: “In the last 18 months we’ve opened the first light rail project in Queensland on the Gold Coast and we are finalising the second stage so we can connect light rail through to heavy rail. Queensland Rail is duplicating the final section of single track, between Coomera and Helensvale stations, which will deliver improvements to services

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for the Gold Coast, prior to the 2018 Games. The Games have absolutely been a catalyst for infrastructure projects such as this.” The Games have also given the Department of Transport and Main Roads an opportunity to look at its customer-facing transport information differently too. “At the moment we manage events in a traffic management sense very well, but the Games will give us a chance to showcase how we do that over the whole transport network and what opportunities

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there might be there for legacy projects applicable for the whole of Queensland,” Yeates adds.

The influx of people expected for the Commonwealth Games will be a challenge, but one that Yeates is well accustomed to, as it was only two years ago that the G20 was held in Brisbane. Yeates explains: “We managed all of the G20 transport arrangements, with the 20 world leaders here as well as all of their associated movements. We also manage a lot of smaller events which tend

to attract a lot of people, such as marathons. The big difference, in the case of the games, is it is on a much grander scale.”

Transport technology Technology is also a big focus for Yeates, who believes we are at the “very cusp of a step-change in what technology is going to look like in the context of transport”.

Innovations such as autonomous vehicles will, Yeates says, be a challenge for Queensland. “We have a very vast geographical

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landscape and vastly varying conditions. South-east Queensland is very urban and then we have very rural and very remote areas.

Over the last 12-18 months, we have been really gearing up to look at how we’re going to use technology to focus on the future for the transport network.”

Part of this involves engaging with stakeholders – and the private sector – early on in the process.

“We run a lot of early contractor involvement processes so we have a competitive process up front with two teams basically bidding against each other.”

This means that consortiums

Amanda Yeates General Manager Program Delivery and Operations, Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads As General Manager Program Delivery

procurement, delivery and stakeholder engagement

and Operations, Amanda leads the delivery of

that has supported value-for-money outcomes and

the department’s $3 billion capital works and

solutions that are appropriate to the local context.

maintenance program and the management and operation of the state-controlled road network.

Amanda joined the Department in 2011

Amanda sets the strategic vision for the more than 1700 talented Program Delivery and Operations staff across the state who are at the front line of

and has held roles including General Manager

planning, developing and maintaining the extensive

Integrated Transport Planning, Deputy Regional

network required to keep Queensland moving.

Director Metropolitan Regional, and Regional

Amanda is a passionate advocate and

Director North Coast and Wide Bay Burnett.

supporter of workforce diversity and is committed

Amanda was appointed General Manager

to fostering an environment and culture that

Program Delivery and Operations in May 2016.

supports a vibrant, diverse, collaborative, safe,

Amanda leads innovation in planning,

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rewarding and high performing workplace.

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of designers, consultants and construction contractors get together at a very early stage in a project. The advantage is, says Yeates, that government can harness innovation. “What we find is industry does innovation really, really well. So we are trying to engage the industry in doing what they do best, which allows us to have solutions that are the right solutions for the local context – often at a far more competitive rate.”

Innovation is no longer thought of purely in the context of engineering – the procurement process is innovative. “We think about getting innovation in the planning stage.

In the past we would run three or four possible planning scenarios and it would take us a couple of days to work through each of them.

“The Games have absolutely been a catalyst for infrastructure projects”

We now use technology such that we can sit in a workshop with all of our stakeholders and run multiple real-time analyses of a variety of options in the space of several minutes. Then we are engaging the industry very early to make sure we’re getting that innovation in the construction, so we’re completely revisiting at how we engage with industry on every level.”

The transport industry might ordinarily be traditional but this fresh style of working is proving its value for TMR. “We have an approach where our relationships with our stakeholders are really key to our success,” Yeates said. It is no longer enough to simply deliver a technical solution. “We have to have the right technical solution and then we have to overlay the right social, environmental and economic outcomes.” And the Bruce Highway project is a great example of this, specifically the Caloundra Road to Sunshine Motorway upgrade. “This is a very significant safety and

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congestion project. When we took our concept design to market, we received negative comments from our stakeholders. Both from our community stakeholder perspective because we had limited some local access and also from an environmental perspective because we were going to impact on local forests. As part of the process, we engaged with industry to come up with a more innovative design in the procurement process. We’ve reduced the impact on the forest by more than two thirds and restored a whole lot of local access that was concerning the community.”

Over the next 10 years, the Bruce Highway Action Plan will involve a comprehensive program

South Coast District

of works to improve the safety, flood immunity and capacity of the Bruce Highway. Such a huge project will affect a huge number of people, so Yeates knows that public engagement is key. “In order for us to get all of that work done, we do have successive minor delays across our roadworks sites from Brisbane right up to the very north in Cairns. Ultimately what we found is the travelling public travelling is incredibly patient with roadworks because they know that when those upgrades are occurring they’re getting improvements in congestion or really big safety improvements.”

