Business Review Australia - February 2017

Top 10 Australian wine companies Februar y 2017

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PLUS Australia’s Coolest Finance Company

TALKING

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EDITOR’S COMMENT

FAST learners HELLO AND WELCOME to February’s edition of Business Review Australia.

Almost all business has been implicated by rapid technological over the course of the last five or so years, from the advent of cloud to increasingly smart cyber criminality.

But education is another sector keeping up with the times, and Federation University Australia, based in Victoria, is among the frontrunners.

We speak to Executive Director of ITS and Business Solutions (CIO) Andrew Tully, delving into how the university

has invested in technology to bring its learning offering into the future.

Also featured this month is water management specialist Xylem, along with app development guru Crowd Mobile.

Before this you will find articles on World First, officially Australia’s coolest finance company, the government’s smart cities plan and a rundown of the top 10 wine businesses in the country.

I hope you enjoy the read, join the debate @BizReviewAU

Tom Wadlow Editor tom.wadlow@bizclikmedia.com 3

CONTENTS

F E AT U R E S INTERVIEW

06 PROFILE

Balancing work and play to become Australia’s Coolest Finance Company

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TECHNOLOGY

Federation University Australia

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Crowd Mobile

The rise of the smart city

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TOP10 LIST

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Headline for Top 10the article Australian wine companies

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Shining Knight Facility Services

C O M PA N Y PROFILES TECHNOLOGY 32 Federation University Australia 54 Crowd Mobile

ENERGY 64 Xylem

CONSTRUCTION 76 Shining Knight Facility Services 86 Studco Australia

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Studco Australia

64 Xylem

PROFILE

Balancing work and play to become

AUSTRALIA’S COOLEST FINANCE COMPANY World First has been named the coolest finance company in Australia. Managing Director Andrew Porter tells us exactly what that means for the company and its employees Written by: JESS SHANAHAN

EVERY YEAR JOBADVISOR.ORG gives out Coolest Company awards in a range of different categories.

2016 saw the introduction of the finance category and each of the top five has a unique mix of culture values, unique staff incentives, business expansions and other little perks available to their staff.

Taking the number one spot in this new category is World First, a company that uses specialist knowledge of foreign exchange markets alongside technical innovations to help its clients move money around the world quickly, securely and transparently. The company culture focuses on a professional environment where work gets done but with an equal amount of fun thrown in to keep morale high.

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February 2016

Andrew Porter, Managing Director at World First

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PROFILE

“Innovation is a fundamental pillar of our business and has been a big driver of our success” – Andrew Porter, Managing Director at World First

Managing Director Andrew Porter is thrilled World First has achieved this award. He says: “It’s something I am immensely proud of and feel is an acknowledgement of the effort we have always put in to ensuring the right balance of 6

February 2017

fun and work in our business.”

World First has grown rapidly since its inception in 2004 and despite this there’s still a good relationship across all departments. Porter says: “The business was founded by two guys who walked away from a bank

A U S T R A L I A’ S C O O L E S T F I N A N C E C O M PA N Y

and decided to do it differently.

They have always fostered a fun culture in the company they created.

Having built the business up here over the last seven years, from five to 60 staff, I think it is very cool that we still seem to have such an

engaged and fun-loving team.�

This is down to the fact that the company takes its time to see if people are a right fit for its culture as well as the role they’re applying for. Screening people in this way means that the culture 7

PROFILE of inclusivity, fun and authenticity continues as the company grows.

Building this culture is important but World First manages to stay ahead of the competition too, because happy employees work hard. Porter says: “It’s not all about having trendy things like open bars and in-house baristas - it’s about encouraging and nurturing total respect throughout the organisation, offering opportunity to grow professionally and personally with no toxicity at any level.

“It’s not all about having trendy things like open bars and inhouse baristas - it’s about encouraging and nurturing total respect throughout the organisation” – Andrew Porter, Managing Director at World First

“I think ultimately these values flow over into great client engagement, and overall, add to a strong competitive advantage and pretty 8

February 2017

cool environment to be a part of.

The team works very hard and has produced some amazing levels of growth for our business over the last few years. Having fun along the way has made it all worthwhile.”

Knowledge of foreign exchange markets means World First brings specialist knowledge to its clients but it’s the technical innovation to allows the company to make a real difference to the people it serves.

Innovation of all kinds is important to the company, as Porter explains: “As Steve Jobs once said, ‘Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a

A U S T R A L I A’ S C O O L E S T F I N A N C E C O M PA N Y

team too. Porter says: “Culture is a key element our management factors in when looking at candidates. All new staff go through a process of two to three interviews focussed on skills and experience and are then shortlisted based on cultural fit. I still spend at least 15 minutes in a Culture Check Chat with most prospective new staff, and feel this is time well spent.

“I weigh in with my opinion purely from a culture fit perspective, but leave it to the managers to ultimately decide follower’, and we want to be seen as the leader in what we do. Therefore, innovation is a fundamental pillar of our business and has been a big driver of our success. Whether that is being innovative in technology, products or our customer service approach. I would even go so far as to say we have strived to be innovative in terms of employee engagement, and for me the Coolest Company in Finance award is recognition of that.”

The recruitment process is an integral part of maintaining the positive vibe among employees at World First.

While team managers are always looking for the best people to do the job, they have to be a good fit for the

as they know what works best for their teams. We are looking for staff that obviously have skills and experience that match the role requirement, but 9

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just as importantly, we invest time finding people that not only fit in with our culture dynamic, but enhance it.”

For other Australian companies looking to build a strong, productive company culture, Porter has these tips, he says: “It might sound clichéd but culture really does come from the top, and having a management team that is on board and supportive of your vision for the business is key. You also need to actively recruit people who represent the same values you try to represent as a business and ensure those that don’t share those values either don’t get in the door, or get moved on quickly.

“Work should be enjoyable for

everyone as we all spend enough time away from our families and friends being involved in the business, so we should all have a little fun and enjoy being around each other. Who says work has to be boring?”

Company culture is about so much more than having a cool office or a relaxed management system, it’s about fostering an environment where employees can have fun but get work done too. World First’s inclusive culture that makes it the Coolest Finance Company in Australia also makes it one of the most rapidly growing, marketleading FinTech businesses too.

TECHNOLOGY

smart city The rise of the

A smart city isn’t one that simply introduces new technologies, it’s a city that puts people first with access to the best jobs, affordable housing and transport links. Australia’s Smart Cities programme looks at ways to deliver responsive public services and while it’ll utilise the latest technology, the focus is on the people

Written by: JESS SHANAHAN

TECHNOLOGY

IT’S EASY TO think that anything ‘smart’ – such as smartphones, smart watches and smart fridges – are only so because of the technology that powers them. The same thing could be said about a smart city.

The reality is that these smart devices focus on people. They all enable humans to do more and while the technology plays a big part in that, it doesn’t define them.

A smart city might use technology to its advantage but it’s the people-first approach that will make our cities truly smart, and this is the ethos behind Australia’s Smart City programme.

Smart cities are ones that serve the people and utilise

technology to keep things running as efficiently as possible. Australia has implemented a smart cities plan that will see city centres and surrounding areas become smarter than ever with investment into infrastructure and beyond.

We spoke to Assistant Minister for Cities, Angus Taylor about Australia’s smart city programme and how it might transform the places in which we work and live. He says: “Australian smart cities are taking a people-first approach to designing and delivering responsive public

“In Western Sydney, around 200,000 people leave the region each day for work, a number that is forecast to grow to 340,000 by 2041” – Angus Taylor, Assistant Minister for Cities and Digital Transformation 14

February 2017

SMART CITIES

services with the help of technology.

“A city can employ technology in many ways but if it doesn’t meet the needs of citizens, if it doesn’t help deliver the types of services or information people use every day - then it can become an expensive diversion rather than a productive investment.”

There are so many opportunities in Australian cities but congestion, poor access to jobs, housing affordability, and pollution all affect the quality of life for people who choose to live and work in them.

A smart city would make it easier

to get to work, housing would be more affordable and even rural areas would have access to everything the city can offer, without having to spend hours stuck in traffic.

The Australia Smart Cities plan says: “To succeed in the 21st century economy our cities need to be productive and accessible, but they also need to be liveable with a clear focus on serving their citizens.

