MIS100 2009:Bubbling under

Suncorp Group
Senior IS executive: Andrew Diver, CIO, Vero New Zealand
Total screens: 1205
Industry: Finance and insurance
Website: www.vero.co.nz

Suncorp Group (NZ) includes well-known brands such as Vero Insurance, Tyndall Investments, Asteron, Guardian Trust, Autosure, Comprehensive Travel and Mariner Insurance. It will continue to pursue a greater presence in the New Zealand broker market and direct markets; saying regulation, taxation and the introduction of the KiwiSaver scheme are expected to create future growth opportunities.

Suncorp executive management changes in the past six months include the departure of CEO John Mulcahy and the appointment of Chris Skilton as acting CEO.

Andrew Diver leads New Zealand technology operations and acts as both CIO for Vero New Zealand and executive general manager for Suncorp’s technology operations here.

Diver reports to Jeff Smith, group executive, business technology. He says key ICT projects for the coming year are the adoption, rollout and proficiency of Agile delivery practices and the adoption and utilisation of open-source technologies.
Kristin School
New Zealand Steel
Manukau City Council
Senior IS executive: Colin Smith, chief information officer
Total screens: 1733
Industry: Government and defence
Website: www.manukau.govt.nz

Key business objectives for the Manukau City Council (MCC) in the next 12 months include delivery of affordable, quality outcomes and services to the community, in alignment with the council’s long-term plan. CIO Colin Smith says the challenge is to meet the increasing community expectations, whilst maintaining financial sustainability and avoiding the need for further rate increases. “When faced with increasing external cost pressures, council expects areas such as the Information Management department to deliver more without requiring any additional resources,” says Smith. In light of changes to Auckland governance, MCC is reprioritising ICT projects and work programmes, but at the same time, maintaining focus on continuing to deliver a high quality of service to customers.
Housing New Zealand Corporation
Senior IS executive: Mark Corbitt, information technology manager
Total screens: 1390
Industry: Health and community services
Website: www.hnzc.co.nz

Housing NZ owns the state housing portfolio and its main activity is the provision of rental housing. Mark Corbitt is the new IT manager, taking over the role from Rob Herries. Under its three-year Risk Management Plan, HNZC seeks to incorporate best practice into its culture. Towards this, opportunities for operational efficiency and effectiveness are being captured and there is a focus on the quality and stability of information and associated systems. The Corporation will consider implementing electronic learning systems to help frontline staff access information to support them in their job. Introduction of the data warehouse in 2007 has made a significant difference to the provision of quality, timely and accurate reporting and analysis.
Stella Travel Services
Diocesan School for Girls
Senior IS executive: Craig Harrison, information systems manager
Total screens: 1727
Industry: Education services
Website: www.diocesan.school.nz

Diocesan School for Girls will provide the best in academic, cultural and sporting facilities and resources.

Challenges include achieving more personalised communication with stakeholders through web portals, as well as increasing risk management in an education environment experiencing reduced government funding and increased competition. “The falling New Zealand dollar is increasing our cost of ICT purchasing, whereas budgets are reducing due to current economic climate,” says IS manager Craig Harrison.

To address these challenges, he says 2009 will see further development of Diocesan’s web portal access to information, along with development of DR capabilities.

Each year, obsolete staff laptops are replaced along with an annual intake of more than 200 new students with laptops. Harrison says protecting the network from malware and risks is always high on the list of priorities, and solutions from Trend Micro and SurfControl are used to secure the network. The 2008 deployment of Microsoft Vista with its enhanced security features, has also had a positive impact on the security of the network.
Turners and Growers
Senior IS executive: Martyn Seddon, general manager of information systems
Total screens: 1230
Industry: Wholesale and retail trade
Website: www.TurnersandGrowers.com

Turners and Growers uses ICT systems and processes to meet the changing requirements of its multiple businesses and customers with speed and precision. The company is committed to creating a business environment that allows its several business units to act as one and collaborate. Better inter-business communication and process improvements are expected as a result, and will be supported by more consolidated SAP ERP system integration, and customer focus via portal and online service initiatives.

Martyn Seddon, general manager of information systems, says Turners and Growers is reducing non-critical spending. “So there is no budget reduction as such, but we need to ensure that if we’re spending then the items are critical.