ANYTHING i s

p o s s i b l e

Written by Xenia Alexander Produced by Tom Venturo

SCHIAVELLO

As Schiavello celebrates 50 years of creating, we take a closer look at its journey from humble joinery and partition business, to multi-disciplinary global success.

Half a century is a long time by anybody’s measure – in business, it’s a lifetime.

F

ounded in 1966 by Tony Schiavello and his younger brother Joe as a joinery and partition business, Schiavello has transformed into an innovative, multi-disciplined, diversified and trusted property partner. Its diverse capabilities include construction, property development, people and culture consultancy, manufacturing, products and furniture. Far from a jack-of-all-trades, Schiavello continues to master everything it applies itself to. For two brothers from southern Italy, this kind of commercial success was beyond imagination when they immigrated to Australia in the 1950s.

While a lot has changed over the

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past 50 years, the principles upon which the company was founded have stayed the same: innovation, quality, service excellence and an ‘anything is possible’ attitude. Remaining true to these values has encouraged significant organic growth, both locally and internationally. The company now directly employs over 1,200 people, with a presence across Australia, New Zealand, South-East Asia and the Middle East, and an annual turnover of more than $550 million. A testament to its consistent growth, Schiavello has been recognised by the BRW as one of Australia’s top 100 privately owned companies for the past five years.

Today, Tony and Joe are still actively engaged in the business, with the help of the second and third generations of the family. Tony’s eldest son Peter is the current Managing Director.

Peter has literally grown with the

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Christopher Schiavello, Director Christopher Schiavello has worked in the family business for much of his life. As Director, he is responsible for overseeing business strategy for the construction division. With a strong customer service background, Christopher enjoys working collaboratively with clients to better understand their needs. He is an advocate for early contractor engagement, and is constantly looking for ways to push the boundaries and challenge industry norms.

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business, working in the company’s Melbourne factory on weekends and school holidays as a child. Joe’s son Christopher, Director of Schiavello Construction and International, has similar memories. Together they form a key part of Schiavello’s future. “I don’t think I will ever completely understand or appreciate what my father and uncle

located in the garage of Tony’s modest Brunswick home, Schiavello now owns and operates 100,000 square metres of highly advanced local manufacturing facilities, and an award winning headquarters in Tullamarine, Victoria. These facilities are the largest and most integrated of their kind in the southern

‘Despite its longevity within the industry, the organisation is proving that it can keep up with the times, investing in new technologies for smarter, more sustainable ways to do business’ have achieved,” says Christopher, “to come to Australia with little-to-no knowledge of English and create this kind of opportunity is nothing short of inspirational. They taught us to take nothing for granted, treat everyone with respect and believe that anything is possible. Culturally, this is what is instilled within our business today.”

A far cry from the two man fit-out

hemisphere. Schiavello offers a range of specialised services: engineering and tooling, metal, aluminium and wood processing, plastic injection moulding, electrical component production, powder coating, glass processing, upholstery, solid surface fabrication and assembly operations.

“As a company that values quality, innovation, safety, and customer

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service above all else, having access to these facilities is a great advantage,” says Christopher. “It means greater control over quality and risk management, and it allows us to provide clients with innovative and bespoke solutions, high volume runs, streamlined processes for delivery, and ultimately, increased certainty.” As a proud Australian company, 95 percent of Schiavello’s products are manufactured locally, including furniture, ceiling tiles,

glass, and partitions. The majority of the materials are sourced from Australian-owned and grown suppliers, making Schiavello one of the biggest customers of companies such as Blue Scope Steel, Laminex, Capral Aluminium and Dulux.

Anyone who has worked with Schiavello will testify to its reputation for creating world-class environments. This extends across a variety of sectors and build types, from workplace and education, to

Garden State Hotel, Melbourne

Lonely Planet HQ, Melbourne

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hospitality, hotel and gaming, and even residential developments. No matter the type of project, the approach is always the same. “It’s about really taking the time to understand the client, what their needs are, and how we can provide a solution that works for them. This is not just about a single project, it’s about building a partnership based on mutual trust and respect,” says Christopher. “By engaging with our clients at the earliest possible stage, they not only get the

benefit of our technical expertise, but we can give them greater certainty – from a cost, quality and time perspective. We pride ourselves on being more than just a builder; we’ve assembled a team of specialists to assist our clients on their journey.”

The penchant for technically challenging, high-end projects is evident in Schiavello’s vast body of work, including iconic projects such as the opulent six star Crown Towers hotel, Fujitsu’s 6 Star Green Star head

Surf Life Saving Australia HQ, Bondi

BHP Billiton, Melbourne

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office, the heritage listed Collingwood Football Club facility, and even the Commonwealth Parliament Offices.