“Great cities attract, retain and develop increasingly mobile talent and organisations, encouraging them to innovate, create jobs and support growth.”

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TECHNOLOGY

Getting around The first part of making a city smart is to improve how people get there and move around. There are more and more people moving to the suburbs and these people are taking longer than ever to get to work. In Western Sydney for example, around 200,000 people leave the region each day for work, a number that is forecast to grow to 340,000 by 2041.

Fast, efficient public transport is the key to reducing congestion, freeing up roads for freight and making everything more accessible. This gives

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February 2017

people more options for where they live and work, which can help to bring down the costs of living and improve access to jobs.

Affordable housing within cities In many of Australia’s cities— especially Sydney, Melbourne and Perth—rapid house price growth in inner city areas has made living close to work unaffordable for many people.

The Australian government is working with state territories and local governments to deliver more affordable housing within cities.

The City Deals aspect of the plan

SMART CITIES

will give opportunities to all levels of government to support housing development, especially near employment and transit hubs.

Taylor says: “As well as increasing the supply of housing, we need to ensure housing is built in the right places so people can more easily access jobs, education and services.”

The 30-minute city The concept of a 30-minute city is an important planning objective. The idea is that no matter where you live, you can easily access the places you need to visit on a daily basis.

Taylor says: “Cities where residents can have a great job and get to schools, shopping, services and recreational facilities within 30 minutes of home has the potential to transform the way we live.”t City Deals can help leverage actions from local governments to support the creation of 30-minute cities, including reforms to zoning systems and planning guidelines to stimulate increased density and new businesses in strategic locations.

Taylor explains this: “For example, the Western Sydney City Deal will ensure that many more of those 17

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people who live in Western Sydney, can also work in Western Sydney. By leveraging infrastructure investment commitments, we can drive job growth and deliver better transport links. We believe that a 30-minute city is a realistic prospect, but only with well-placed job centres.”

include both metropolitan and regional centres, spreading the benefits beyond the big cities to rural areas.

Employment hubs outside of cities A hub is an area outside of a city where there are a lot of employment opportunities. These areas tend to be Activating rural easier to travel to and help to reduce and suburban areas transport congestion in cities. One Cities are served example of a hub by those living in is Macquarie Park, rural and suburban which has a reputation areas. With these as a technology, people working communications within the cities and biomedical hub but living outside, and is an important it’s important their employment needs are served generating area. with better access – Angus Taylor Assistant Minister This previously to those jobs. for Cities and Digital Transformation semi-rural area has Taylor says: plenty of advantages “The Government’s Smart Cities such as being within easy travelling Plan recognises that we need to distance of the Sydney’s central think beyond the centres of our business district, its association with major cities. Suburban and regional Macquarie University and three nearby areas are just as important.” train stations that give it access to The first three City Deals cover the Sydney’s centre and the airport. regional centres of Townsville and Taylor says: “For hubs to be Launceston and the populous western successful, there needs to be a strong suburbs of Sydney. Future deals will economic foundation. Airports,

“For hubs to be successful, there needs to be a strong economic foundation”

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TECHNOLOGY

“A city can employ technology in many ways but if it doesn’t meet the needs of citizens, if it doesn’t help deliver the types of services or information people use every day - THEN IT CAN BECOME AN EXPENSIVE DIVERSION rather than a productive investment” – Angus Taylor Assistant Minister for Cities and Digital Transformation universities and hospitals are job magnets, attracting other businesses to the area, forming employment hubs.”

City Deals will seek to encourage the growth of hubs, where they have a strong economic foundation and align with broader planning objectives.

The application of technology 20

February 2017

The Australian Government is committed to supporting local governments as they apply innovative technology approaches to improve the liveability of cities and their suburbs in partnership with residents.

The $50 million Smart Cities and Suburbs Program will fund collaborative projects involving local governments, industry, not-for-profits

SMART CITIES

and research organisations. These projects will facilitate the productive deployment of technology that actively engages citizens, resolves urban problems and increases the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery.

Autonomous cars are likely to play a part in the future of these cities.

Combined with ride-sharing and technology-driven improvements in public transport, autonomous

vehicles have the potential to transform the way people move around cities - fundamentally changing how we live and work.

Australia isn’t the only country to focus its efforts on creating smarter cities. Around the world governments are working towards smart cities that empower the people within them, opening up new transport links, job opportunities and more.

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TOP 10

TOP 10 Australian wine companies The wine production industry in Australia has had a fairly uneven performance over the past five years due to an oversupply of wine, the Australian dollar and competition in export markets. However, trade deals with South Korea, Japan and China led to an annual growth of 2.3 percent in the industry, and a profit of $198.1m.

The wine industry buys grapes and

other key ingredients to process into wine, port and wine-based beverages.

The products are then packaged in bottles or casks and sold to wine merchants and retail outlets. The industry also includes the production of beverages such as cider.

The following wine companies are a mixture of smaller producers and major wineries which contribute to the country’s wine production industry:

TOP 10

THE IDYLL WINE Co. is located in Moorabool Valley, near Geelong, Victoria. The winery is a Costa Asset Management (CAM) company; a privately owned Australian company with a large and diverse range of assets focusing on developing, managing and sustaining capital. The Idyll Vineyard was established in 1966

by Daryl and Nini Sefton and was one of the first vineyards to be planted following the decline of the local wine industry by the vine disease phylloxera in the 19th century. Idyll Wine Co. has a laboratory on site to be able to carry out micro and chemical testing, ensuring the wines meet consistent high standards.

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February 2017

ANDREW PEACE WINES is one of the largest family owned wineries in Australia. The winery has been in business for three generations and produced its first vintage in 1995. The vineyard includes Shiraz, Cabernet, Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Colombard and Merlot. The Sagrantino block is the largest of only a few in Australia and features in the company’s flagship Australian Felix label. Andrew Peace Wines has been using its remaining land for growing Wheat, Barley, Canola and Corn. The winery is consistently among the top 20 performing Australian exporters and has a number of awards in its name, including Victorian Vineyard of the Year 1999, Emerging Exporter Award 2001 and Telstra Small Business of the Year 1999. The winery is located opposite the Murray River and has picnic facilities as well as a barbeque and pizza oven which can be used on request.

MCWILLIAM’S WINES WAS established in 1877 by Samuel McWilliam, when he bought his first vines on the outskirts of Corowa, New South Wales. The Hanford Estate winery was opened in 1917 and in 1935 the first McWilliam’s wines are exported internationally. In 1986, Jim Brayne was appointed McWilliam’s Chief Winemaker - today he is Chief Operating Officer. McWilliam’s flagship range includes 1877 Shiraz, 1877 Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon, 842 Tumbarumba Chardonnay and Morning Light Botrytis Semillion; and the Hanwood Estate range includes, Cabernet Merlot, Chardonnay, Merlot, Pinot Grigio, Shiraz and Verdelho.

WA R BU N E STATE I S a leader in the Riverina wine region and Australian wine industry, and sits within Australia’s top 10 wine producers.

Warbun Estate is owned by the Sergi family, who began winemaking in Italy before moving to Australia in 1952. Today, the family is in its fourth generation of winemakers. The wine r y is home to o n e o f A u s t r a l i a’s fastest growing wines that costs under $7 called ‘Gossips’. The range has 15 different wines to choose from, including Sweet Lips Moscato, Sauvignon Blanc, Sweet Lips Pink Moscato, Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay.

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TOP 10

DEBORTOLI WINES BEGAN when its founder left Italy for New South Wales to escape war. The farm used to make the wine was bought in 1928 by founder Vittorio De Bortoli, who made the first batch of wine using 15 tonnes of shiraz grapes he got for free from other farmers. Throughout the 1970’s Deen De Bortoli, son of Vittorio De Bortoli, began to expand the winery and Australia’s first major wine boom saw Deen help to introduce new wine to a whole generation. Debortoli Wines’ collection includes Noble One, made

by Darren De Bortoli in 1982 and one of the most awarded wines in history; Premium Fortifields, Yarra Valley Single Vineyard and Villages.

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February 2017

AUSTRALIAN VINTAGE LIMITED is an Australia-owned integrated winemaking business and the second largest vineyard owner in Australia.

