UNITINGCARE QUEENSLAND: A DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN COMMUNITY CARE
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UNITINGCARE QUEENSLAND: A DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN COMMUNITY CARE WRITTEN BY
JOHN O’HANLON PRODUCED BY
MIKE SADR
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Part of UnitingCare Queensland’s two-year transformation project was the rethinking of its digital strategies under new executive leadership
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hen BizClik Media last spoke to Nina Du Thaler she was CIO at Queensland Urban Utilities (QUU), the organisation that
provides water to the greater Brisbane area. During her time there she was able to deliver Q-Ops, a platform that aggregates data from business systems into a single location to help operations 04
staff manage Queensland’s sewer and water networks effectively, establish a robust governance framework across the organisation and a mature programme, and deliver a strategic ICT vision and roadmap. The outcome, a better experience for consumers and employees alike, was a great satisfaction to her, though if anything, she’s proudest of her work in improving team effectiveness and culture. She has never been a stereotypical techie, taking a broad view of her contribution, and that of the organisation, in the society at large. In 2016, UnitingCare Queensland approached Nina. UnitingCare is one of Australia’s largest charities, focusing on health and community services across Queensland and the Northern Territories. It employs 17,000 people assisted by more than 9,000 volunteers to deliver community health services,
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TRANSFORMING COMMUNITY CARE IN THE DIGITAL AGE
CO-DESIGN PERSONALISED CARE FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS WHILE STAYING AGILE, INNOVATIVE AND CONNECTED. ACCENTURE AND AVANADE SUPPORT UNITINGCARE’S DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION, SO IT CAN FOCUS ON CARING FOR COMMUNITIES.
that a large-scale, digital transformation would be needed to provide the digitally enabled care services that its customers would expect, now and in the future. UnitingCare ran a competitive process and undertook competitive dialogue with shortlisted vendors to form a panel of delivery partners. Avanade’s engagement will give UnitingCare simplified financial management, providing a single source of truth for financial information. This will allow UCQ to become more efficient in resource usage, particularly in back-office functions such as procurement and shared costs. Transforming back-office technology will improve support services for people from all walks of life, including older people, people with disabilities, children, families and indigenous people.
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ccenture and Avanade are supporting UnitingCare Queensland (UCQ) on its journey to deliver safe, quality digital health and community services to its communities, clients and patients. UnitingCare provides skilled, evidence-based interventions for those facing adversity, and uses its reach and vision to confront injustice. UCQ is a leader in crisis response, the protection of vulnerable children, financial resilience and family wellbeing. They meet people where they are and walk alongside them to achieve positive change and growth. Across Queensland and Northern Territory, UnitingCare supports thousands of people living with a disability in redefining what’s possible in their lives. UnitingCare recently launched its Digital and Technology panel to access high-quality technology capabilities to accelerate the organisation into the digital age. UnitingCare was facing industry disruption, change to consumer directed care and competition, and realised
Australians benefit from a fast-changing world where customer care expectations are shifting. Organisations need to be future-ready and adapt to changes in the digital age. They need to work in agile ways that continually improve processes and experiences. Customers prefer to stay connected at all times and at any location, meaning care organisations need to transform from paper-based workplaces to participate in a digitally connected ecosystem. Accenture and Avanade supports their clients end to end in their transformation journey, which helps clients connect their businesses with their customers digitally. With nearly 5,000 combined resources in Australia between Accenture and Avanade, along with extensive offshore capabilities, we have the pool of talent and can provide targeted solutions that deliver on clients’ digital and technology strategies. At Accenture and Avanade, we value our clients and our people, and we deliver high performance while supporting local communities to build a better future.
CONTACT US »
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“ We have a great number of extremely effective carers, healthcare and social workers … I think that is a really positive aspect of our organisation” — Nina Du Thaler, Group Executive, Digital and Technology, UnitingCare Queensland 08
care for the elderly, and acute medical services at its not-for-profit hospitals including The Wesley Hospital, St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital in Brisbane, and St Stephen’s, which became Australia’s first fully integrated digital hospital when it opened in 2014. The new position they created was that of Group Executive, Digital and Technology, reflecting the strategic importance of commoditising the groups’ IT environment, digitising the groups’ services and making sense of the huge volumes of data flowing in from its IT platforms.
