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ANGES WITH THE TIMES A traditional, government-owned business, TasNetworks adapts to remain relevant with its customers. Written by: Eric Harding Produced by: Vince Kielty
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traditional, governmentowned business formed from the merger between Aurora’s distribution network and Transend’s network, but it’s not a traditional future the company is preparing for. Tasmania-based TasNetworks has an opportunity to create something that’s more commercial and adaptable, thanks to the merger. 4
The previous Tasmania state government commissioned an independent panel to look into the state’s energy supply production and areas for processes reduction. This resulted in the panel recommending a merge between Aurora Distribution (poles and wires) business and the Transend network (towers and powerlines) business. The two combined in July 2014,
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making $913 million in the first year of operation as TasNetworks. “The big challenge for us is, how do we energise, motivate and build the capability of our people so that we can move with the market,” said Justine McDermott, TasNetworks general manager of people and performance. “And it takes a lot of effort, strategy and leadership to do that.
“It’s a change from a conservative culture to an achievement culture. And it’s never been done before in an Australian government-based organisation. It will be a very interesting case study to see if we can achieve it.” I T S TA R T S AT T H E T O P Today, TasNetworks is about much more than simply poles and wires. w w w. t a s n e t w o r k s . c o m . a u
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Software Solutions for Australian Electricity and Gas, Retailers, Distributors and Metering Businesses.
Market Integration & Gateway Layer (MIL) CATS Module (CATS) Standing Data Repository (SDR) Standing Data Reconciliation (SDREC) Meter Data Management (MDM) Meter Data Delivery (MDD) B2B Network Billing (DBILL) NUOS Reconciliation (NREC) Energy Portals & Real-time Monitoring Retail Biling (RBILL)
ACN: 117 192 499 / ABN: 58 117 192 499
Brave Energy Systems (Brave) is a software solution provider speciďŹ cally focussing on the Australian energy market. Our team members have participated in industry committees for Gas and Electricity and have lead roles in the implementation of systems for some of the largest energy organisations in the country. Brave has been solving data problems for retailers and distributors since 2005 and aspires to be Australia’s pre-eminent software vendor for electricity and gas solutions. Brave enthusiastically invests in its product offering and is continually increasing the functional depth of our existing products and expanding the breadth of the overall solution set. Our investment extends to Research & Development on other initiatives such as battery and solar technologies. Brave has a strong commitment to the ongoing market compliance of our solutions. We participate in the assessment of proposed changes to the industry and upgrade our solutions to meet these changes as they are approved.
Brave Energy Pty Ltd 17 Carroll Crescent, Glen Iris Victoria 3146 Main: 03 9575 9000 Fax: 03 9575 9001
www.braveenergy.com.au
SUPPLIER PROFILE
Employees: 60 Established: 2005 Industry: Provider of software to the Australian utilities sector Services: Brave Energy provides products and services designed specifically for participants in the Australian utilities sector. These products are available through Brave’s BRAVO product and include billing engines, data management solutions, revenue assurance solutions, metering services solutions and gateways. Brave host solutions and provides back office operational services. Brave’s customers include Retailers, Distributors and Metering Service Providers Ongoing Projects: Brave has a number of large projects underway for existing clients and is in various stages of delivery for new clients. Brave’s existing clients are expanding their use of BRAVO to benefit from the foundation productions and functionality implemented previously. New clients include start up retailers and clients wishing to enter into the provision of competitive metering services Key to success: Brave’s success is driven by its considerable experience in the Australian Utilities sector across both gas and electricity fuels. Brave employees are sourced from within the utilities sector to ensure this experience and knowledge continues to benefit our clients. BRAVO, Brave’s modular product suite, is specifically designed for the Australian utilities sector and is a further driver of Brave’s success Future developments: Brave continues to invest in BRAVO to meet market demand or to reflect changes arising from energy regulators. Development of BRAVO is also driven by Brave’s own desires to offer products and services that our clients’ customers may wish to use and benefit from. Brave’s current focus is on delivery of metering services and refinement of cloud based solutions Management: Michael Hamilton - CEO; Peter Tillig - COO; Trent Jenkins - CTO Website: www.braveenergy.com.au
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The company’s role is changing rapidly, with a greater emphasis on getting people to buy into a different future, as well as helping employees understand that doing what they’ve done in the past is no longer enough. “We clearly understand there are some levels of the business that are rapidly advancing upon us,” said McDermott. “In an environment like Tasmania, which is an island with isolated areas, the traditional poles and wires aren’t necessarily the best way to service those customers. It’s about collaborating with other suppliers to produce standalone
services.” Executing this plan takes strong, yet empathetic leadership, which McDermott believes TasNetworks CEO Lance Balcombe excels in. “To be effective in leading change, you need leaders who are courageous. He’s really being courageous and backing the things that we’re doing,” said McDermott. With the consistent commercial message around the market constantly changing, the company has to change along with it. The significant part of TasNetworks’ strategy is: The strategy won’t happen if they don’t make it happen.