It is headquartered in Cowandilla, SA and has an estimated market share of 4.4 percent, employing around 450 people. The company was created by the merging of Brian McGuigan Wines Ltd and Simeon Wines Ltd and was formerly known as McGuigan Simeon Wines Limited before changing its name in 2008 to Australian Vintage Limited to avoid sounding like a collection of merged businesses. The company has three main wineries in south and southeast Australia which operate all year round. Its Buronga Hill winery in New South Wales is one of the largest wineries in Australia and produces most of the company’s wines.

CASELLA WINES IS a family owned winery established in Australia in 1965 in New South Wales, however the family have been making wine in Italy since 1820. The company employs around 650 people and is headquartered in Yenda, New South Wales. The winery’s brands include Yellow Tail and Casella 1919 and is one of the largest exporters of wine, with a market share of 6.7 percent. Since its launch in 2001, Yellow Tail has grown to become the highest selling imported wine in the United States.

ACCOLADE WINES HOLDINGS Australia Pty Limited was founded in 1887 as Thomas Hardy and Sons Limited. Its Adelaide winery grew to become the largest in South Australia. In 2003, the company was acquired by Constellation Brands Inc and in 2008 the company renamed itself Constellation Australia. It incorporated both Constellation Wines Australia and Europe, which held the Australian, UK and South African wine assets formerly owned

by US-based wine producer CBI. In June 2011, the company changed its name to Accolade Wines. Accolade Wines owns several wineries across Australia including Hardys, Stanley Wines, Houghton, Remmano, Omni, Banrock Station and Brookland Valley, and has a market share of 8.9 percent. Accolade Wines’ brands include Hardys, Echo Falls, Banrock Staion and Houghton.

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TOP 10

PERNOD RICARD PACIFIC Holding Pty Ltd is the Australian subsidiary of France-based spirits and wine company Pernod Ricard SA. The company started out as Orlando Wines in 1847 and was bought by Pernod Ricard in 1989, along with Wyndham Estate. The two companies were then merged, creating Orlando Wyndham Group.

The company began trading under the name Pernod Ricard Winemakers in 2013. Pernod Ricard Winemakers 30

February 2017

owns four brands and wineries: Jacob’s Creek, Wyndham Estate, Richmond Grove, and Poet’s Corner and has a 9.4 percent market share.

The Jacob’s Creek sparking range, launched in 1998, is a popular sparkling wine range across Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the UK. Pernod Ricard has also been looking into new markets in China, Japan, Scandinavia and the US.

T O P 1 0 A U S T R A L I A N W I N E C O M PA N I E S

TREASURY WINE ESTATE Limited is an Australian-owned producer and distributor of wine with global operations. It was renamed in 2011 following the decision by Fosters Group to separately list its wine and beer assets in 2010. After demerging from Fosters Group, Treasury Wine Estate became one of the world’s largest wine producers, with vineyards across Australia, the US, New Zealand and Italy and a market share of 10.7 percent. The company’s brands include Penfolds, Linderman’s, Wolf

Blass, Rosemount Estate, Beringer Vineyards, Matua and Castello di Gabbiano. After the demerger, TWE rejected a takeover bid of more than $3 billion, made by private-equity firm KKR & Co. in March 2014, and most recently the company rejected a bid from private equity suitors in September 2014, indicating it was holding out for a higher price.

Treasury Wine Estates puts most of its success down to its diverse global operations, with luxury and boutique wines across Asia and the United States contributing to its position as a global wine manufacturer.

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IT in the service of HE Written by John O’Hanlon Produced by Heather Sabitov

Federation University Australia is punching well above its weight: The regional University is delivering a model of learning that’s replicable internationally, thanks to some very smart thinking on the part of its ITS team

F E D E R AT I O N U N I V E R S I T Y

E Andrew Tully Executive Director of ITS and Business Solutions (CIO)

With over 20 years of leadership experience in a variety of Board, C level and Senior Management roles, Andrew has the ability to successfully transform under performing and sub optimised IS operating environments within a vast array of organisations ranging from large multinationals to ISP IPO start-ups and SME organisations. His engaging & empowering leadership style has been the key to uplift organisations into functionally efficient, streamlined operating units.

He’s currently CIO at Federation University. Preceding this, he oversaw the IT Operations nationally with an annual MOP budget in excess of $35m for the Australian Red Cross Blood Service.

His strong bias towards good practice frameworks like Prince2, MSP / P3O for Portfolio, Program & Project Management, TOGAF for Enterprise Architecture, ITIL for Service Management & ISO 27001/2 for IT Security assists him in providing form and structure across immature environments.

very business has been disrupted by technology, and the higher education sector is no exception. Even at long established universities, the days when students were content to devote three or four years of their lives and engage in a highly limited number of courses, mainly unrelated to real world issues and employer expectations, are firmly in the past. In any case the sheer numbers of students aspiring to higher education and degree level technical programmes have stressed the old model to breaking point.

Federation University Australia (universally known as FedUni) traces its origins back to the former Ballarat School of Mines, founded in 1870 and later transformed into the University of Ballarat. In 2014 the University amalgamated with the Gippsland Campus of Monash University, and FedUni was born. It is one of a small group of universities in Australia that embrace both traditional higher education and the more directly vocational TAFE (Technical And Further Education) strata of education.

It was constituted as predominantly

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February 2017

TECHNOLOGY

“Our vision was to transform a local university into a global operator in a context of an ever evolving sector whilst taking advantage of the benefits and opportunities digital disruption offers” – Andrew Tully, Executive Director of ITS and Business Solutions (CIO) a regional institution serving Victoria, the most densely populated state in Australia, but there has also been growth in its international footprint

with a new support centre in Malaysia and partner institutes in other parts of the Asia Pacific region including the likes of Hong Kong and Beijing.

w w w. f e d e r a t i o n . e d u . a u

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Accenture serves up the cloud on client terms Objective Serve and grow its clientele with solutions that address evolving IT trends and the desire for new business models

The HPE Helion private cloud provides the right foundation for Accenture’s innovative hybrid solutions

Approach Leverage the HPE Helion private cloud and HPE Flexible Capacity to build and deliver hybrid cloud solutions that follow the public cloud consumption model IT Matters • Optimized client solutions using HPE’s powerful private cloud hardware ooering • Leveraged HPE’s Operations Orchestration software to drive automation within its diierent client ooerings and capabilities • Enabled clients to access technology without a large capital outlay using HPE Flexible Capacity Business Matters • Delivered bundled solutions more in line with client and industry trends • Expanded its own solution portfolio without a sizeable upfront investment • Made technology more aaordable—and therefore accessible—to new clients and industries

“We’re integrating [the HPE Helion private cloud] directly into the Accenture hybrid cloud and our ACP hybrid cloud solution set. It provides a very powerful capability that allows us to bring to our customers a strong private cloud solution combined with a public cloud piece.”

–Chip McCullough, Solutions & Go-to Market Lead – HPE, Accenture

With a reach that spans 120 countries and 40 diierent industries, Accenture is on the front lines of today’s rapidly evolving technology landscape. The global professional services company ooers a broad range of services and solutions in st strategy, consulting, digital practice, technology innovation, and operations. In recent years, and largely because of the public cloud,

Accenture has seen a significant shift in how its clients want to consume technology. Isolated hardware and software purchases have become a thing of the past. Instead, “Clients want to buy bundled technology packages that include the application, th the business process, and the infrastructure all integrated together,” says Accenture’s Chip McCullough, Solutions & Go-to Market Lead – HPE.

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Industry

Accenture

Technology

But that’s just part of it. In addition to bundled solution packages, business leaders and, in turn, their IT organizations, want the simplicity of purchasing technology with the “swipe of a credit card.” Drawing from its own HPE Helion private cloud and the industry leading hardware, software, and services included in that ooering, Acc Accenture is serving up hybrid cloud solutions that are more in line with what its clients want.

A hybrid focus—because one size doesn’t fit all To help IT organizations empower their respective businesses, Accenture is focusing on the hybrid cloud space. It recognizes that no two businesses are alike. Some are more oriented toward the public cloud and others toward the private cloud. Finding the right mix requires a hybrid model that can be tailored to in individual business requirements. To this end, the company is excited about two key ooerings—Accenture Cloud Platform and Accenture Hybrid Cloud. Both are hybrid cloud solutions that launch clients on their respective journeys. “It depends on whether the customer wants to start with more of a focus on the public or private cloud,” says McCullough. “This will ultimately drive the diierent solutions we put in place for clients.”

