Sydney, Australia – 26 September 2023 – has helped , Australia’s largest privately-owned logistics company, create a custom digital warehouse solution (DWS) to optimise the end-to-end operation of its warehouse sites, support multiuser functionality and scalability, and streamline its customer onboarding processes.

The creation of its custom DWS, done using the 51ˇçÁ÷Warehouse Management (EWM) application, and the implementation across Linfox’s warehouse sites was completed at the end of 2020.

The implementation enabled Linfox to integrate various automation solutions that were running across different sites, centralising and streamlining crucial processes including inventory management, picking, putaway, cold chain storage, dock appointment scheduling, cross-docking and dangerous goods management.

Three of Linfox’s warehouse sites are now completely automated through DWS, with technology including automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS), robotic palletisers, and the latest goods-to-person warehouse solutions.

Introducing DWS has streamlined Linfox’s customer onboarding process, condensing the previous onboarding timeline from four months to only four to six weeks. This allows Linfox to provide a cost-effective, speed-to-market solution that ultimately benefits its customers.

“DWS powered by 51ˇçÁ÷has freed our team members to focus on higher value tasks, increasing our flexibility as a logistics partner. This was particularly crucial during the pandemic when managing distribution of vaccines,” said Nick Delija, Chief Information Officer, Linfox.

“DWS has also increased our speed to market, bolstering our competitiveness and exceeding customer expectations. When we work with 51ˇçÁ÷to seamlessly integrate with automation solutions, there’s a lot of benefits,” continued Delija.

Damien Bueno, President and Managing Director, 51ˇçÁ÷Australia and New Zealand says, “The transport, logistics and supply chain sectors have undergone significant change over the last few years, driven by ongoing pandemic-related disruption, and being able to react quickly to unexpected market and supply chain disruptions is critical to success.

Working with Linfox, we’re helping them to centralise systems and streamline processes through real-time visibility of warehouse operations, which has enabled them to better respond to market changes and disruptions, free up resources from administrative activities, and focus on driving business growth.”

The solution will play a vital part in standardising business processes across the organisation, enabling strategic reporting, the provision of real-time data and further investment in automation to better serve its customers.

The post Linfox Streamlines Operations And Enhances Customer Onboarding With SAP appeared first on 51ˇçÁ÷Australia & New Zealand News Center.

We are all born from the sun. We reach beyond. Beyond the expected. Beyond the infinite. Beyond, beyond – Cirque du Soleil

ACT ONE: Setting the scene

Most companies would be upset if you said their transformation was a circus, or they had employed a lot of clowns. But most companies aren’t Cirque du Soleil.

Cirque du Soleil is the world’s biggest theatrical producer. For almost four decades, Cirque du Soleil has been entertaining and inspiring audiences the world over. There are as many as 47 different shows in markets around the globe.

And its impact cannot be underestimated. More than 400 million people have seen shows on six continents and 86 countries. The company now employs more than 4,000 employees, including 1,200 artists from 80 different nations.

Yet it is also a company emerging from a challenging period – and transforming to meet the challenges of the future.

That’s why we heard from Nickole Tara, Chief Growth Officer at Cirque du Soleil, at our recent 51ˇçÁ÷Now event in Sydney, discussing what the future of the world’s favourite circus holds.

ACT TWO: Intermission

But rewind to 2020 – and the world-shaking impact of the pandemic.

“This was a pivotal moment of change. Went from a company of 5,000 people to being shut down, operating a simple skeleton crew of 150” – Nickole Tara, Chief Growth Officer

The entertainment industry was affected more intensely than many. The impact of COVID-19 saw Cirque du Soleil close its doors and have to restructure organisationally and financially.

“Yet, 51ˇçÁ÷stood beside us during tumultuous times,” said Tara. “And we began the transformation process.”

In 2021 and 2022, Cirque du Soleil relaunched shows contemporaneously around the world – leading to its best financial year ever in 2022.

But the reset wasn’t just of the company’s people and shows, but its digital ecosystem too.

“Our digital infrastructure didn’t live up to the challenge,” continued Tara. “We didn’t think it was needed as a creative company – but it was integral.”

That realisation saw Cirque du Soleil make a commitment to undertake an exhaustive audit and digital transformation process, led by IT.

