I鈥檓 sure for many of us out there, the increase in online scams, phishing attacks, and just straight out shonks taking advantage of the non-technically literate is a real concern.

It turns out that this is just the tip of the digital iceberg. Entire nations can be the target of this growing industry.

has found itself severely compromised of late with hackers launching an unprecedented attack that affected 29 public institutions, including the ministries of finance, social security, meteorology, electricity, sciences, innovation, technology and telecommunications.

published earlier this year titled: 鈥淐yber Attacks Increased 50% Year over Year鈥� revealed in late 2021 there was an all time peak in weekly cyber attacks, averaging over 900 attacks per organisation. Just let that number sink in for a moment. Over 900 per week.

In the study, it revealed that Education and Research were the most attacked sector (average attacks per week 1605 鈥� up by 75% from the previous year) with Utilities companies not far behind with a staggering 736 attacks per week 鈥� up 46% from the previous year.

Local Impact for on Utilities Sector

How does this impact Utilities organisations here in Australia? And more importantly how do they respond to these threats, particularly as many have infrastructure that falls squarely under the auspices of the

This is not a simple question to answer.

risk is becoming increasingly difficult for Australian utilities and critical infrastructure operators to manage. Digital transformation is accelerating with, IT and OT landscapes expanding as these new security threats are surging whilst the demand for IT and cyber skills in Australia is at an all time high. Maintaining in-house talent, process governance and eliminating human error is more challenging than ever before.

One significant step 麻豆原创 has taken is to establish the 麻豆原创 Critical Data Cloud a fully managed service capable of powering the operations of government and regulated industries across both Australia and New Zealand. This is designed to help protect the core business applications of governments and highly regulated industries including financial services, healthcare and utilities. The platform is designed to meet the Australian Government鈥檚 Official: Sensitive and Protected information standards.

Opportunity for Utilities Organisations

麻豆原创 Critical Data Cloud is a significant investment recognising the increased focus on improving whole-of-economy cybersecurity.

Leveraging its work with 麻豆原创 National Security Services (NS2), 麻豆原创 Critical Data Cloud is tailored for Australian and New Zealand legislative requirements. It empowers public and private customers to rapidly and safely digitise customer, citizen and employee services, while remaining current with legislation and policy.

Utilities organisations will be able to wrap an increased layer of security around their customer data, asset and employee information to help protect against the style of attack seen in places like Costa Rica.

Learn more about 麻豆原创 Critical Data Cloud visit our and download the report on

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This post has a different twist 鈥� let鈥檚 look at why and how you can foster change and the art of innovation in your company by driving your company with data.

Background: data is a good thing

We鈥檝e been talking about being evidence-based, fact-based, and data-based for decades, but if you鈥檙e not up to speed with this, you aren鈥檛 alone. According to NewVantage Partners鈥� study, 69% of companies have failed to create a data-driven organization.

There is an avalanche of studies that support the business benefits, including this Forrester report indicates that data-driven companies grow at an average of more than 30 percent annually and are on track to earn $1.8 trillion by 2021.

Forrester did another study that concluded that businesses that rely on data management tools to make decisions are 58% more likely to beat their revenue goals than non-data driven companies.

Being data-driven isn鈥檛 only about revenue results. There鈥檚 also transparency and fairness. If everyone has access to the data driving decisions, we can establish reasonable data ethics policies that create even playing fields.

Why companies haven鈥檛 succeeded at this data-driven change

In my upcoming keynote at 麻豆原创鈥檚 , I鈥檒l give you real inspiration and tips so you can get started. That鈥檚 the hard part, right? A few sneak peeks:

1. This isn鈥檛 corporate altruism. The culture change, funding, and language start at the top. How do you do that? Attach your initiatives to real business outcomes. (No, 鈥渁gility鈥� is not a business outcome.) Here鈥檚 a highlight from McKinsey on how ShopRunner鈥檚 CEO made the change.

For tips on speaking the language of business, securing on-going funding, and getting buy-in from your executives, check out this free Data strategy master class.