Accenture builds on its HPE Helion foundation To drive solutions that satisfy clients’ specific and evolving needs, Accenture relies heavily on its own HPE Helion private cloud solution. “One of the goals within our Hewlett Packard Enterprise practice,” says McCullough, “Is to own the private cloud space within Accenture.”

The company’s private cloud solution, leveraging HPE Helion OpenStack, is built on a pre-configured converged infrastructure that can be easily and rapidly deployed to support application environments.

The Accenture Dealer Management System (ADMS), for example, provides SAP hosting services for Caterpillar Inc. dealers. Transparent scalability of the HPE solution allows the infrastructure to scale up as Accenture onboards more dealers onto the platform.

The HPE solution provides balanced building blocks of servers, storage, and networking, along with integrated management software. It also delivers a best-in-class virtualized infrastructure that is delivered as a single, proven solution that can support multiple hypervisors and enables cloud management. Both HPE Data Protector and the ne newer Recovery Manager Central (RMC) data protection solutions are available as part of Accenture’s solution ooering depending on the client use case.

Accenture’s HPE Helion private cloud delivers, “Absolutely leading edge technology that we are able to take into the diierent ooerings and solutions we’re building for clients,” says McCullough. He adds, “We’re integrating it directly into the Accenture hybrid cloud and our ACP hybrid cloud solution set.

It provides a very powerful capability that allows us to bring to our customers a strong private cloud solution combined with a public cloud piece.”

Powerful technology and flexible consumption model Three components of the HPE Helion solution make it easier for Accenture to build out solutions that better serve its clients. The first piece is HPE’s industry leading hardware, which Accenture uses as the foundation for many of its solutions. “If you look at Gartner and other analysts’ views,” says McCullough, “the HPE hardware solution absolutely st stands out. And we’re able to optimize our clients’ solution through this very powerful hardware set.”

For further information please contact your HPE representative, Julie Holland at Phone: +61 82228246 or Email: julie.holland@hpe.com

Customer at a glance HPE Helion Cloud Solution • Private Cloud Hardware • HPE ConvergedSystem 700 • HPE 3PAR Storage • HPE StoreOnce systems • HPE ConvergedSystem for SAP HANA (CS500 and CS900) Software • HPE Helion OpenStack • Windows Server 2012 • Redhat Linux • Suse Linux HPE services • HPE Flexible Capacity • HPE Datacenter Care (included in Flexible Capacity)

The second piece is HPE’s management toolset, especially operations, monitoring, and automation capabilities. HPE Operations Orchestration “has been quite powerful for Accenture as its out-of-the-box capabilities provide integration with both internal HPE tools as well as external toolsets.” McCullough adds, “We’ve been leveraging that extensively in several of our solutions to help drive automation within the diierent ooerings and capabilities that we’re delivering to clients.”

The third critical piece to Accenture’s success is the HPE Flexible Capacity ooering. Accenture has bought into this capability because it allows the company to ooer a public cloud-type consumption model around private cloud hardware and software without forcing clients to invest in large upfront capital purchases. in “It literally allows our clients,” says McCullough, “to have on-premise hardware and software that very much looks like a credit card swipe that you see in the public cloud environment.”

Democratization of the cloud While the technology is a critical component of the solution, innovative business and consumption models are equally as important. The HPE Flexible Capacity component of the solution benefits everyone involved—Accenture, its clients, and HPE. According to Eric Brown, Managing Director at Accenture, Br Flexible Capacity helps Accenture bring more capabilities to its clients. “We’ve been able to deliver capabilities that clients, in the past, have not been able to aaord by allowing them to pay only for what they consume.”

McCullough elaborates, “Accenture traditionally is an asset light company, so we typically do not want to invest in significant assets as a part of our solutions. What Flexible Capacity allows us to do is to drive these assets into our as-a-service solution without the need to invest heavily up front.“ Of th course, what’s good for Accenture is good for HPE. “The Flexible Capacity program in itself has triggered particular momentum across Accenture for Hewlett Packard Enterprise,” admits McCullough, “and we’re seeing that grow significantly as we continue to leverage the program.”

Networking looks to the cloud Moving forward, Accenture is excited about innovative solutions it can bring to clients through its partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The company is focusing specifically on the networking space—and is creating solutions around next-generation software ar defined networking that, according to McCullough are “absolutely diierentiated in the marketplace.”

The HPE Helion private cloud provides the foundation from which to build these solutions. “Underneath the networking is a Helion OpenStack solution running virtually all of the network functions,” Adds McCullough.

“We expect nothing but huge growth for us in this networking space with our partnership with HPE over the next couple of years.”

Learn more at hpe.com/helion

For further information please contact your HPE representative, Julie Holland at Phone: +61 82228246 or Email: julie.holland@hpe.com

F E D E R AT I O N U N I V E R S I T Y

FedUni has opened a further campus in Berwick, Melbourne and about to open a new Brisbane campus later in the year. The Good Universities Guide has rated FedUni and its predecessor at five stars for Teaching Quality eight years in a row.

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Executive Director of ITS and Business Solutions (CIO) Andrew Tully, has very succinctly summarised the challenge facing the expanded institution. “In a competitive market defined by students juggling full-time study with part-time employment,

TECHNOLOGY

or increasingly mature-age students juggling full-time employment, the student experience is enhanced by institutions that accommodate this and offer flexible course delivery with personal teaching engagement.�

Significantly, these models are

opening up new market segments such as working adults or full-time carers who are unable or do not wish to commute long distances to a university campus. Similarly, there are life-long learners who do not wish to be constrained by the

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traditional 24 units of study but who want to ‘cherry pick’ units of study.

Most universities and TAFE institutions are facing the same challenges. At FedUni this challenge of how to provide a ‘blended’ solution of online and on-campus provision is being met head on by Tully who was appointed just a year after the university was amalgamated with the mandate to transform the complex yet disparate technology landscape across the institution.

It’s acknowledged that students will increasingly access their teaching

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February 2017

and learning content on mobile devices, tablets anywhere, anytime.

Cloud computing is disrupting the economics of delivering and supporting legacy IT systems, making ICT environments more readily available to smaller and medium sized enterprises, and giving them the ability to scale up and down as circumstances change. Large corporations are seizing the opportunities offered by capturing and managing big data, and keeping a very close watch on emerging technologies

TECHNOLOGY

that can be bought in as a service, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive analytics. By making effective use of these new realities forms a key part of the university’s Hybrid Cloud Strategic plan for 2020.

From 2014, the university has faced a variety of challenges, from digital disruption impacts, impending deregulation and potential reduction of fee subsidies at the state and federal levels. “Our vision was to transform a local university into a global operator in a context of an ever evolving sector whilst taking advantage of the

benefits and opportunities digital disruption offers. This is the challenge I am addressing at the moment,” says Tully. For a small university with comparatively limited IT resources compared with many of the larger Australian universities, this was a big ask. Straight away he tackled the task of transforming the ICT team into an ‘information and technical services directorate’ (ITS), in the process ending up with what he describes as a cross functional, bi-modal, integrated business service model.

“Today our 64-strong ITS team is very

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F E D E R AT I O N U N I V E R S I T Y

“Today our 64-strong ITS team is very adaptable, very agile, and capable of taking on complex technological problems” – Andrew Tully, Executive Director of ITS and Business Solutions (CIO)

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adaptable, very agile, and capable of taking on complex technological problems” Tully adds. His boast is that with half the numbers of his closest competitor he can service the likes of blended on line learning, student retention and the other strategic priorities identified in the 2016 to 2020 Master Plan, which is arguably more complex than that of other institutions which don’t offer TAFE. What he has been able to create is a lean ITS service aligned with Enterprise Architecture principles whilst embracing a “lean manufacturing ethos” – delivering more with less.

How is this being achieved? “We baked a cake!” says Tully – more of that later. Strategic partners Microsoft, Oracle, HP, and fraXses were invited to join the discussion. At the table, he gave each of them a FedUni baseball cap to emphasise the collaborative approach he wanted as one team.