Perhaps its brightest jewel to date, Schiavello is behind one of Australia’s finest multi-residential developments, Prima Tower. At 256 metres high, it’s one of Melbourne’s tallest buildings – a sleek 70-storey structure. It features a striking curved-glass façade that changes colour from bronze to gold depending on the time of day, reflecting the changing face of the world’s most livable city.

Having purchased the land in 1984 when Southbank was still an industrial area, Tony Schiavello knew Southbank was going to be something bigger.

Fast forward thirty years, the sixstar development is symbolic in many ways. “Our company motto has always been and always will be that

‘anything is possible’; Prima Tower is testament to how far we have come,” says Tony, Governing Director and Executive Chairman of the Schiavello Group. While prior forays in property development such as The Artist, Abode318, and Domain Lodge have proven successful for the company over the years, Prima Tower is by far the largest, and most significant venture Schiavello has completed to date.

With a reputation and portfolio of this calibre, it’s no wonder Schiavello has formed so many longstanding partnerships over the years. The relationship with Crown Resorts Limited – Australia’s largest gaming and entertainment group – is one such example. Having completed a number of successful projects together, their next joint venture will

‘Our people and relationships are the foundation on which Schiavello is built, without whom there would be no past, present or future’

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be the biggest by far. Whilst currently still in the planning phase, One Queensbridge will become the tallest building in Australia. At 90-storeys high, it will feature a new 6-star, 3888 room hotel and 708 luxury, high-end residences. The development will not only contribute to the city’s reputation as a world-class tourism destination, it will set a new standard for luxury apartment living in Australia.

With such a diverse service offering, Schiavello clearly challenges a number of industry norms. “I think a lot of people within the industry find it difficult to define us, but that’s the beauty of our business,” says Christopher. “We have a range of capabilities, and have learnt to be adaptable and responsive, always embracing new opportunities. My father and uncle always said, the worst thing you can do is sit still.” Despite its longevity within the industry, the organisation is proving that it can keep up with the times, investing in new technologies for smarter, more sustainable ways to do business. This allows the company to better forecast the future drivers, disrupters and

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Proposed Development: ‘One Queensbridge’, Melbourne

Schiavello owns and operates 100,000sqm of manufacturing facilities based in Victoria

Schiavello HQ, Tullamarine, Victoria

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trends impacting the property market.

One such initiative is Schiavello’s online, OFSC compliant quality, safety and environment management system. After identifying a gap in the market for a suitable platform, Schiavello partnered with an Australian developer to produce its own custom solution. This completely paperless system allows for project management plans to be generated specifically for each project, and made accessible to the entire team via desktop and mobile. The technology is an industry first and is redefining safety benchmarks.

The evolution of Schiavello into a multi-disciplinary company has clearly been a voyage of successes and lessons learnt, and one that Managing Director, Peter Schiavello is proud of: “We are honoured to share this journey with our clients, collaborators and employees. Our people and relationships are the foundation on which Schiavello is built, without whom there would be no past, present or future.”

Commonwealth Parliament Offices, Sydney

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INNOVATION DRIVES GROWTH AT NEW ZEALAND’S

MOST AWARDED WINERY Quality, innovation and sustainability are not the first words that come to mind when you’re relaxing with a crisp glass of pinot gris. But for wine producers Villa Maria, New Zealand’s most awarded winery, these three tenets are at the core of everything it does

Written by Sarah Megginson Produced by Stephen Johnson

V I L L A M A R I A E S TAT E

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S

ustainability is a concept that every business ought to be focused on, and that some businesses are truly committed to.

But long before sustainability was the latest trend to invigorate business communities, wine producer Villa Maria was looking to the future from every possible angle.

Take its involvement in initiatives like Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand (SWNZ), for instance. Villa Maria has been a member for more than 20 years, since SWNZ’s inception in 1995. More recently it joined CEMARS, an internationally recognised carbon reduction program, and 27 percent of its vineyards are certified organic.

These programs don’t just illustrate Villa Maria’s commitment to the environment.

Rather, sustainability is threaded into every element of its operations because many times, it makes good business sense to operate this way.

“We’re a family-owned business, founded by Sir George Fistonich in 1961, and sustainability is part of the core values of who we are,” explains Chief Operating Officer, Richard Thomas.

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“You have to take care of your environment, work with the communitiesaroundyou,andworkwith your staff and teams to have a business that is sustainable for the long-term. If you don’t behave in a sustainable way, you simply won’t have a company in 200 years, so this approach is bred into the way that we run the business.”

Looking ahead 200 years could almost be considered a shortterm view at Villa Maria, where

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the leadership team prefers an outlook of 500-years and beyond.

Thomas explains: “We don’t think quarterly; we think annually and 10 to 20 years away, and even further.