In the end, this is a culture change. You need executives to model the right behavior, which requires you to get them analytics without days of manual assembly. You need executives to ask ad hoc questions of their analytics and brainstorm with other board members on innovative solutions. Are you there yet?

2. To understand what is possible, survey the current technology landscape for data and analytics offerings. Web searches are easy. The hard part is accurately assessing where you are now. Luckily, there are free assessment tools, including 麻豆原创鈥檚 Next Generation Database & Data Management Assessment, which offers a unique approach to enable best-in-class database & data management processes in support of strategic priorities.

3. Join 麻豆原创鈥檚 and you鈥檒l be able to schedule one-on-one time with industry veterans to discuss how to renovate your data landscape, and even put your hands on some free software trials.

Therefore, what?

Your supply chain is challenged. Your revenue model is under pressure. Your employees are dealing with unprecedented challenges. Do you know what you need to solve all of those problems? Real-time data and data literacy to interpret that data.

All the supply chain optimization, new business models, collaboration models, and new markets require timely and intuitive access to data to drive innovative ideas. It鈥檚 a mistake to entrust these ideas to only data geeks.

The goal is to be able to answer a simple question and foster innovation to jump to the next curve. The question is, 鈥淭herefore, what?鈥�

Data management is the 鈥渢herefore鈥� part. It enables you to see what鈥檚 happening to your organization, to see what trends are shaping the reality of your customers, and to read the tea leaves to understand what your opportunities.

Then you can take these insights and create the 鈥渨hat.鈥� In other words, what new products, services, and practices will enable you to meet and exceed the needs of your customers and 鈥渄ent the universe.鈥�

I invite you to and the entire for inspiration, encouragement, practical tips, and advice from other customers. Ask me questions. Ask the other presenters questions. Come away in two days with a plan that will motivate and drive your business.

This blog originally published on

The post The Art of Innovation and Data-Driven Enterprise appeared first on 麻豆原创 Australia & New Zealand News Center.

Speaking as part of an online 麻豆原创 event on Thursday, chief executive Lee Miezis said collating data into one place means relieving people of the need to “tell their story about their trauma over and over again”.

“They should be able to tell it once and all service providers can understand where that person is, but equally can understand what assistance that person has had in the past, what are some of the upcoming challenges or barriers that they’re perhaps going to have in their recovery journey so that we can then start proactively moving some of those barriers out of the way. To do that, data is absolutely key,” he said.

“We need to be able to bring together different sources of information, managed through privacy requirements to make sure that people are being treated with dignity through the process.”

He explained how part of that process has involved working with government and non-government organisations to generate relevant data points.

The need to access the right data has been particularly further highlighted by the current coronavirus environment, Miezis said, which has forced agency for a third of its existence to operate remotely.

“Those incidental conversations that you can have with people that give you valuable intelligence about where they’re at, where the community is at, what are some of the challenges, we’re missing out on that, so we’re even more reliant on data and raw information,” he said.

“I think this has forced organisations like mine, and I’m sure many others, to really think about how you bring data together in a fast, simple way to meet multiple purposes, but ultimately make sure the business that you run are targeted 鈥� we are absolutely reliant on good data for us to fulfil our organisational purposes.”

At the same time, the Victorian government agency has also had to battle with establishing an infrastructure that not only serves the organisation in the present, but in the long run too.

“We’ve had to stand up really quickly, leverage what we can across the Victorian government, in some cases bring disparate things together in the best way we can, as we build out the legacy systems that we will require as a permanent agency,” Miezis said.

This article first appeared on

Join our second forum in the听听virtual series on August 6^th, and hear from Industry experts on the risk and opportunity impact our core industries now face. 听

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Device Technologies business systems manager Tiina Kontkanen said one of those approaches is the implementation freight management platform that can be embedded into existing systems to track and report on the movement of these devices.

Another way the company plans on lifting visibility of its supply chain, Kontkanen said, speaking as part an online 麻豆原创 event, involves improving the company’s data strategy and providing “some insights to the customers and our suppliers on our products”.