“This combination of these key partners has helped us develop our future architectural vision of where we could go at a technical level, using the Gartner PACE model, focusing on Systems of Record, of Differentiation

and of Innovation. We mapped our entire technology footprint against those three, and created a fourth which we called our Core Enabling Infrastructure. From there we went on to build our architecture blueprint based around ten core principals, some of those being ‘Student Centric, Educator Driven’, ‘Reuse, Buy then Build’ and ‘Information is an asset’ to name a few.”

Once the structure of the team had been transformed and the cross functional bi-modal model was in place he set about building a ‘borderless’ technology footprint for the university. As part of the community engagement mission, in partnership with organisations in the Ballarat region like utilities, regional health and local councils, a partnership has started that is looking at sharing technologies and pooling resources that will not only help local organisations but assist the university meet regional challenges that ‘metropolitan’ universities might not face. Retaining and maximising technical resources is a good example.

Ballarat is a relatively small place with

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DATA VIRTUALISATION AND FEDERATION INTELLIGENT DATA LAKE(S) REAL-TIME ANALYTICS SELF SERVICE

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fraXses is the solutions company providing a data virtualisation and federation framework, utilising a unique configuration driven methodology. fraXses delivers a platform that allows business to access and combine multiple sources of data, irrespective of technology or locations, quickly and easily with no development.

FRAXSES IS THE SOLUTIONS COMPANY PROVIDING A DATA VIRTUALISATION AND FEDERATION FRAMEWORK, UTILISING A UNIQUE CONFIGURATION DRIVEN METHODOLOGY. The fraXses data virtualisation, federation and intelligent data lake platform was born from the realisation that the market needs a solution which can overcome the data silo and ‘big data’ challenges organisations have, without development challenges. A total configuration approach, in complex data environments, is what the world is looking for. fraXses was designed to deliver results to both business (self service) and IT that were not previously possible.

fraXses adopted an intelligent data lake approach from day one as we realised that storing data in a file system is just not the answer to the world. So our in-memory capabilities and storage mechanisms for big data propelled us into the world of real-time analytics and a pluggable machine learning and AI environment. Your existing ‘R’, Scala or Java models can most probably plug in without any code changes!

fraXses will discover data sources (schema/schema-less databases, files, streaming data), propose possible links between data sets and streams, execute the federated query, provide you with a corporate data pedigree (or schema) across all technology platforms and provide the user with the experience of working with wi a single corporate relational database no matter what technologies are behind it.

fraXses is the solution to become a truly data-driven organisation.

Level 13, 22 Market Street, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia | +61 432 668 668 | www.fraxses.com

F E D E R AT I O N U N I V E R S I T Y

“We leapfrogged over the traditional data warehouse model saving the University from significant investment.

FedUni is breaking the mould” – Andrew Tully, Executive Director of ITS and Business Solutions (CIO)

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limited resources, and FedUni relies on true partnerships to consolidate expertise from wherever it can find it.

The digital plan aims to enhance the blended learning and teaching experience that had contributed to the consistent five star rating.

FedUni had no wish to go along the online-only road because it wanted to maintain its personal relationship with its students while leveraging the potential of other forms of online service provision. “We have a lot of students, including more mature students, who may not be as inclined to be as technology comfortable as their younger contemporaries. We want to create a positive learning experience for them all empowered by a digital campus experience that’s engaging, supportive yet lean.”

The academic equivalent of customer churn, the process whereby competitors and new entrants to the market pinch customers from incumbent retailers or service providers, is student drop out. Not in the traditional sense, but students who are attracted away from universities by more flexible course providers.

TECHNOLOGY

For FedUni the competitive market, fee deregulation and pure online providers are among the factors that challenge enrolment numbers and halt the decline in student retention. This is where one of the core principles in IT is key – Information is an asset.

The university sits on plenty of data but that data was dispersed across various locations, through many systems, in multiple databases including PeopleSoft, Oracle, Postgress, MS SQL, Access, and in Excel and CSV files. The mass of data residing in social media formed

another great pool, but these sources were hard to access and not joined up. “We couldn’t easily identify which students were vulnerable: imagine the positive effect on student retention if we could use that material to give us insight into their individual situation?

What is driving them, and what is holding them back, what else can we do to support them? What a personalised experience our student and teachers will have with such support and insight,” says Tully.

To address this the ITS team turned to fraXses, a UK based company that

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has sounded the death knell for the traditional data warehouse. As a start fraXses explored and discovered the data repositories to establish what data existed, creating a single view by federating the different sources.

It created what he describes as a ‘mature view of institutional data’, which at last brought some clarity to management, underpinning decisions realising the value of data.

“Further to this, we’re constructing our ‘Intelligent Data Lake’ to enhance big data functionality.” In adopting this targeted approach and maximising its information assets, Tully scored a first. “FedUni was the first university to embrace Federated Data Virtualisation to get big data at our fingertips,” he says. “We leapfrogged over the traditional data warehouse model saving the University from significant investment. FedUni is breaking the mould”. Also, the ability to personalise data has affected more than just the human assets of the university – it has allowed it to take a more targeted approach to upgrading its assets, saving a lot of money – another lean initiative if you like.

To describe the complex IT structure that has been built we need to go back to the cake mentioned earlier.

It’s an ingenious and graphic way to describe to the layman what can be a perplexing series of layers, but Andrew Tully’s recipe is simplicity itself.

In the past he has used the relatively simple pizza as an analogy to describe the core and legacy systems: “You have the base, which is our core technology and on that different flavours that meet the tastes of the different people who like peperoni, pineapple and so on. The cheese in the middle is the information technology that glues it all together.”

But the target for 2020 is a bit more interesting than that.

His cake has two layers. The first “sponge” he calls the base layer, this is the Microsoft Azure Cloud, containing elements from what they refer to as the “Microsoft Experience”, productivity and communication tools within Office 365, OneDrive and Skype for Business, SharePoint and CRM offering scalability and backup. “All of that is being provided through our Microsoft partnership,” he explains.

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Going a little further up, the Amazon hybrid cloud model. The ‘icing’ on the cloud is a ‘lake’ of ‘ jam’ with tasty cake, is the fraXses technology we systems of innovative technology to be mentioned above, which assesses found in it such as data virtualisation and categorises data and makes it and ESB (Enterprise Service Bus). accessible to the institution as FedUni As we move through does not have a data the stack we have warehouse like all the some “large pieces others and the team is of ‘chocolate’, which proud being the ‘first’. represents institutional As digital data within our personalisation Systems of Record becomes more and Differentiation commonplace in – that is where our daily lives, so Oracle and fraXses too should staff, comes in providing students, lecturers us enterprise grade and researchers enjoy systems and metadata a slice of this IT cake acquisition / analytics that contains the respectively”. The ‘flavour’ specifically next ‘sponge’ – Andrew Tully, designed for them layer includes the Executive Director of ITS by simply selecting optimisation of and Business Solutions (CIO) their own ‘fruity existing on premise piece’. Everyone in the HP infrastructure along with the organisation, from Council members acquisition of new devices to to the newest student, can select their create reliable on premise disaster ‘cherry’. “In the future, consumers recovery (DR). Here, Finance and of my cake will get, the progressive HR systems are among the legacy digital campus experience, the functions represented within this information, the ‘flavour’ they

“This combination of key partners has helped us develop our future architectural vision”

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want, anytime and anywhere.”

In what it is doing, FedUni’s ITS team has found a way of punching way above its weight, and made its mark in Australia and globally.

Andrew Tully likes to think of it like the little unremarkable and shabby car, a kind of ‘Herbie’, which laps all the shiny (and much better funded) teams in the race, because they are encumbered by their monster truck tyres. “We are starting to pass, one by one, the competition because

our tyres are right. We are a lean and highly focused team of passionate resources, and have chosen our partners with care. So, data is king and the user based experience persona is queen within our hybrid Cloud architectural model. Underpinned by a cross functional, bimodal and adaptive team being the key. If you have the right data and the right approach and a team that is motivated, you can do anything you want to.”