“In the past 12 months Turners and Growers has increased investment in SAP systems and software, and has an ongoing extension of wireless technologies throughout the business. While these areas of investment will continue this year, it will also be re-visiting business processes within SAP and stream-lining them to gain a more integrated business system,” says Seddon.
Bunnings
Senior IS executive: David Hollies, ITS manager
Total screens: 1316
Industry: Wholesale and retail trade
Website: www.bunnings.co.nz

Business objectives for Bunnings in the next 12 months include excellence in team recruitment and retention, inventory management and store processing and efficiencies. ITS manager David Hollies says IT helps the business achieve its objectives and provides competitive advantage by allowing his team to work smarter. Key ICT projects last year included Oracle ERP and FMIS system upgrades, software and server virtualisation, implementation and extension of wireless technologies and a major upgrade of store networks and point of sale systems. IT systems are managed from the Bunnings Support Centre in Perth.
Bunnings uses Cognos business intelligence and reporting software on top of Oracle data warehousing tools for inventory visibility.
Hawkes Bay District Health Board
Bay of Plenty Polytechnic
Senior IS executive: Rabindra Das, IT manager
Total screens: 1138
Industry: Education services
Website: www.boppoly.ac.nz

IT manager Rabindra Das says the polytechnic has a number of key strategic partnerships under development, including one with the University of Waikato, which has led to integration and key shared services. Examples include shared network access, library access, video conferencing and hardware procurement between the polytechnic and University of Waikato. Das says another key strategic goal is the development of closer realationships with ICT vendors to leverage vendor skills and ensure vendors provide more value added services and can partner at a higher level. He says the ISS team will partner with fewer more strategic vendors to provide solutions to assist in developing competitive e-learning and flexible learning products and services. ICT helps the polytechnic to develop competitive e-learning products and simplify business processes to achieve competitive advantage. Current challenges include managing change and securing funding for application development, infrastructure and ICT facilities. In the next 12 to 18 months, major ICT projects include development of student management information systems, CRM software developments, a virtual reality hub, audio visual streaming servers and a financial software upgrade.
Television NZ
Senior IS executive: Damian Swaffield, general manager technology
Total screens: 1603
Industry: Information
Website: www.tvnz.co.nz

Cost efficiency and the need to do more with less are key points of focus for TVNZ. ICT tools and systems deliver the resources, skills and support for the appropriate levels of governance and intellectual thinking a digital media organisation like TVNZ relies upon, says CIO Damian Swaffield. He says broadcast and IT based technologies sit at the heart of the media revolution, both in emerging business channels such as online, video on demand and IPTV as well as in the core of video processing for linear TV. IT systems are needed to manage and store content as well as deliver it to audiences. ICT continues to implement business supporting projects such as digital transformation of the content value chain with workflow-driven, digital asset management systems to replace manual tape-based business processes; as well as a transformation of the advertising sales business through replacement systems and technology, and continued investment in the online products. Also planned are investments in networking technologies to support the move to a digital workflow, along with storage, virtualisation and wireless technologies.
Tyco Fire & Security
Senior IS executive: Antony Mayo, group IT manager NZ
Total screens: 1254
Industry: Manufacturing
Website: www.tyco.co.nz

Organic growth is a major focus for Tyco Fire & Security New Zealand, which provides electronic security systems, fire protection, detection and suppression systems; sprinklers and fire extinguishers; and security services.

Tyco Fire & Security has completed implementation of cash parcel track-and-tracing via GPRS wireless technologies and mobile devices. Other achievements included completion of a major implementation in conjunction with the NZ Fire Service in which new technologies were used to increase the reliability of signals received from fire and safety alert panels on buildings.

In 2009, the company is focused on cash processing, workforce management and data management systems; and an internet access and security upgrade.
Customer interface initiatives are also planned.
Coca-Cola Amatil
Senior IS executive: Donna Wright, CIO
Total screens: 1355
Industry: Manufacturing
Website: www.ccamatil.com

Attracting, developing and retaining high-calibre people, accelerating growth and investing in new beverage categories and acquisitions are key organisational goals for Coca Cola Amatil in 2009. The company has to deal with the impact of the recession on its internal costs as well as how its retail customers and consumers purchasing behaviours are affected, says CIO Donna Wright. From an ICT perspective she says a key focus is to review the number of ICT vendors the organisation deals with. Overall ICT strategy is focused on application rationalisation through implementation of SAP technologies. The largest ICT projects by budget for 2009 are development of a mobile sales force tool, a call centre technology upgrade and expansion and integration of VOIP technology.
Statistics New Zealand
Senior IS executive: Matjaz Jug, chief information officer
Total screens: 1650
Industry: Government and defence
Website: www.stats.govt.nz

the ICT team at Statistics NZ is focused on projects including systems in support of the census, development of statistical processing systems and data dissemination systems. Also on the agenda are integrated respondent management and strategies for the mitigation of business continuity risks related to legacy systems, and ongoing software and server virtualisation. CIO Matjaz Jug says facilitating ease of access to official statistics and internet data collection are among the challenges the IT team faces. ICT is needed to build a sustainable, technological platform, yet there is constant pressure to do this in the most cost effective way. The internal team maintains servers and PC hardware and outsourcing is used for extra support around some systems and network management.
Tait Electronics
Senior IS executive: Frank Gebhardt, IT manager
Total screens: 1331
Industry: Manufacturing
Website: www.taitworld.com

A focus on specific market segments, public safety, utilities and public transport solutions are key directions for Tait Electronics in 2009. The company is also in the process of building a global service centre.

