A digital transformation journey
Coal Services: a growing mine of data WRIT TEN BY
ANDRE W WOODS PRODUCED BY
ANDY TURNER
Gillian Kidson, Head of IT at Coal Services, on how she is overseeing the digital transformation of the company to benefit its internal users and extensive stakeholder base
T
he challenge of transforming a business is no easy feat. When that push for change
requires a shift to a more agile customer focused model, as well as harnessing and renewing technology platforms to not only future proof the business but create a best practice environment, that task can become even more complex. Coal Services is an Australian industry-owned Specialised Health and Safety Scheme which delivers a suite of services in relation to the NSW coal
mining industry including workers
of the industry, which presents its own
compensation insurance, health
set of challenges in that the status quo
surveillance, occupational hygiene
must be maintained at the same time
monitoring, and training and rescue.
as the organisation builds a new way
Owned by industry for industry,
forward.
through the NSW Minerals Council
Gillian Kidson is Head of IT at Coal
and the Construction, Forestry,
Services and it is her job to oversee
Maritime, Mining and Energy Union
the transformation of the company
(CFMMEU), it has been protecting
from a technological point of view,
workers in one form or another for
to work with leading edge vendors
more than 90 years.
and create a best practice environ-
The company has statutory functions that are critical to the health and safety
ment for IT infrastructure. “I needed to gain an intimate knowlw w w.c o a l se r vi c e s. com . a u
edge of the company strategy and build a roadmap that allowed IT to help enable the key infrastructure required to realise our strategy. There was an appetite for significant efficiencies to be made using new technologies and improved data management; it was a case of building the right IT structure, architecture and infrastructure,” she reveals. The biggest challenge for Kidson and her team was working through the company’s legacy systems, which represent nearly 100 years of activity with each part of the business also having different requirements and applications, many of which weren’t being utilised. “Not only was it a bit of a clean-up, but we also looked at how we could utilise these tools across multiple businesses; not just one,” she comments. “We are upgrading the legacy infrastructure to a level where it will able to provide significant
“ I needed to gain an intimate knowledge of the company strategy and build a roadmap that allowed IT to help enable the key infrastructure required to realise our strategy” — Gillian Kidson, Head of IT, Coal Services
performance improvements in meeting the needs of the new systems that are coming in. We integrated current technologies, including: AWS, Azure and Office 365 to ensure we have best practice systems in place to allow us to build for the future and enhance performance. In order to implement changes to legacy systems, particularly within the insurance arm of its operations, Coal Services has, for w w w.c o a l se r vi c e s. com . a u
“ The goal is to provide systems that will give ease of access for our employees to provide better levels of service to customers” — Gillian Kidson, Head of IT, Coal Services
centric approach to injury management and improved experience for the worker. At a larger level, and because it operates across multiple touch points with its customers, Coal Services has amassed a large store of data surrounding workplaces, mine companies and workers. “An important part of the architectural design has been geared towards how we share the data that can be shared and lock down the data that can’t. So, we’re just working through that architecture at the moment with a view to implementing some master data sets across the business and
example, partnered with Finity to
a middleware application to enable
develop a tool that blends an individu-
us to transfer and share that core
al’s entire claims history together so
data,” Kidson explains.
case managers and injury management
“The goal is to provide systems that
advisors will have a holistic view of the
will give ease of access for our employ-
person (rather than a single claim or
ees to provide better levels of service
injury view) to enable a more person-
to customers. But at the same time,
these new systems must provide useful
of security they can.
information to help us glean specific
So, how does the system function
insights and improved knowledge to
when facing the client? “We have five
enable better solutions. This will enable
different businesses that will interact
the organisation to be more customer
with the coal miner for various reasons.
centred and in doing so, will allow for
From a health perspective it can be
an increase in customer efficiencies.”
anything from a pre-work placement
With large data assets comes the
medical required under the statutory
need to protect personal information
responsibilities of Coal Services,
and comply with privacy policies too.
to annual medicals for mines rescue
To ensure these requirements are met,
brigadesmen. On the other side,
Coal Services has engaged InfoTrust
you’ve got injury claims and manage-
as its security partner, who are
ment processes as part of the
working with Kidson at each stage of
workers’ compensation component
these projects to ensure that they
of the scheme. In addition, every NSW
apply the best and most trusted form
coal miner will likely come through our w w w.c o a l se r vi c e s. com . a u
www.virtualitservices.com.au | support@virtualitservices.com.au |
CONTACT US
Virtual IT Services’ core business is Managed Services. We provide a range of flexible support options to partner with our customers to improve the IT environment and provide excellent service. We differentiate ourselves from other Managed Service Providers by offering complementing consulting services and development services.