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“OUR PHILOSOPHY

has always been about

SMILE

MAKING CUSTOMERS

”

From Geordie Shore Gazmojis with perfectlyplaced parsnips, to apps, premium SMS and DCB, Crowd Mobile CTO Iain Clark tells Niki Waldegrave his plans for world domination

Written by Niki Waldegrave Produced by Heather Sabitov

CROWD MOBILE

C

rowd Mobile is a mobile-first company with a world-leading ‘Q&A’ platform; it provides personalised expert advice, and a subscription service giving users access to games, infotainment and security products.

The company has developed a diverse range of products in the m-payment, entertainment and infotainment space. It is also listed on the Australian and German stock exchanges.

Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Iain Clark, former UK-based VP of Goldman Sachs, joined the company’s Australian head office five years ago.

Under his guidance, Crowd Mobile has expanded across a number of different platforms, from purely PSMS into direct carrier billing (DCB) and apps.

“Mobile is our primary focus,” he says. “That’s where the vast majority of our revenue comes from and is a very important part of our business. I think we’ve improved the way our services are being offered to the existing market and by expanding into new markets, new countries, and new products.”

Crowd Mobile’s Q&A apps achieved record growth in the 2016 financial year, growing 66 percent to $20.7 million – and Clark, at the helm of all its systems and infrastructure, has been instrumental in its success.

“Crowd Mobile has been really aided by our business intelligence (BI) solution,” he says.

“Immediately, our marketing and operations departments could see the ROI for the marketing spend. When we actually saw the numbers we

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Domenic Carosa

CEO & Executive Director

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CROWD MOBILE

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realised this is different from what we thought. It’s allowed us to be much more effective with spend and targeting, and that’s been a massive improvement for the way we operate internally.

“We now base all decisions on data, and we’ve moved it into operations as well. Looking at the effectiveness of our 1,000 researchers – when they’re answering, how quickly, and is the answer deemed as successful? We can judge the quality of the research and enact training if needed, to improve the service as a whole.

“Speed and quality of answering questions are two of our key success metrics. Since we have implemented an effective BI solution we are able to explore the possibilities of using artificial intelligence (AI) and automation to improve speed and reduce costs without impacting quality. This would not have been possible if we were not able to measure it.”

As well as apps and exploring a plethora of options in chat bots and chat platforms, one of Crowd Mobile’s major successes are the MTV apps, a

by-product of its two-year partnership with US$14 billion media giant Viacom, which owns the rights to film and distribution companies such as MTV, Nickelodeon and Paramount.

Its custom-made celebrity emojis, in particular, have been a huge hit.

Geordie Shore fans went wild when the ‘Gazmoji’, based on the show’s serial shagger Gary ‘Gaz’ Beadle, was released last year. Some of them showed the star – named ‘The Parsnip’ after his impressively large, erm, appendage – naked, his modesty protected by said vegetable. Other Gazmojis depict him covered in lipstick kisses and “getting mortal”.

“Crowd Mobile’s team of designers are great at capturing caricatures of the celebrities and bringing them to life,” Clark laughs.

Sadly, the emojis aren’t a sea of fake-tanned duck faces (yet!) because the celebrities have final sign-off.

Clark jokes if they were to make an emoji of him it would “most likely be bald with glasses and some form of nerdy technology,” laughing, “I care very much about my gadgets!”

Jokes aside, Clark says one

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challenge, particularly from an app and PSMS perspective, is keeping the business agile, because things shift so frequently and every market has a different set of rules. “iOS and Android are constantly evolving and trying to keep in step with them has been quite the challenge.”

Clark cites one example as the Viacom apps they were building when iOS 10 came out. “All of a sudden they introduced the new iMessage, which allowed direct integration with our app,” he explains. “We were like, ‘wow,

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this is awesome’, so changed all apps to adopt this new feature. We had to quickly shift focus because it was clear it was going to be really significant.

“We could add more functionality around sending emojis than before, when it was just the keyboard. Now there’s that extra level of control so we’re looking into what we can do there to further engage our customers and provide more value for them.”

Clark says consumer habits are changing too. In the past, people had lots of apps on their

TECHNOLOGY

phone, but now it seems to be flipping - they’re more focused on a select few, and chat platforms like Messenger or WhatsApp. “We think more along the lines of, ‘how can we integrate ourselves into those platforms so we are more directly in front of our users?’ rather than try to force them out of their usual pattern to go to a different app,” he says.

“Typically, what happens is people move over to a new app, use it for a while, and then go back to their old

ways. One of the best things helping underline this is the app integrations, like the iOS 10 change in iMessage and the chat bots in Messenger, Skype and other chat platforms.

These allow a user to stay within their chat app but achieve more.

Despite Crowd Mobile being in 54 countries in 30 languages, another big focus is going completely global in a cost-effective, revenue-generating way. And with the market shifting towards mobile devices, Clark says being able to offer services

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in these countries is a big deal.

“In many countries, PSMS and DCB are how people pay for things; in countries in Africa they don’t have credit cards, they use SMS, and in B2B quite a lot as well.

The actual billing goes against their mobile phone client.”

Clark says he was drawn to Crowd Mobile because of its continual drive to innovate and says from a technical perspective one of the

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company’s major advantages is that it’s not pigeonholed. “There’s a real drive for innovation led by our CEO Domenic Carosa, who’s mantra is ‘change is the only constant’.

People want a fun environment and that’s really being fostered here.

We’re a relatively young team and it’s a high-energy office. When people realise we’re across all the other kinds of stuff as well – PSMS, DCB, apps, chat – that really excites developers.

TECHNOLOGY

With regards to Crowd Mobile’s growth and where it wants to be positioned over the next few years, Clark says the main goal is to have a broad, successful app business providing services for celebrities, brands, and business.

“I’ve actually got a quote from Domenic Carosa on this,” he laughs. “He says our ‘philosophy

Employees

60 at Crowd Mobile worldwide

has always been about making our customers smile.

“Crowd Mobile looks to continue making fun, engaging, products that make people smile, while staying on the forefront of innovation and maintaining a forward-thinking view about how best to provide value for our partners and customers.”

Annual revenue USD

$

30

Million

Founded

2009

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Hope springs eternal

While pumping water and waste around the world’s largest cities, Xylem also helps bring fresh drinking water to remote villages around the globe Written by Adam Turner Produced by Josef Smith

XYLEM INC

“In Australia,

both state and federal governments need to improve their approach to water management and I think the lack of

a well-articulated, consistent water policy is holding us back as a country”

– Jim Athanas, Managing Director - Oceania

O

perating in more than 150 countries, Xylem is one of the world’s largest water pumping and monitoring solutions providers. While primarily targeting mining, municipal and large corporate customers, Xylem’s mission statement also involves giving back to the community by providing safe water resources for villages in need around the world, as well as educating people about water and sanitation issues.

Xylem’s charitable arm Watermark works with a range of not-for profit global organisations including Planet Water, Earth Echo, Mercy Corps, Water for People, Fundación AVINA and China Women’s Development Fund – reaching throughout Asia and Oceania as well as Central and South America. Along

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ENERGY

with supplying equipment and expertise, Xylem also encourages its staff to donate their time and money – matching their financial contributions dollar for dollar.

Access to safe drinking water is something most people take for granted, but Xylem is determined

to ensure it extends to every corner of the globe, says Xylem’s Oceania managing director Jim Athanas.

“This kind of work is central to our core values as a company, as without water there is no life,” says Athanas, whose team covers 16 locations across Australia, New Zealand and

www2.xylem.com/en-au

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XYLEM INC

the Pacific Islands. “Our Oceanic Territory’s government-owned leadership team recently donated a utility provider Power and Water. borehole in Fiji, going down 10 metres, Xylem’s bread and butter is but it’s much more than digging large-scale water and wastewater holes – we also provide infrastructure transportation solutions, born out of such as pumps, power and water a background in pumping expertise. tanks to ensure the entire village can A publicly listed company on the New enjoy access to a safe and reliable York Stock Exchange, Xylem was water source. formed in 2011 “Xylem does when US-based this on a global ITT Corporation scale, so we will span off its Water do things in the & Wastewater, Philippines, Laos, Residential & Vietnam, India, Commercial Bangladesh Water, Analytics and some and Flow South American Control business countries. Giving segments into back to the – Jim Athanas, a new entity. community is a Managing Director - Oceania The name is key part of our drawn from greater purpose.” the company’s Xylem has supported 777 local prime objectives – xylem is a water projects in 25 countries, botanical term referring to the touching the lives of 2.8 million tissues which help transport water people around the world, including and nutrients from a plant’s roots to Australia where it has been its leaves in order to nourish life. working with remote Aboriginal Major water authority government communities via the Northern bodies such as Sydney Water are

“This kind of work is central to our core values as a company,

as without water there is no life”

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February 2017

TotalCare Services

ENERGY

Smart water infracstructure

www2.xylem.com/en-au

67

XYLEM INC

some of Xylem’s largest customers, along with mining giants including BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals Group. It also operates in the food and beverage sector, serving the likes of Coca-Cola Amatil, plus it is a significant player in the building services area working through large plumbing companies and building contractors.