IT manager Frank Gebhardt says locally the Tait Electronics IT team is working on projects to increase the collaboration capabilities of the business, as well as those that provide better visibility of key performance indicators. There is also a desire to ensure processes and services work to ITIL standards where appropriate. Tait Electronics is a leading worldwide provider of radio communications solutions, which focus on the needs of public safety organisations, utilities and transport providers.

Work on business intelligence and CRM systems will also be prioritised for the current financial year. In 2008, Tactical CRM tools were implemented at regional customer service organisations – and consolidation of these tools is planned.

Other ICT objectives achieved in 2008 included server consolidation, developing systems and strategies to cope with data growth, as well as reviewing processes, policies and tools for data security.

As well, the ICT team continues its work to improve the online shopping experience for customers and the IT team will engage in website development using Web 2.0 technologies.
MediaWorks
Senior IS executive: Paul Thompson, group IT manager
Total screens: 1420
Industry: Information
Website: www.mediaworks.co.nz


VoIP and unified communications are high on the MediaWorks ICT agenda for 2009. Group IT Manager Paul Thompson says the company is keen to benefit from the increased productivity unified communications can provide, and the cost savings associated with VoIP technologies and services.

From a business perspective, MediaWorks is working to increase revenue share through its television stations and national radio brands. There has also been a marked increase in online interaction between the company and its customers, leading to a significant focus on all online assets and activities.

Telecommunications services to MediaWorks are split between three separate suppliers, a less than ideal solution and a key driver for the move to a unified communications solution, says Thompson. Currently, WAN services are supplied by TelstraClear and phone services are moving to TelstraClear as the VOIP project is rolled out. Mobile services remain with Vodafone.

Unlike many organisations, MediaWorks is yet to be convinced of the cost justification of server virtualisation and wireless technologies, which can’t deliver the bandwidth required for TV and radio file transfers and streaming.
Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology
Restaurant Brands NZ
Ministry of Economic Development
Senior IS executive: Channa Jayasinha, chief technology officer
Total screens: 1435
Industry: Government and defence
Website: www.med.govt.nz

The Ministry of Economic Development’s role is to help the government develop and implement business and consumer policies and services that will help New Zealand develop an internationally-competitive economy.

The aim of the communications and information technology team under chief technology officer Channa Jayasinha, is to maintain and improve a sound regulatory environment for ensuring reliable, innovative, efficient and reasonably-priced communications infrastructure services, as well as to promote the development and uptake of e-commerce, ICT skills, and ICT infrastructure.
Jayasinha says significant investment has been made in IT platforms in the past four years, and independent benchmarking recently found the Ministry’s core IT systems deliver good value and above-average performance.

“The security and stability of systems is an ongoing priority, with the 2008/09 IT work programme expected to deliver enhanced levels of preparedness and flexibility,” says Jayasinha.

In shaping its IT strategy, MED envisages a work programme that will provide investment in smart desktop, personal devices and telephony systems that allow people to be more mobile and productive. In particular, core information will be able to be accessed in more efficient and integrated ways.

MED will complete IT projects in the areas of unified communications and VoIP technologies, CRM and knowledge management systems, e-business and Web 2.0 strategies and organisational mobilisation. Significant areas of ICT expenditure include general infrastructure improvements; Companies Office application redevelopment (called Project Enterprise) and the replacement of IPONZ - the Intellectual Property office core business application.
Deloitte
Senior IS executive: Eugene Piercy, IT manager
Total screens: 1306
Industry: Business management and scientific services
Website: www.deloitte.co.nz

Deloitte has more than 1000 specialists operating in quality professional services including audit, tax, technology and systems, risk management, corporate finance, recovery, forensics and business advisory services.

It has offices in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.
Centralising knowledge and intellectual property is a key goal for Deloitte in 2009, says national IT manager Eugene Piercy.

He says key IT investments designed to leverage these goals include document management and unified communications systems, along with server virtualisation and consolidation. Other projects include a Windows Vista operating system upgrade, as well as relocation of the Deloitte Auckland and Hamilton offices.

While ICT budgets have decreased slightly from last year, ICT people numbers remain steady at the firm, reflecting its ongoing recognition of ICT as a platform for business excellence and outstanding client service delivery.