“That’s something that I think you have to just collaborate on, and I think that’s the key to agility and breaking some of those silos that are in place at the moment,” she said.

Device Technologies CIO Graham Cronin agreed, pointing to how for instance, the company is accessing telemetry through its Da Vinci robot, a system that is typically used to assist surgeons during minimal invasive surgery.

“We have a direct link back with the manufacturer and on the telemetry of the procedures, on what the device is doing, how it’s operating, how it’s consuming its consumables,” he said.

“That is allowing us to give a better outcome to the surgeon and the hospital using that robot. And of course, better patient outcomes because we know that we’re making sure that the system is efficient and operating to the best level that it needs to.

“It’s also getting the telemetry back, and some of the diagnostics of those patient outcomes to improve the software that goes into them for future procedures.”

Additionally, as part of its digital agenda, Device Technology has developed a surgery booking portal, which Cronin believes will help “digitise the healthcare environment”.

“[It’s] more so that we can react quickly to those changing events, also help organisations, hospitals, clinicians, and surgeons to be able to deliver a better patient outcome quickly, so that they can get their hands on to the equipment they require for any procedure or event that’s occurring,” he said.

“It’s also about giving them a better understanding of that end-to-end supply chain, so that they can manage their patient lists, get patients out of hospitals a lot quicker with better healthcare outcomes.”

The company is further enhancing its booking portal by reorganising the way it catalogues its 70,000 SKUs from surgery theatre equipment to radiology equipment and surgical instruments.

“A lot of the teams are starting to get the clinicians to focus on helping us to catalogue on what’s required and speed that up so that when we come out of [the coronavirus pandemic], there’ll be a better array or catalogue digitally of what’s available across our systems,” Cronin said.

This article first appeared on

Join our second forum in the听听virtual series on August 6^th, and hear from Industry experts on the risk and opportunity impact our core industries now face. 听

The post Device Technologies’ plan to improve supply visibility using data appeared first on 麻豆原创 Australia & New Zealand News Center.

“The new normal should borrow techniques from the software world, where products are released early and then quickly “iterated” upon as flaws and insufficiencies appear,” said 麻豆原创 Australia President and Managing Director, Damien Bueno.

麻豆原创 suggests data should be utilised to inform policy in ways that was rarely used before the coronavirus crisis.

“Someone who’s in Melbourne who has the right skills could now do a job that’s based in Queensland, because the appetite to do things virtually now exists,” Mr Bueno said.

“The scale of 麻豆原创鈥檚 business and national reach means that 麻豆原创 can partner across the public and private sectors to provide insights into the functioning of the employment market,” the public policy paper said.

You can read more on the AFR website

Read the Executive Summary on how 麻豆原创 is helping Australians back to work

Read the full 麻豆原创 Public Policy Paper

The post AFR Interview: 麻豆原创 Lays Out Back-To-Work Plans appeared first on 麻豆原创 Australia & New Zealand News Center.

This article first appeared on

The post How NAB upskilled its staff through the COVID-19 lockdown appeared first on 麻豆原创 Australia & New Zealand News Center.

The Public Services virtual forum began with introductory remarks from President and Managing Director of 麻豆原创 ANZ, Damien Bueno, who noted the impressive pace and ways businesses are adapting. He expressed how 麻豆原创 has been working from home for nearly two months and while this is a time of uncertainty for many, businesses and governments alike should have licence to be bold and use this opportunity to evolve digitally in order to remain stronger.听听

Damien also expressed the importance of optimism听during听a time like this 鈥撎�and听the importance of understanding听what could become听new ways of working.听Adapting under crisis is giving听businesses new skills and perspectives and听the chance to emerge more prepared and resilient to future shock events.听

A Test of Fire and Pandemic听

Next,听I was fortunate to facilitate听a discussion听with听Lee Miezis,听CEO of听Bushfire Recovery Victoria, and Simon Bush,听GM Policy and Advocacy at AIIA and Managing Director听of听Bush-Consulting.听听