Xylem’s pumping expertise comes via its Flygt brand, a pioneer in the mining and construction pumping sector. Flygt’s offerings include the N-impeller pump with anti-clogging technology, utilising blades with backswept leading edges to sweep solids from the centre to the perimeter of an inlet.

The pump minimises call-out costs, along with reducing regular service and maintenance expenses for sewage pump stations, but it can benefit all pumping operations.

Meanwhile Flygt’s Concertor intelligent pump, with an integrated variable speed drive, is designed to save businesses the expense of owning different sized pumps, as well as lower operating costs.

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February 2017

Other Xylem brands include Lowara and Godwin for pumping, WTW for monitor control, Sanitaire and Leopold for filtration and Wedeco for disinfection.

This spread of expertise lets Xylem offer monitoring sensors along with a range of water treatment processes including solid/liquid separation, filtration and non-chemical disinfection using ultraviolet light and ozone. The business has five growth centres – transport, treatment, dewatering, analytics and applied water systems, which are interconnected to cover every stage of the water cycle.

With the tag line “Let’s Evolve Water”, Xylem devotes its technology, time and talent to advancing the smarter use of water, Athanas says.

Interconnectivity and smart networks present significant opportunities to improve water management around the world, with Xylem wellpositioned to lead the way.

“A lot of customers are interested in the Internet of Things – the ability for devices and networks to be interconnected,” Athanas says.

“It lets us build smarts into our

ENERGY

products to put more information at our customers’ fingertips, helping them make better decisions.

“We recently acquired a company called Sensus to help us move up the technology curve and our aim is to allow our customers to acquire strategic real-time information around their systems, so they can optimise their efficiency as well as

improve global water management.”

While technology is helping Xylem realise its ambitions to improve coordinated water management in the face of growing ecological challenges, Athanas is frustrated at Australia’s fragmented approach to water management.

“In Australia, both state and federal governments need to improve their

Flygt Concertor

www2.xylem.com/en-au

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approach to water management and I think the lack of a well-articulated, consistent water policy is holding us back as a country,” he says.

“We talk about carbon trading and we talk about greenhouse gases but we don’t talk enough about water and without water there is no life. Yet in this country we still do not have a standardised water policy at the state and federal level, which is quite disappointing and frustrating.”

Australia’s lack of a coordinated water policies not only hampers water management efforts, it also creates uncertainty which makes it more difficult for the private sector to invest in the future.

“Just look at what’s happening with the Murray-Darling Basin – you’ve got three governments fighting over the rights to access that water and you’ve companies who are in three different states uncertain of the future regarding access to that water,” Athanas says.

“When you consider how crucial water management is to the future prosperity of this continent, Australia needs to make more of an effort to manage its water wisely.”

www2.xylem.com/en-au

71

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XYLEM INC

M A N U F A C T U R I N G

Established 1973

P T Y

L T D

“Xylem’s first choice on stainless steel & galvanizing pipes.”

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Phone: Fax: Email: Web:

61 2 4954 6588 61 2 4956 5762 office@cowanmfg.com.au www.cowanmfg.com.au

ENERGY

“When you consider how crucial water management is to the future prosperity of this continent, Australia needs

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SHINING KNIGHT: FROM

HUSBAND AND WIFE TEAM TO AWARD-WINNING NATIONWIDE COMPANY Commercial cleaning company Shining Knight has a phenomenal success story.

What began as a husband and wife team doing part-time cleaning work at night is now a nationwide, award-winning business with over 700 employees

Written by Leila Hawkins Produced by Jeff Debicki

S H I N I N G K N I G H T FA C I L I T Y S E R V I C E S

“Every year we hold the Eco Knight Awards where we recognise the work that we’ve done with clients to reduce waste and recycle” – Arthur Calcatjicos, Managing Director

W

hen Arthur Calcatjicos and his wife Kim founded Shining Knight in 1998, it was a small operation they ran while maintaining regular jobs during the day. “We started off ourselves doing a bit of part-time cleaning at night, and it has now expanded to 738 staff as well as into all states in Australia,” Arthur says.

Today they’re the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer respectively of this thriving business, which has seen its remit grow from solely providing cleaning services to hygiene, waste management, pest control and gardening. In 2016,

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they added security services to their roster. As well as undertaking all the typical jobs of a cleaning company, like cleaning offices and commercial high rise, they also specialise in hard to tackle tasks like restoring buildings after flood and fire damages, and graffiti removal.

Arthur Calcatjicos’ role includes overseeing the day-to-day operations of the whole company, directly liaising with existing clients, and building relationships with new ones. These clients are typically in the government, commercial office, leisure, healthcare, and retail sectors, and they’ve worked with very high profile names like

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Virgin Active, Coca Cola, Victoria Police and Department of Justice.

While their website has a handy system for customers to put in requests and contact their 24 hour helpline, as well as an online shop to order products from, they’ve now gone one step further by creating an smartphone app. “We believe this is industry-breaking,” Arthur Calcatjicos says. “No one else in the industry has anything like this. This will help us because it will enable clients to have an app where with the tap of a button they can access cleaners, see

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who’s on site, see previous reports, carry out quality audits or service requests, and contact members of the company directly. It means they no longer have to go back to their PC or anything like that, they can do it all from their mobile phone.”

The app took six months to develop and saw them partner with Interactive, one of Australia’s largest IT firms who specialise in cloud-based applications.

In addition to their main role as a cleaning company they’ve produced a range of certified organic skin

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care products called The Beautiful Life (thebeautifullife.com.au). These are entirely plant-based and the packaging is made from recyclable materials. They plan to export them to the UK and South East Asia. “At the moment they’re hot on anything that’s organic and coming out of Australia,” Arthur says. “They view [Australia] as a very pure source, so we’re looking at the trademarking to get into those markets.”

The issue of sustainability is of huge importance to them. “All the vehicles in the company are electric or hybrids,”

Arthur continues. “We make sure that we implement systems and protocols throughout the whole cleaning operation where staff minimise the use of chemicals, and if they are used they’re environmentally friendly.”

They’ve worked in conjunction with local councils to ensure best practice in terms of waste management. To further emphasise their commitment to the environment, they have annual awards to commemorate their eco-friendly efforts. “Every year we hold the Eco Knight Awards where we recognise the

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S H I N I N G K N I G H T FA C I L I T Y S E R V I C E S

work that we’ve done with clients to reduce waste and recycle.”

Another fundamental area is the development of staff, which is a constant process. When employees start out at the company they complete the internal Shining Knight training scheme. After that, they’re encouraged to continue advancing their skills by studying with other

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organisations. “We look to external training with diplomas, certificates and degrees,” Arthur explains. “We develop a plan with them and set their career goals and paths, and then we aim to put them through that over the years they work at the company.” He adds that they like to promote from within, so that staff can see their colleagues being

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“We make sure that we implement systems and protocols throughout the whole cleaning operation where staff minimise the use of chemicals” – Arthur Calcatjicos, Managing Director

rewarded for their hard work and time which leads to increased loyalty.

The employees’ happiness has played a big part in the numerous industry awards they’ve received.

Every year from 2005 to 2014 they’ve earned a score of over 93 percent in the Australian Achiever Awards (AAA), which rates customer service based on aspects like attitude, care

and attention, communication, and time-related service. In 2015, the company won the AAA National Award for the Best Cleaning and Maintenance business in Australia, with a record 98 percent rating.