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“Leadership and investing in our leadership programs to help people change and measure our progress is critical,” said McDermott. “Lance has backed all of that, and not many leaders or CEOs would so visibly.” THE CUSTOMER COMES FIRST The new plan for TasNetworks’ business revolves around aligning the business to unlock efficiencies, staying relevant in a changing environment, and standing behind the customer. “The big opportunity for us is helping our people be effective at working within a changing environment, which is something entirely new to the majority of our people,” said McDermott. “Everything you do in this business should be
SUPPLIER PROFILE
Lance Balcombe, Chief Executive Officer
LITMUS GROUP
Litmus Group is a management consultancy firm specialising in the execution of business strategy. We work alongside clients to plan and deliver a positive return on their strategies through effective decision making and aligned implementations. Our focus is on creating real enterprise value by helping our clients to deliver business benefits, manage risks and accelerate the delivery of strategic outcomes that are tangible and sustainable. We are an employee-owned firm with a committed, experienced and talented team. Litmus is part of The Clovis Capital Company which manages a portfolio of businesses that together maximise tangible value for its clients through advisory services, specialised skills provision, private investments and product partnerships. Litmus has offices across Australia and Singapore and is part of is part of Cordence Worldwide offering our clients access to global knowledge and cross-industry experience from more than 2600 consultants in 50 offices around the world. Website: www.litmusgroup.com
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UXC OXYGEN – THE SAP SOLUTIONS COMPANY. WE LET BUSINESS LIVE.
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Commercial Cleaning & Sanitation Service Solutions As a family owned company operating throughout the length and breadth of Tasmania, ABC Healthcare Services Pty Ltd has been offering industrial and commercial cleaning and sanitation service solutions for more than 30 years under current ownership. ABC Healthcare Services is currently engaged with more than 30 major clients including all four major Australian banks, Statewide Tasnetworks Sites, National and State Educational Institutions, and Federal and State Government owned buildings.
PO Box 297 Glenorchy, Tasmania, 7010 Phone: (03) 6273 0218 / Fax: (03) 6273 4655 Email: admin@abchealthcareservices.com.au
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about the customer.” A central part of TasNetworks’ customer theme is its Voice of the Customer program, which initially caught some off guard due to its vagueness. “Everyone asked, ‘What is it?’ And I said, ‘We’ll figure it out along the way,’” said Tas Networks CEO Lance Balcombe. “A lot of people struggle with that because they want something tangible. That creates challenges for some people,
when they’ve been used to dealing with certainty.” TasNetworks has developed a Voice of the Customer Program to drive the focus on delivering quality service outcomes for its customers. Despite its ambiguous nature, or perhaps because of it, Voice of the Customer is designed to reflect TasNetwork’s highly flexible nature, keeping customer satisfaction as the ultimate goal, rather than as secondary one. w w w. t a s n e t w o r k s . c o m . a u
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FLEXIBLE E M PLOY E E S WA NTE D Although engineers traditionally seek perfection and stability, TasNetworks employees must move quickly, juggle unknown variables, and take risks in such a dynamic environment. “We have a clear understanding that we’re embarking on a transformation program,” said McDermott. “We want to keep doing what we do well, and learn
multiple new skills and capabilities. We have known that from the start. One of the great opportunities of a new business is you can put the scaffolding in place to build change.” Change isn’t for everyone, but one thing TasNetworks prides itself in is helping its people adjust to change, while also helping them make the right choices if it doesn’t suit them. TasNetworks puts emphasis on assessment, measuring both its w w w. t a s n e t w o r k s . c o m . a u
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internal culture and engagement, before sharing the data with its employees and putting them through culture development workshops. “We talk to them about how each of our behaviours creates the culture, and what we may need to do differently to change our culture to one that is more achievement focused,” said McDermott. “Becoming more adaptable is a big change. We’re not expecting it to happen immediately, but it’s the start of a long-term program.” TECH LEADERS With a recently upgraded starter system along with a myriad of business software platforms, TasNetworks signed off on implementing a business transformation project at the end of October with SAP at its core. According to Balcombe, it’s a twoyear implementation that will cost just over $58 million. “It’s not an IT project,” said Balcombe. “We very much view this as a business transformation project. Obviously there’s a lot of 16
risk with large IT implementation, but we’ve done a lot of work making sure we resource it properly. “A big component of the project is change management, because the way people do things as result of this project is going to change.” In addition, TasNetworks transmission system consists of a 220 kV and a 110 kV transmission network that connects generators to the distribution system, major industrial customers and the
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Company Information NAME
TasNetworks INDUSTRY
Energy FOUNDED
2014 ABOUT
undersea cable called Basslink. The intricate system comprised of over 3500 circuit kilometers of transmission lines, 49 substations and seven switching stations, a telecommunications network and a control centre. And along with its own telecommunications requirements, TasNetworks also owns and operates a telecommunications business that serves customers in the electricity industry among others. It’s just yet other ways TasNetworks adapts to its surroundings.
TasNetworks commenced operations on 1 July 2014, formed by a merger between Aurora’s distribution network (the poles and wires) and Transend’s network (the big towers and lines). TasNetworks is a Tasmanian State owned corporation that supplies power from the generation source to homes and businesses through a network of transmission towers, substations and powerlines.
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www.tasnetworks.com.au