“It became the silver lining of the pandemic. It gave us the ability to learn about ourselves so that when we rebuild, we rebuild purposefully.”- Nickole Tara, Chief Growth Officer

ACT THREE: The big finale

The transformation saw Cirque du Soleil learn from its existing architecture, optimise that infrastructure alongside SAP, and introduce new cloud offerings to make the business more efficient.

“Moving to a cloud infrastructure and S/4 HANA made sense since we’re working in a lean, purposeful manner,” said Tara.

“I’m sure there were some hiccups, but it was not felt. And now it is having a significant operational impact on how we’re being more efficient as an organisation.”

The sheer logistics of rescaling and then operating a global production company has also been digitised.

“We had to rehire our entire company and manage dozens of businesses around the world. We had to reconcile hotels, food, and travel for a myriad of tours. We had to streamline a procurement process that supplies 600 containers of equipment around the world. And we had to rationalise costs in real-time, taking ever-changing cycles of inflation into account,” said Tara.

“Our infrastructure really is a microcosm of the world. Everything you see in Cirque du Soleil – – has been sourced or made by us.” – Nickole Tara, Chief Growth Officer

All this has been moved into the cloud and digitised after Cirque du Soleil chose 51ˇçÁ÷S/4 HANA, 51ˇçÁ÷Concur, and 51ˇçÁ÷Ariba.

Now Cirque du Soleil has the data to provide a significant impact on its business. The optimisation, automation, and organisational benefits have seen significant improvement from 51ˇçÁ÷solutions and support.

“We’re spending significant energy on both performance and logistics. It’s not just juggling balls but juggling a whole company.”- Nickole Tara, Chief Growth Officer

CURTAIN: Leave them wanting more

So what is next for Cirque du Soleil?

“During the pandemic we committed to diversifying our business beyond the stage,” said Tara. “We had to learn who we are.”

It turned out fans wanted Cirque du Soleil to be a leader and to take risks, and 80% of the audience wanted experiences they could take part in.

Similarly, the company uncovered that, while 67% of its audience had children under 18 in the home, they had no products for families to share together. So, just a few weeks ago, the company launched its first video game, called Cirque du Soleil Tycoon, on Roblox.

And that’s not all.

“It might sound counter-intuitive, since Cirque du Soleil is founded on human performance and creativity, but we have fully embraced AI.” – Nickole Tara, Chief Growth Officer

“Cirque du Soleil is a creative engine at our core, and our creative team has embraced AI engines to fortify that creative process. Show creation is a magical, multi-year process. So creators can take an arduous process and simplify it to expedite and capture so much more,” concluded Tara.

“As we’ve seen already, we’re not waiting for the entrance of AI. It’s already here. Our philosophy is that it will increase the importance of human interaction, making in-person experiences more necessary and more special.”

The post The Extraordinary Transformation Of Cirque du Soleil appeared first on 51ˇçÁ÷Australia & New Zealand News Center.

Reflecting on more than a decade of public service in the New South Wales government, acting as Minister in portfolios ranging from Aboriginal Affairs to Finance and Digital to Customer Service, Mr. Dominello has learned a range of lessons transforming the way more than eight million people in the state experience government.

He joined us on-stage to close 51ˇçÁ÷Now ANZ to share insights, ideas, and experiences from a career that helped create the digital driving license, the first Data Analytics Centre in the country, and the digital check-in and vaccination apps used during the pandemic.

So, what did we learn?

Technology is a mission, not a legacy

“The key is creating a mission culture to do things that will shake the world, that will empower individuals, and that will improve quality of life.”

While data was always close to his heart, it wasn’t even mentioned in Victor Dominello’s 2008 inaugural speech.

But its power became quickly apparent. Victor told the story of an awful outbreak of abuse during his time as Aboriginal Affairs Minister, during which time the task force appointed to find solutions were searching for answers. They were getting reports from the police, hospitals, and elsewhere – all useful, but all containing data after the incidents had occurred.

“I said, ‘this is all great, but where are the lead indicators?’”, said Mr Dominello. “’How can we do something to protect people in the future?’. I asked if we could find out which kids weren’t in school today because truancy could be a lead indicator. And I was told we could get that data in two or three weeks. I felt so gutted.”

“That started my journey for digitising everything I could.”

But digitisation projects can’t be seen as short-term campaigns or focused on your own legacy.

“One of my learnings over the years has been to stop focusing on legacy and what I’m leaving behind. I’d rather be part of a mission that is looking forward,” said Mr Dominello.