In 2010, the company was runner up in the Telstra Medium Sized Business of the Year awards, facing competition from 730 other companies. In the

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TAILOR, CREATE & ASSIST WITH CLEANING SOLUTIONS FOR YOUR UNIQUE NEEDS

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same year it was a finalist in the Victoria Business Awards. “Awards are important,” says Arthur. “We’re constantly asking for feedback from our clients and staff. It’s a way of someone external measuring our company and saying “yes, you are doing well”, that we’re the leaders in the industry, and acknowledging that what we’re doing is best practise.”

In the next few years the plan is to further establish the firm in Australia and move into new territories across South East Asia and the UK. As it

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February 2017

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grows, the only potential test to the company Calcatjicos envisages is getting the right employees.

“Like in any business today, trying to find good people is always the most challenging thing.”

For the foreseeable future he doesn’t see any reason for them to change the way they operate. “We think we’ve got a good model and we simply replicate that from one region to another,” he says. The company’s expansion so far backs this up, plus, as Calcatjicos puts it, “we love what we do”.

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Employees

Yearly Revenue

Year Founded

$$$ 738 Number of employees at Shining Knight Facility Services

$

26

USD

Million

1998

Shedding the Vortex

High rise innovative noise solution Written by John O’Hanlon Produced by Jeff Debicki

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As it passes its 30th birthday Studco Australia is expanding its market reach from the growing presence in the Pacific region to a global market ready for its innovative solutions: as developers and builders continue to push the boundaries of high rise towers, they are required to come to grips with wind noise and will welcome the revolutionary Vortex system.

A

mong the last people to walk out of any new building before it is handed over are those involved in the ‘final fixing’, typically carpenters and plasterers.

The people who work or live in that building will not see much of the steel, concrete or timber structure that holds it up – what we actually look at and interact with are the finished walls, floors and ceilings. Consequently,

it’s very important to get these supporting structure systems right.

Studco knows all about getting them right: founded in Melbourne in 1986 by entrepreneur Gordon Stevens, it celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2016. Over this period it has established itself as a premier manufacturer of state-of-the-art ceiling and wall systems – the framing systems that attach these parts of the building to the base structure, and subdivide the interior spaces into offices, apartments, corridors and the like. Studco has brought to the industry a number of innovations including its Ezy-Jamb product launched in 2000, the world’s first door jamb that is flush finished and does not require architraves or trims.

In an era when plasterboard interior linings are universal, perhaps not many people consider the out-of-sight roll-formed steel structures that hold them in place, but these are highly

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STUDCO AUSTRALIA

Phillip Harvey Global CEO

A seasoned industry professional, Phillip a Chartered Accountant has been associated with different segments of the Building and Construction Market for over 20 years.

As Global Chief Executive Officer he brings a wealth of business and market experience to Studco to lead the business into the next exciting phase of growth

engineered systems and they do a lot more than you would expect.

One area of particular interest for Studco is the problems presented by acoustics in the built environment.

For example in 2008 it created the Resilmount brand to meet the demand for economical sound isolation solutions in building acoustics these products have set an industry standard in delivering the internal soundproofing that gives work and living spaces the sense of privacy expected by their users. As it hits 30, Studco is continuing to raise the bar, tackling problems that have emerged as buildings have become higher, are subject to more stringent technical requirements and as rising labour costs have increased pressure on contractors to shorten their completion times.

Vortex Its most recent innovation, Vortex, is being developed in response to an emerging building industry headache which had the potential to impact what will become one of Melbourne’s tallest residential buildings. With 69

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February 2017

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“We had a year of excellent growth in 2016, consistently breaking monthly sales records, and our aim is to continue double digit growth through 2017” – Phillip Harvey, Global CEO storeys and rising to 218 metres, the Light House tower commenced construction in May 2015 and will be ready for occupation by the end of this year. It is going up fast, with a new level being added every two weeks.

It will have ground floor entry and tenancy, podium levels, car stacker, recreational facilities, pools and gym,

and 609 apartments. The architect Elenberg Fraser described it as ‘a twisting helix that seems to defy the laws of physics’ and the developer Hengyi boasts of its ‘25 metre indoor lap pool extending out to a rooftop oasis where residents can relax in the outdoor heated spa and watch

EZYJamb door frame system

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STUDCO AUSTRALIA

The Lighthouse Tower in Melbourne

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February 2017

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“Building methods have changed over the last 30 years, and the pressure is to save cost and cut building times” – Phillip Harvey, Global CEO the clouds drift past from the array of day beds on the pool terrace’.

Studco have worked closely with Multiplex, the builder, in searching for a solution to potential wind noise annoyance associated with high rise buildings, explains Studco’s global CEO Phillip Harvey. “Multiplex collaborated closely with us to explore a number of solutions that could be incorporated in the Light House tower. Our engineers were convinced that the issue could be resolved and that research resulted in the creation of our new Vortex wall system.”

Studco’s engineers then worked with Deakin University’s engineering research team to critique and confirm

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Warwick McAlpin General Manager Sales and Marketing

Warwick has 20 years business experience the last 10 with Studco and leads the company’s Sales and Marketing functions. Warwick has extensive industry knowledge and a detailed understanding of building solution that he is able to provide customers in solving their construction issues.

STUDCO AUSTRALIA

the new system’s performance.

Wind-related noise annoyance is not an uncommon problem. “Building methods have changed over the last 30 years, and the pressure is to save costs and cut construction times,” McAlpin points out. “At the speed buildings like Light House are going up it is imperative that we continue to innovate. Construction methodologies have changed but not the internal wall systems and we are tackling that. In a high wind situation, modern buildings are susceptible to a phenomenon called ‘vortex shedding’. Our investigations show that resultant vibration can be dissipated through the steel stud wall.

We needed to find a way to take the tension out of our product so that when that vibration comes through

the slab and hits the steel frame, that frame will not be the route through which the noise is dissipated.”

The iconic Light House project is the first building in the world to adopt the new Vortex system, and will be Studco’s showcase for the innovation. Harvey and his team are convinced it will rapidly be picked up by the construction industry across Australia and beyond.

Testing rigour Testing and perfecting Vortex is a priority for the company says Warwick McAlpin, General Manager of Sales & Marketing. “We are working with the builder and our research partners to continue the testing of the system in situ. All the data is being analysed with the view of incorporating any

Finite element analysis comparison of Vortex system and standard system.

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Vortex system installed: same installation method as standard wall but vastly different performance.

improvements in future applications.

This building will be the ideal proving bed for its effectiveness.

“There is no testing rig in the world to replicate what is happening within the walls of a actual building,” says McAlpin. “We have approached our testing from a dual approach: both numerical and experimental testing in the lab, and physical testing on-site.”

Overseas Already with a strong presence in Australia, USA and now the UK, the

Vortex system will definitely help this Australian company’s plans for continued international expansion.

In preparation for growth, in 2014 Studco relocated its manufacturing facility to a new national operations centre in Croydon South, in Melbourne. “This was to facilitate our strategic growth and improve operational efficiencies,” says Harvey.

“We’ve seen unprecedented demand from local markets and we are now also exporting globally in record volumes. The new facility allows for

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STUDCO AUSTRALIA

Vortex system installed: same installation method as standard wall but vastly different performance.

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The information in this ad is provided by way of general information only, and should not be relied upon by any person. You must seek specific advice as to the suitability of any products or services featured in this ad for the purpose for which, and the manner in which, you propose to use them. ©2016 BlueScope Steel Limited (ABN 16 000 011 058). BlueScope Sheet Metal Supplies and Steel Efficiency Review are registered trade marks of BlueScope Steel Limited (ABN 16 000 011 058).

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expansion of our manufacturing operations by nearly three times, to cope with our projected long-term needs. This is a very positive outlook for an Australian manufacturer and it is further enhanced by sourcing more than 90 percent of our raw materials from BlueScope Steel in Australia.”

With the commercial focus of developers currently shifting towards construction of high rise apartments

across Australia, the CEO sees plenty of opportunity for growth. “We had a year of excellent growth in 2016, consistently breaking monthly sales records, and our aim is to continue double digit growth through 2017.

Having a national footprint allows us to balance our growth nationally through our portfolio.”

What better way to embark on Studco’s second tricennial?

Research team conducting experimental testing of Vortex track at Deakin University.

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