Fisher & Paykel Healthcare (MIS100 2012)

For Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, as a designer and manufacturer of medical devices, a growing IT portfolio continues to provide value to the business as a whole. This includes technologies to improve manufacturer capability, getting involved with product development of patient management applications used in conjunction with medical devices and making changes to increase efficiency within the company’s warehouse and distribution channels.

ICT budgets are up significantly this year, with project and staff numbers also on the rise. As the company looks to engender growth in IT, staffing continues to pose a challenge, primarily the difficulty in finding IT people who understand the business and are focused on delivering business value.

“To deliver on key business objectives, we have been focusing on increasing the knowledge and skills of all IT team members about the business. To have IT systems deliver value, they need to have a sound business understanding and ensure both the technical and business outcomes are tightly coupled,” says vice president ICT Winston Fong.

The company aims to strike the right balance between security and flexibility, being highly compliant in a tightly regulated industry and yet remaining agile.

“With a 99 percent export rate, we continually look at ways to assist the business in meeting the global market’s needs, and continually support and enhance the organisation’s focus on innovation and productivity throughout its entire value chain,” says Fong.