Simon听was encouraged by the speed of adaptation, noting how rapid digitalisation is occurring across the legal sector, healthcare, government, and more, at a pace that鈥檚 taking weeks instead of years. As part of businesses moving boldly, there has听been positive听feedback听as businesses have been able to respond to changing circumstances at scale, adapting to added strains on resources and services.听听

Lee听gave the audience a run through his first 100 days on the job, from the development of Bushfire Recovery Victoria in response to Australia鈥檚 severe bushfire season 2019-2020.听He noted how the past six months have been听a听continual听adaptation听to drastic changes, which has required significant co-ordination between government听jurisdictions,听businesses, and communities in order to keep people informed and safe during the bushfire season and subsequent COVID-19 crisis.听听

A key challenge Lee mentioned was offering targeted support those who鈥檝e undergone tragedy and displacement. The damage cause by bushfires was widespread and the ability to serve those impacted required听aggregating a lot of data from organisations 鈥� both public and private 鈥� to gather insights into people鈥檚 situations, the support they require, and their eligibility for specific schemes and services.听听

His听organisation was forced to work quickly,听leveraging听the available听technology and data to听provide that targeted听support.听Lee noted the听vital听importance of being able to gather disparate data and verify it,听in order to co-ordinate the right response at the right time.听He emphasised that听data is critical to providing the right services.听

Lee commented on the importance of existing relationships, enabling them听to connect听rapidly听with听other听government agencies and听business鈥檚 with relevant capabilities. He noted that they were overwhelmed with offers of support in听the initial stages and the existing relationships were the quickest way to leverage the support needed.听听

In terms of building staff resilience,听Lee听observed听the need to nurture staff relationships听and engagement听especially in a听brand-new听organisational structure who were suddenly working听remotely. This听entailed听focusing on听regular, frequent communications听and听he gave an example of mailing听care packages.听

The adage 鈥榥ever waste a crisis鈥� was expressed听with听both Simon and Lee听noting听how this challenging period could still offer people and organisations a learning opportunity to better connect with one another, discover best practices for听adaptation, and find a way to deepen trust amongst customers, partners, employees, and other stakeholders.听听

The Value of Communication and Support听

Connection was a key theme of the discussion as the need to keep staff connected to the organisation鈥檚 purpose, expectations, and customers are all critical 鈥� whether during or outside a crisis.听听

When facilitating work-from-home staff, there were three key take-aways. First was the need to balance collaboration with productivity 鈥� ensuring staff have the technology and support they need to stay connected with the organisation, collaborate with colleagues, and stay safe during this period of change.听

The second point regarding work-from-home is the value of company culture 鈥� not only in terms of camaraderie, but in making allowances for adjustment, understanding the disruptions that are occurring, and normalising those practices that will benefit the organisation beyond COVID-19.听

Third was the importance of听mental health. It can be challenging for many to log听off听and听disengage听from work when they鈥檙e homelives and work now share a roof. The ability to听reengage socially, get outside and exercise, or simply step away from the computer is paramount听as听the听first priority听throughout this crisis听has been听the health and wellbeing of everyone.听听

A听significant听takeaway for me in facilitating this听discussion听was the听vital听importance听that听connections,听combined with insightful听data,听can听play听in听helping听organisations to听rapidly听adapt听and听then听respond听to changes in their environment.听It certainly suggests that听effort spent听building听more听robust听engagement听structures听with听staff, customers, other agencies听and relevant听businesses听creates a听stronger听adaptive听capability. Combining听this听with better data insights听derived from听a more comprehensive听treatment of, and focus on, data听as听a valuable asset听allows听rapid听and more targeted responses听in times of change.听听听

Perhaps听both听the public and private sector should听consider听using听this听crisis to听improve communications听with each other, better express needs and听expectations, and听enable听these improved connections through data 鈥� using data insights to understand our situation, our responses, and听how we emerge from this crisis in better shape than we went into it.听听

To听learn听more听you can access a full recording from the session听.听听

The post Rapid Response and Lasting Changes Post-COVID-19 appeared first on 麻豆原创 Australia & New Zealand News Center.