CLICK TO WATCH : COAL SERVICES – CORPORATE VIDEO
doors for some sort of training, and
can access personal data, see their
we also maintain their qualification
qualifications, and check their
records,” she said.
medical information.”
“The interactions are as varied
The coal industry is undergoing
as the data sets, so we are working
dramatic change and, as a result,
towards giving people access to see
capabilities at Coal Services need to
what training they’ve had and when
be nimble and agile enough to respond
they did it. They will be able to see how
to the evolving industry landscape.
many medicals they’ve had and keep
“While improving internal system
tabs on their claims. They should be
performance and data collection
able to go in through a portal and see
capabilities are important, it’s of greater
all their information. The immediate
significance that we can understand
goal is to give that capability back to
the data and work with industry to recog-
the miner so they have some visibility
nise emerging issues.”
of their own information; it means they
“Changes in technology can have a w w w.c o a l se r vi c e s. com . a u
1921
Year founded
330+
Approximate number of employees
direct impact on that and can aid in the development of solutions. Mine workers are often transient and the industry employs a good deal of contractors, which requires us to respond quickly to provide the best possible services to customers. It’s give and take on any day of the week and adaptability is key.” Kidson has fostered a number of long term strategic partnerships as a way to not only help deliver on requirements, but to also help improve performance as the organisation develops its own capabilities. “Virtual IT has been on board since the beginning providing assistance with architectural and network design as well as business intelligence tools. Having them on board has been a learning curve for us all and has provided us with some insights into what we’ve got and how best to reuse what we can.” One of the first areas Kidson looked at was occupational health who had been running their business across six different applications. The idea is to consolidate as much of that as possible into one application. “We’ve consolidated the first two applications with the help of Appian, who provide a platform Workflow Tool. We’ve consolidated bookings and health assessments and that’s due to go live in November.” With data comes responsibility and security and Coal Services looked to Trusted Habitat w w w.c o a l se r vi c e s. com . a u
when it came to data governance. “We need to be very clear over data flow and ownership. Trusted Habitat has been working with us to help put some of the rules in place and to look at how we manage that flow,” Kidson explains. Coal Services’ employees also need to make sure that data is available and can be where it needs to be at the right time. As a result, and to ensure best
“ We need to be very clear over data flow and ownership. Trusted Habitat has been working with us to help put some of the rules in place and to look at how we manage that flow” — Gillian Kidson, Head of IT, Coal Services
practice, the company has gone for a new high-speed network, supplied by Telstra. Meanwhile, NTT is working with Coal Services on disaster recovery and business continuity planning for the infrastructure and server environment. “We’re currently working our way through what that’s going to look like, with a view to implementing a ‘disaster avoidance’ environment and not the standard ‘disaster recovery’. “The strategy in place at the moment, has probably got another
two to three years to run. We’re
What these long term strategic
obviously adding to that all the time
partnerships do is allow us to
and it’s constantly under review. It’s an
improve performance and implement
ever-evolving piece of work. If we can
best practice solutions across the
get to the point where we’re delivering
business lifting both our internal and
that well, then we’ll start to see a bit
external customer experiences. The
more of the AI (Artificial Intelligence)
changes to our IT infrastructure will
technology being introduced.”
provide tremendous benefits towards
“First, we will have somebody
improving our stakeholder service
logging into a portal, then we would
provision in a significantly more
like to see that portal being more
effective and efficient manner.
intuitive and intelligent and delivering content to the customer or client based on their actions.” w w w.c o a l se r vi c e s. com . a u
COAL SERVICES PTY LIMITED
Level 21, 44 Market Street, Sydney NSW 2000 T +61 (2) 4286 5499 | www.coalservices.com.au