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘LACEY’S MISSION POSSIBLE STORY WITH UNITING CARE QUEENSLAND’ 09 The organisation was facing a num-
Wearing her CIO hat she particularly
ber of challenges at the time, she
liked it that UnitingCare was leading
explains. “UnitingCare was undertak-
the digital hospital concept, in which
ing a major transformational change.
patient data is captured and directly
It was working on bringing together
fed into the electronic medical record
unique businesses which had diff
(EMR). It represents a quantum leap in
erent IT teams, different back-office
quality, safety and patient experience,
systems, fragmented data and it
transforming healthcare delivery, she
wasn’t working well for the organisa-
says. However the hospital environment
tion.” The businesses - encompassing
is only one place IT can make a differ-
in-home and residential aged care,
ence. Blue Care is Queensland’s leading
lifeline retail stores and counselling
in-home, retirement living and aged
support, child and family services and
care provider. Many of its service users
hospital services had been operating
rely on Australia’s National Disability
in silos.
Insurance Scheme (NDIS), which has w w w.uni t i ngc a re ql d. com . a u
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proved hard to access and navigate
to align her CIO and relational skills
since its rollout in 2016: one of Nina
with the community and healthcare
du Thaler’s pet projects was the
sector which though new to her was
development of NDIS Planning, an
attractive because of its focus on
app launched in 2019 that simplifies
people and role in society. “This job
the complex documentation and
was enticing to me as much from
the application procedure.
the point of view of culture, human
The digital and technology position
interaction and service delivery as of
was defined during the creation of
technology. The two are inseparable
a new executive leadership team (ELT).
really. This organisation has huge
“We needed to be focusing on how we
potential, a great track record and to
could add value to the business, pivoting
be able to say that I’m helping trans-
into the digital space, and how this can
form it and make it sustainable into
help transform the organisation.” Du
the future is a really positive thing
Thaler recognised this as an opportunity
from my point of view.”
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Nina Du Thaler Nina Du Thaler joined UnitingCare Queensland in 2016. She previously held executive management positions across a range of organisations, including Queensland Urban Utilities and Allconnex Water. She is also a nonexecutive director in the Industry Advisory Board for the School of ICT, Griffith University. Nina won ‘CIO of the Year (Utilities/Media) at the iTnews Benchmark Awards. She holds an MBA and a Bachelor of Information Technology (AI). She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a fellow of the Australian Institute of Management
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“ This job was enticing to me as much from the point of view of culture, human interaction and service delivery as of technology” — Nina Du Thaler, Group Executive, Digital and Technology, UnitingCare Queensland
commercial accountability. Not for profit organisations still need to be viable, generating surplus funds that can be used for much needed expansion. Nina Du Thaler recognises that her job, to all intents and purposes, is to maintain the balance and keep close control of IT spending whilst delivering change and value for money and keeping UnitingCare sustainable. “My team have a huge responsibility, oversight of risk and cybersecurity, maintaining the health of the supporting infrastructure and applications – all the usual concerns of
BUILT ON COMPASSION
the CIO’s office – but we also have to
One of the things she likes about
strive to deliver a range of projects
UnitingCare is its mission-led ethos.
focused on new products, services
It attracts people like herself. People
and ways of working.”
who are driven by a desire to improve
The last two years for her have been
the physical, mental and spiritual health
a time of readying the organisation
of the community never just see their
to take advantage of the brave new
job in terms of income generation. “We
world of IoT, automation and AI by
have a great number of extremely
dealing with a host of legacy issues,
effective carers, healthcare and social
notably starting the journey towards
workers: they are motivated by a com-
unifying some of the platforms used
mitment to the people in our commu-
by the different parts of the organisa-
nity and I think that is a really positive
tion already mentioned and transform-
aspect of our organisation.”