“Through technology you can enable the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and the lame to walk. Technology can create modern miracles at pace and scale.”

If we can do all of that in a safe, ethical way then we can have a better future because it’s a tide that lifts all boats.

Every success is built on a platform of failure

“Every success we have had has been built on a failure.”

But not every project is smooth sailing throughout.

In fact, failures are intrinsic to the success of a range of key projects.

“Take the pandemic”, continued Mr Dominello. “We had a service breach during COVID-19. But the result of that issue was that we created ID support, which is now leading the nation.”

“You have to learn from mistakes, because they will come. The key is to fail fast.”

One solution was to constantly pilot new ideas and iterate improvements. The digital drivers license saw five or six pilots in total, for example.

“We pressed the go-live button at 6pm on a Friday, with all of us in a room watching the feedback come in on a screen. It was initially positive, but then we began to see some issues – some people couldn’t register. It turned out we’d overlooked people with double-barrelled surnames and we hadn’t got enough characters available for them. We shut it down at 1am and it was fixed by 9am. We are constantly iterating.”

Digital architecture and the cloud offer a way for government to continue that piece-by-piece improvement.

“Governments need to think about where they invest their money for the highest impact. Instead of bricks and mortar, we need to build digital infrastructure. That will change lives.”

That requires new ways of thinking – and an openness to embrace uncertainty.

“Increasingly governments have to think about what new government looks like. Old government is legacy, band aid solutions.”

“Things like generative AI coming in could be as big a change as the introduction of electricity. This changes everything. If government keeps using old-world thinking, they’ll be left behind.”

The future of digital government will be founded on trust and identity

A modern, digital government isn’t a simple thing to envision, let alone create. But a few things are clear to Mr Dominello.

“The purpose of democracy is to empower the individual. But how do we strengthen that? For me, it’s around trust.”

That means creating a trustworthy society, says Mr Dominello, so people know and can identify what’s true – and what’s not.

That has led to the idea of a vanguard unit to create a trust architecture, bringing together academia and industry to collaborate. Through that sort of cross-sector knowledge-sharing, we can better prompt governments into action.

“The other piece is around digital identity verification,” continued Mr Dominello. “They solve so many things if we get them right. They would significantly improve security, they would significantly improve privacy.”

Then, the difference will be service delivery.

“The big issues are complex and touch on multiple departments.”

“Focusing on service delivery makes government focus on the individual journey rather than the individual going step-by-step between departments. If we look at one journey rather than splitting up the individual into a million journeys, that’s the game-changer.”

The post Lessons From The Vanguard: Victor Dominello On Digital Government, Trust, And Failure appeared first on 51ˇçÁ÷Australia & New Zealand News Center.

A new study by Ěýhas found Australian businesses are better set-up to be resilient than the rest of the world when it comes to major disruptions. Seven in ten (70%) of businesses in Australia say they have effective plans to respond quickly to incidents like severe weather, geopolitical conflicts, or cyberattacks, compared to 65% of global respondents.Ěý

Yet, Australian businesses still have work to do to boost resiliency when it comes to more strategic challenges, trailing the rest of the world in effective planning for talent shortages, transport disruptions, unexpected market events, or supply chain issues.ĚýĚý

This planning is critical given labour and skill shortages are Australian business’ number one risk to growth in the next year (56%), higher the global average of 40%. The next greatest risks include economic volatility (52%), cyberattacks (45%), and supply chain disruption (44%).Ěý

These insights have been revealed in new research released today by 51ˇçÁ÷Insights, surveying 4,239 organisations including 329 in Australia.Ěý

AusNet future-proofs its organisation through technologyĚý

The research findings are no surprise to Australian energy network business, AusNet, which is using 51ˇçÁ÷to streamline its HR operations, improve compliance, and drive a better experience for its employees. Ěý

In 2022, AusNet identified the need to improve its existing HR processes by consolidating multiple systems into one, minimising manual intervention and workarounds, and reducing the time it takes to complete HR tasks for employees and managers.Ěý

In partnership with IBM, AusNet implemented 51ˇçÁ÷SuccessFactors which has enabled it to standardise its business processes, consolidate employee and manager processes with fewer touchpoints, and leverage real-time employee insights in employee attendance and turnover to drive continuous workforce improvement.ĚýĚýĚý