Every decision we make has an underlying thread: is this a good decision not just for the next year, but for the next 10 years? Twenty years?

And even 500-800 years from now?

“That’s how we have to be thinking because for us, thinking

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“Sir George is one of the key figures and a driving force in New Zealand wine. Many successful people in the industry today got their chance and their learning at Villa Maria over the years� w w w. v i l l a m a r i a . c o . n z

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sustainably means considering what the business needs to ensure we are still successful several generations from now.”

One such example of sustainability and innovation at work is its approach to energy use. With five wineries spread across the country, Villa Maria leverages local climate conditions to help process its wine with maximum efficiency.

“We use the cool night air to help with the cooling of our wineries when going through the fermentation process, instead of relying solely on an energy intensive refrigeration system,” Thomas says.

“We generate a lot of heat through wine fermentation, and so we also turn that warmth back into energy to use in the winery.

These are sustainable practices for the business, but they also just make common sense.”

Under the leadership of Sir George – Villa Maria’s owner and founder was knighted in 2009, for his services to the New Zealand wine industry – Thomas says

innovation is similarly at the forefront of their everyday operations.

“Sir George is one of the key figures and a driving force in New Zealand wine. Many successful people in the industry today got their chance and their learning at Villa Maria over the years, and Sir George made many decisions that had a much larger influence. Moving to a 100 percent screw cap closures is a great example of this,” he explains.

This transition began almost two decades ago, back when wine was almost exclusively sold with a cork sealing it shut.

Villa Maria transitioned to a screw cap and by 2001, it had introduced screw caps across 100 percent of its wine range.

This early adoption was motivated largely by quality and innovation, and while Richard remarks they Villa Maria was “definitely one of the major catalysts in the New Zealand industry” to move away from cork, he says their decision to do so was “not without controversy” in the market.

“Sir George really bought into it

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“We’re always focused on the quality of our produce and the value and experiences we can bring to our customers” from a quality perspective. In those days, there was a high failure rate out of cork. Out of a case of 12 bottles, there would be one to two bottles that would not perform optimally due to corking or oxygenation of the wine. When you’re talking about quality and two out of 12 are not performing as they should for their customer, then that’s not a good outcome,” he says.

“Screw caps are about ultimately having control over quality, because you don’t have those oxidisation issues. Some of our customers

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globally were more attached to cork, and the theatre that went with cork, but because of our commitment to quality and giving our customers a great wine experience, we felt it was important to move to screw cap. It works very well for us and we now get fantastic product performance.

A lot of research also shows that wine ages well with screw caps.”

At Villa Maria, further innovations were to come around managing its bottle labeling process.

On the production line, Villa Maria installed a camera system

FOOD & DRINK

that helps to detect faults in bottle labeling. The bespoke system was created in house when it realised it “couldn’t make it as good as we wanted it to be” when using existing products on the market.

“Internally, within Villa Maria and with a technology partner in New Zealand, we created an innovative fault-detecting camera that runs on our bottling line,” Thomas says.

“We’ve now shared it with others in the industry, because we felt it was a good innovation and we were happy to show people how it works. Our innovation is also in our production work, alongside our wines, because we want innovation to be embedded in our culture.”

This industry-aligned generosity is another ethos that runs through the business, and is evident in its membership of Family of 12, an organisation comprised of a dozen like-minded New Zealand wineries.

From wine tastings to marketing events, it stages a range of programs globally as “we believe in that sense of being bigger and more

Richard Thomas Chief Operating Officer Prior to joining the wine industry Richard has had a career in marketing and advertising, spanning multiple markets around the world, from the UK to the USA, Europe to Asia and of course New Zealand. He has worked across a diverse range of categories, from FMCG to airlines, tech to food and done so in both his own business, and for companies such as Saatchi & Saatchi, DDB Worldwide and Ogilvy and Mather. Having most recently led those businesses in Asia and New Zealand, he joined Villa Maria to lead our business growth across domestic and export markets; covering sales, marketing, operations, events & hospitality for our family of brands.

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“Every decision we make has an underlying thread: is this a good decision not just for the next year, but for the next 10 years? Twenty years? And even 500800 years from now?”

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effective together,” Thomas says.

“We’re uniting together to get people all around the world drinking New Zealand wine, because we’re a long way from anywhere here!

That desire to try and get people to experience New Zealand wines and to work together with a long-term view, so that each of us as individual companies are successful, has been a big part of the growth of all

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New Zealand wines,” he says.

“The joy of working for Villa Maria is that we’re working with sensational products. George started this business many years ago and his daughter Karen is chairperson of the board, so our culture is still very much familyoriented. Our success is partly because of the unique way we look at the world – which is simply that

we want to bring people fantastic New Zealand wine experiences.

As a result, we’re always focused on the quality of our produce and the value and experiences we can bring to our customers.”

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