MIS100 2012: Bubbling under

2012 is shaping up to be an excellent year for New Zealand’s Briscoe Group. Early earnings reports released in February reveal the company is defying the financial challenges still faced by many New Zealand organisations. The six months to February signalled strong sales performances for the group, whose retailing interests include Briscoes Homeware, Rebel Sport and Living & Giving stores across the country.

While ICT budgets remain stable, increased revenue has enabled projects to increase over the course of 2012 by 5 to 10 percent. The SAP-centric business, which uses SAP ECC6 for ERP as well as SAP for FMIS and business intelligence, has plans this year for significant SAP patching. SAP was originally adopted by the company to provide a tier one alternative to its modified ERP system, and today provides functionalities such as master data management, merchandise management and planning, sales and distribution, purchase orders, logistics, finance and warehouse management.

Outside of SAP patching, other key ICT projects will include disaster recovery replication, a POS upgrade, virtualisation, and upgrades to the company’s Exchange server. E-business and social media initiatives drew focus during 2011.

“IT is firmly entrenched in every aspect of our business,” says ICT manager Jeffrey Westcott. “IT provides essential retail business tools from point-of-sale systems through to voice and data communication, information gathering, storage and reporting.”



KPMG
2011 ranking: Not listed

Senior IS executive: Wayne Strawbridge, CIO
Address: 18 Viaduct Harbour Avenue, Auckland
Website: www.kpmg.co.nz

KPMG employs more than 800 people in New Zealand, across five cities, as part of a global network providing audit, tax and advisory services in 150 countries.

KPMG uses embedded video and live chat capabilities online through gradconnection.co.nz, to enable HR recruitment of new graduates from around New Zealand. The company also manages a sub-site through its NZ website specifically targeting new graduates and potential interns.

As a dedicated user of social media, KPMG maintains a presence on both Twitter and Facebook.

In 2011, the organisation’s New Zealand-specific ICT focus was on a combination of wireless technology, business continuity/disaster recovery and knowledge management, as well as upgrading of its unified communications functionality. Development of its national wi-fi network aided enhancements to national video conferencing. Video conferencing supports a business objective of environmental sustainability, by reducing travel and carbon footprint.

Globally, KPMG has said it aims to reduce its carbon footprint by 25 per cent through strategic environmental stewardship, which is heavily supported through ICT. “At KPMG, the role of IT is to create new sources of value and improve the productivity of our business teams, using technologies that are powerful, flexible and efficient,” US CIO Dick Anderson told Computerworld. “As we look to optimise our investments in IT, an important priority is our use of green technologies like server virtualisation, and our energy-efficient data centre heating and power systems to help optimise the efficiency of our solutions.