ing UnitingCare’s service delivery
Maintaining this ethos is vital, though
model. “Those things have placed
it does entail a balancing act, sometimes
us in a good position to embark on
approaching conflict, when it comes to
a more digital and innovative future,” w w w.uni t i ngc a re ql d. com . a u
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she says, “and we’re now poised for that future.” UnitingCare’s transformation, stemming from the creation of Du Thaler’s Digital and Technology (D&T) organisation, was recognised by the iTnews Benchmark Awards 2019, in which it is a finalist. The citation points to UnitingCare’s focus on reducing overhead costs while also improving the IT service delivery model in ‘an incredibly competitive marketplace with limited funding streams’. In other words, value for money. 14
ETHICAL SOURCING The outcome is worth some attention: a competitive and comprehensive tender process was embarked on, to replace its fragmented, legacy service delivery model with a managed services partner model. There were many companies that could have helped with this, she acknowledges, but capacity and price were not the only consideration. “This procurement process was a bit different because of the influence and guiding ethics of the Uniting Church. We looked deeply into the conduct of these companies to satisfy ourselves they had ethical supply chains,
processes and labour management credentials. Another consideration was UnitingCare was very interested in whether the organisations we partnered with could support communities in the areas in which we worked.” The chosen partner was the Indian software provider Wipro, named in 2017 as the most ethical company in the world. “One of the things that attracted us to Wipro was that it is a truly global company, with a large Foundation driven by the company’s chairman Azim Premji. Wipro gives an amount of its revenues back to the community in the form of, among other things, support for education in India, community support programmes in India and the Philippines, and, of course, primary healthcare. We were determined to partner with a large organisation that had the depth and breadth of skills that can help support our growth.” The transformation, largely completed in mid-2018, has already reduced internal labour, lowered service delivery costs and improved the health of the IT environment. Though projected savings in the current financial year are expected to be minimal, by year 3 of the agreement savings are expected to reach $4.3 milw w w.uni t i ngc a re ql d. com . a u
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17 lion. In addition, the project has shifted operational delivery and the risks associated with this away from the organisation, while also freeing up Nina Du Thaler and her team to focus on value-add projects and “customer intimacy”, a key outcome for future innovation.
DELIVERING THE BENEFITS OF AUTOMATION The in-house team is lean and getting
“ UnitingCare was very interested in whether the organisations we partnered with could support communities in the areas in which we worked” — Nina Du Thaler, Group Executive, Digital and Technology, UnitingCare Queensland
much more focused now. It continues to oversee business critical functions like governance and the strategic w w w.uni t i ngc a re ql d. com . a u
“ One of the things that attracted us to Wipro was that it is a truly global company” 18
— Nina Du Thaler, Group Executive, Digital and Technology, UnitingCare Queensland
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2000
Year founded
17,000
Approximate number of employees
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direction and design. A lot remains to be done, and many learnings have been surfaced but in some areas, there have been real functional improvements. A good example is the service desk. When she came in, Du Thaler recalls, people phoning in to UnitingCare were experiencing an abandonment rate of over 40%, that is to say that calls were either not answered or people were kept waiting so long they hung up. Today the abandonment rate is below 3%, and over 60% of queries are fixed at the service desk without needing to be referred on. That’s a huge improvement, but there’s room for further improvement she says. Currently, she is targeting her D&T organisation in a limited number of directions. “One of the big ones continues to be bedding in all the new ways of working and frameworks that we have designed over the past 12 months. We are working closely with specific areas of our business that need refinement of the service delivery model and we are realigning many of our service level agreements (SLAs) with business criticality and business need. UnitingCare is also moving to a consumptionbased cost reallocation model: we w w w.uni t i ngc a re ql d. com . a u
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want to share the drivers of cost with
are implementing foundational technol-
our internal customers so that they can
ogy,” she adds. “Like an integration hub,
manage those themselves.”
an identity management platform and
Customers are going to see further
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an information analytics platform, and
service improvements in the coming
we are also replacing some back-office
year, she promises, with more self-ser-
systems like our financial management
vice capability. They might not even
information and CRM systems.” Post
notice some of these changes, but will
implementation, all of these systems
appreciate new ways of engaging
will be transitioned to Wipro for support.
through AI tools such as chatbots,
Nina Du Thaler confesses that her
which she plans to introduce to further
job with UnitingCare takes up most
enhance the service experience. “We
of her resources, but she retains
a long-standing passion for education
job allows.� She is also an industry
and the advancement of understand-
advisory board member and adjunct
ing and the entrepreneurial spirit
fellow at the school of ICT at her
especially among young women. She
alma mater Griffith University helping
is the author of a series of cyber-safety
to shape their degree courses and
books called Diary of Elle that address
hopefully bring on the women execu-
issues of current concern like the use
tives of the future.
of mobile phones and the social impacts of our online world, and continues to run her own publishing company Bright Zebra. “The books are a labour of love and I pursue that when my executive
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UnitingCare Queensland 5/192 Ann St Brisbane City QLD 4000 Australia T +61 7 3253 4000 www.unitingcareqld.com.au