Speaking as part of 麻豆原创 Virtual 2020 on Thursday, chief executive Lee Miezis said collating data into one place means relieving people of the need to “tell their story about their trauma over and over again”.

“They should be able to tell it once and all service providers can understand where that person is, but equally can understand what assistance that person has had in the past, what are some of the upcoming challenges or barriers that they’re perhaps going to have in their recovery journey so that we can then start proactively moving some of those barriers out of the way. To do that, data is absolutely key,” he said.

“We need to be able to bring together different sources of information, managed through privacy requirements to make sure that people are being treated with dignity through the process.”

He explained how part of that process has involved working with government and non-government organisations to generate relevant data points.

The need to access the right data has been particularly further highlighted by the current coronavirus environment, Miezis said, which has forced agency for a third of its existence to operate remotely.

“Those incidental conversations that you can have with people that give you valuable intelligence about where they’re at, where the community is at, what are some of the challenges, we’re missing out on that, so we’re even more reliant on data and raw information,” he said.

“I think this has forced organisations like mine, and I’m sure many others, to really think about how you bring data together in a fast, simple way to meet multiple purposes, but ultimately make sure the business that you run are targeted 鈥� we are absolutely reliant on good data for us to fulfil our organisational purposes.”

At the same time, the Victorian government agency has also had to battle with establishing an infrastructure that not only serves the organisation in the present, but in the long run too.

“We’ve had to stand up really quickly, leverage what we can across the Victorian government, in some cases bring disparate things together in the best way we can, as we build out the legacy systems that we will require as a permanent agency,” Miezis said.

This article first appeared on

All sessions from the Virtual Industry Forum are available to watch on-demand online. To watch a replay,

The post Bushfire Recovery Victoria Tapping Into Data to Help Bushfire-Affected Communities appeared first on 麻豆原创 Australia & New Zealand News Center.

The first challenge is technical, since most banks have a myriad of systems containing customer data. A key challenge lies in orchestrating customer data across these disparate systems, reconciling datasets to ensure accuracy across the organisation and enabling customers with self-service controls. Imagine the overhead of customers contacting a call centre to execute CDR requests. Furthermore, data insights cannot be actionable if they鈥檙e unreliable, so financial service providers need to take a most holistic approach to how they orchestrate and govern consumer data.

The second key challenge comes from an institution鈥檚 own staff and their confidence in how their day-to-day roles comply with consumer data rights 鈥� particularly with marketers. Customer-facing teams that aren鈥檛 confident about the compliancy of their consumer data will fear the implications of misusing customer data, which impacts their ability to connect with and service customers.

The third challenge is to be prepared for the future. As technology evolves, expect continuous changes in data usage, data sources, and data rights. These evolutions are frightening because however any bank solves for today鈥檚 requirements, ideally the same capability must also be agile enough to support the removal and addition of data sources, features, and connectivity over time.

As consumer data rights evolve 鈥� potentially with updates to legislation and further scrutiny 鈥� banks will need to respond to customer expectations, compliance requirements, and market-service levels. The agenda will be forced by legacy free nimble neo-banks, fintechs, and potentially digitally savvy market leaders, so consumer data confidence solutions must be mindful of how to respond to future change.

Financial industry shortcomings
Financial services organisations are generally highly regulated, highly visible, and often reactive to the changes and trends of customer experience and legislation. I鈥檝e yet to observe any visionary industry innovation. Most banks are investing in digital and there is some added convenience, but mostly it is just traditional banking via a digital channel. Professionals from outside the industry could easily observe the barriers between banks and customers in terms of relationship building, potentially offering straight-forward solutions the financial sector is yet to see.

For example, have you tried to subscribe to product updates, or a bank鈥檚 blog, or even a simple and informative market update? You can鈥檛 do it unless you do a full application and identity check to actually open an account.

For example, download an app for any bank that you do not have a product with. Can you sign up for the app without opening a product? No. It鈥檚 quite uncommon and begs the question, 鈥榳hy would you want to download a banking app if you weren鈥檛 a customer鈥�. If the app were a useful source of information, such as being able to easily find out their home loan interest rates, or had good articles on how to manage my money that I could share with my friends, then why not download the app.

Banks launch new products regularly, a recent common example being home-loan offers with cash back. Since I鈥檝e just re-financed 鈥� now might not be the right time for me, but I鈥檇 sure be interested in a regular update and would happily to give my consent to a forward-thinking bank to keep me alerted of their rate changes or product changes. First-mover advantage, anyone? Alas, at this time, a bank won鈥檛 let you start a relationship with them unless you open an account. I imagine many must be the same, but I鈥檇 also guess most people don鈥檛 want to have bank accounts all over the place.

It just takes a little rethinking in terms of how banks utilise customer data to demonstrate value, add convenience, remove friction, and create new benefits for customer and employees alike.

Learning from Other Industries
From my perspective, the media industry is a leader in this kind of customer-centric approach that creates value from customer relationships. If you think about a typical media company, they often have multiple brands with unique brand identities across the market. Customers want to engage with those brands, so media companies give customers the opportunity to have micro-level control over their relationship in terms of how often they will hear from the company and the kind of content they鈥檒l receive.

A potential customer may not purchase anything initially, but the media company welcomes the opportunity to connect and establish a relationship to remain in the potential customer鈥檚 mind, so one day the potential customer willingly converts their relationship into a paying customer.

in the 麻豆原创 Customer Data Cloud to build detailed customer profiles and create personalised user experiences based on segmented data, such as demographics, interests, and onsite behaviours. The media company saved up to 12 months鈥� development time on tasks such as managing social networks, APIS, and maintaining privacy relationships while switching from its internally built customer data platform.

This digital transformation resulted in NewsLifeMedia utilising customer data to send personalised emails and relevant content directly to users who鈥檇 already given explicit consent, while also giving customers low-friction authentication options, such as re-using social media credentials. Intelligent use of data not only streamlined various backend processes but put the user experience at the heart of improvement. Banks must do the same.

Offering transparency and value
I opened an account with a mobile only neo-bank recently. This particular neo-bank does a good job of engaging their customers to crowdsource improvements to their digital experience. There is so much value for financial services providers to pilot changes that make customers鈥� lives easier. One of the real benefits of modern cloud-based digital tools is that it鈥檚 much easier to take a hypothesis, test it, measure the results, and then either expand, iterate, or pivot.

It鈥檚 a commonly held understanding that customers are happy to share more data with brands if they can see the value they鈥檒l get from sharing, such as removing friction from a process. For example, hands up if you were initially hesitant to share your personal details, payment information, and location with ride-sharing platforms such as Uber? However, most of us soon realised how this capability removed so much friction from the experience of ordering and paying for rides, that we willingly shared our data with them.

I believe the ultimate solution for consumer data confidence comes back to truly solving all the friction points and blind spots in a customer鈥檚 journey. To alleviate friction points and illuminate blind spots, banks must build trusted personal relationships with their customers. If banks can find ways to remove friction from the banking experience while being transparent and explicit on how data shared by customers will improve a customer鈥檚 knowledge or experience, then banks will begin to earn that trust and see the benefits of customer loyalty that comes with increased trust.

Furthermore, when employees have confidence in the quality and compliance of consumer data, they feel more empowered to do their jobs and deliver great experiences for your customers.

Learn more about the trust equation and how Financial Services providers can take the .

The post Consumer Data: Creating Confidence & Trust appeared first on 麻豆原创 Australia & New Zealand News Center.

It is said that the truest measure of a society鈥檚 greatness is how well it treats its most vulnerable people.

New South Wales has for many years had schemes to help people severely injured at work, or in road accidents, or stricken with diseases caused by harmful workplace dust. By 2015, no less than seven such organisations were in place to fund care and compensation.

In 2015 the NSW state government brought these organisations under one umbrella, icare NSW, to improve the efficiency of the schemes and transform the experience of scheme participants.

鈥淲e wanted to change the way people thought about social insurance, which is what we do in government. We also wanted to have uniform ways of processing all insurance-related matters within the NSW government,鈥� Fallil, said.

鈥淓ach scheme had their own business teams, finance teams, and front and back offices. We wanted a standardised approach and have uniform customer experiences.

鈥淭he outcome of that was a uniform customer experience at a reduced cost 鈥� although reduced cost was not the primary driver 鈥� it was about a better experience for our customers.鈥�

But icare is not only responsible for injury claims, it also carries the insurance of more than $190 billion in NSW state assets 鈥� including the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.

icare acknowledges that such precious assets are prudently re-insured, spreading the risk.

Two other state assets insured by icare, public schools at Bobin and Wyataliba north of Sydney, were burned down in the bushfires that have raged across parts of New South Wales since November.

The Grattan Institute estimated in 2016 that it cost about $15 million to build a relatively standard primary school and more than twice that for a secondary school.

Fallil says that with $35 billion in assets under management (AUM), icare is probably bigger than most commercial insurers in Australia.

Although it is a not-for-profit enterprise, icare must ensure it is a viable concern. 鈥淲e say that we have 鈥榓 social heart and a commercial mind鈥�.

While the focus is not solely on commercial benefit, we still have to make sure that we manage commercially viable schemes.鈥�

True partnership

icare鈥檚 biggest scheme is the NSW Workers鈥� Compensation Scheme, which protects 3.2 million workers across more than 320,000 employers.

The Workers compensation scheme was outsourced to several commercial operations, each with its own systems and processes before icare was created.

鈥淲e had limited visibility of what was going on 鈥� it just made it harder to make the right decisions at the right time, 鈥渟ays Fallil.

鈥淭here were seven different schemes, with three general ledgers. The finance systems architecture across them all resembled a spaghetti diagram more closely than anything else.鈥�

With seven reporting entities the reporting and finance teams were siloed, a problem compounded by the fact they were located across multiple sites.

鈥淛ust to give you an indication, reporting would sometimes take up to 45 days after month-end.鈥�

Falill notes that 鈥淲hat we decided by creating icare, was to back ourselves to build our own insurance platform. In April 2016, the icare team settled on 麻豆原创 S4/HANA to be the core of icare鈥檚 systems.

We wanted to build a uniform 麻豆原创 platform across all our schemes to support our insurance platform – Guidewire to ensure that people could have trust in the numbers.鈥�

鈥淚mplementing 麻豆原创 S4/HANA effectively meant that we could integrate all the data on our insurance system with 麻豆原创 and have full visibility over every transaction.

Reconciliations would also be largely automated. 鈥淲e were 10 months out, didn鈥檛 have a ledger, had three different systems and multiple teams. In December 2016, eight months later, we had a fully functioning 麻豆原创 S/4 HANA ledger.鈥�

We say that we have 鈥榓 social heart and a commercial mind鈥�. While the focus is not solely on commercial benefit, we still have to make sure that we manage commercially viable schemes.鈥�

Fallil notes from there it took a huge effort by the team and a major change management program to implement the HANA technology.

鈥淚n the change management program, we undertook to say we really weren鈥檛 going to just pick up the existing processes and retrofit them into S/4 HANA.

鈥淲e were going to use 麻豆原创 standard processes as our operating model and would change our processes to suit the system, as opposed to the other way around.

鈥淏y doing that, I think it was one of the fastest implementations of its time,鈥� Fallil says, noting that no other entity in the Australian market appears to have managed a similar achievement.

He acknowledges that even an implementation that went as smoothly as this one can still encounter challenges, such as difficulties with data migration.

鈥淗owever, 麻豆原创 themselves have been helping us through that and will be helping us in the coming years 鈥� a true partnership approach,鈥� he said.

A major ambition for the project was to ensure that icare had a robust finance system that reconciled to the Guidewire insurance engine, and to make sure Fallil鈥檚 finance team had no loss of financial control.

鈥淎 key risk in implementing new systems is the possible loss of financial control. There were no audit points [accounting issues that must be corrected] to note when we did our financial audit post 麻豆原创 implementation in 2017. That鈥檚 a great thing, not just for icare but the team that manages 麻豆原创 as well.鈥�

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