Bernie Repacholi, Head of People Systems & Enablement AusNet says, “We wanted to modernise the employee experience and knew we needed a system that would integrate existing siloed systems across the business into a one stop shop for our employees and leaders.”Ěý

“We worked in close partnership with IBM to co-create a solution, underpinned by 51ˇçÁ÷SuccessFactors, that would simplify how our employees interact with us and drive improved productivity among our teams.”Ěý

“By using SAP, we’re now able to future-proof processes when changes in policy or legislation occurs. This supports ongoing compliance and governance, and allows us to focus efforts on initiatives that directly support our people” she added.Ěý

The future of your business is the future of your peopleĚý

While labour and skills shortages were identified as the biggest risk to their future, Australian businesses are confident in their current ability to manage their people.Ěý

Six in ten (60%) of Australian businesses are extremely or very satisfied with their ability to develop skills across their workforce, while 56% were extremely or very satisfied optimising their workforce such as boosting productivity and ensuring people have the right skills for their roles. That confidence was underpinned by having effective plans to manage staffing to deal with shortages (59%) and having the right processes to prepare employees to adapt to new or different roles (72%).Ěý

Damien Bueno, President and Managing Director, 51ˇçÁ÷Australia and New Zealand says, “The research establishes a strong link to the resilience of your business and the resilience of your people. We are living in a world demanding new solutions and opportunities to solve for these problems.

“This study should act as a wake-up call to organisations across Australia that we have to continue to invest in our people to foster curious cultures that support the exploration of ideas and new thinking that when applied to big data and technology, not only safeguards their businesses but enables future growth.” Ěý

But there’s still more to be done. Forty per cent of Australian organisations noted that they had to address skills shortages to be more responsive to change, far ahead of the global average (30%). A third (33%) agreed they needed to address labour shortages too.ĚýĚý

Safety in numbers: Technology and networks future-proof Australian organisationsĚý

Australian organisations are planning to empower their people with technology. Four in ten (40%) businesses say the biggest opportunity for their growth is using intelligent technology to drive decision-making, and 78% believe they have the right data to plan for the future.Ěý

But despite those encouraging numbers, 42% of respondents said they need to address technology improvement to be more responsive to change. Part of this may be due to entrenched attitudes and ways of doing things – the biggest barrier to innovation in Australia was identified as difficulty letting go of current products, services, and business models.Ěý

“Being able to react quickly to change across your whole organisation is critical to future success. Australia trails the rest of the world when it comes to the flexibility of our business processes. This is where consistent, integrated innovation platforms can bring your whole value chain together to create strong business outcomes,” Bueno adds.Ěý

That may be why Australian businesses are investing in technology to boost their resiliency. The most important innovations for resiliency are automated business networks (61% vs 55% globally) and cybersecurity (58% vs 50% globally), followed by employee collaboration and experience management software.ĚýĚý

Interestingly, Australian organisations rate AI and machine learning as less important to their future resiliency (36%) compared to the rest of the world (41%).Ěý

“While AI is in its nascent stages right now, business AI can help companies predict, prepare, and perform when it comes to responding to rapidly evolving demands. At SAP, we’ve recently built AI into the systems that power the most critical business processes to discover exceptional insights and efficiencies. That helps future-proof your business by bringing together people, innovation, and core business processes,” Bueno concluded.Ěý

The post The Future Of Your Business Is The Future Of Your People appeared first on 51ˇçÁ÷Australia & New Zealand News Center.

For the Australian Defence Force personnel, a mobile life is an integral part of service, with military members and their families routinely posted around the country and overseas. To ensure a smooth and efficient transition for thousands of defence personnel each year, the Australian Defence Force turns to global logistics provider, Toll Group.

As one of the top 20 prime contractors to the Australian Defence Force, in addition to relocation services Toll’s Government and Defence business also provides expertise and support in the areas of Contingency and Sustainment across ports and remote base camps, Healthcare Logistics via the transportation of critical pharmaceutical supplies and vaccines, as well as performing thousands of rescues and retrievals missions each year using one of the largest aeromedical fleets in Australia.

Perry Singh, President of Government and Defence, Toll Group says, “Toll’s Government and Defence Business has been supporting critical government and defence industries in Australia for more than 130 years.

“As a strategic partner for government and defence industries, we provide a broad range of services across logistics, contingency, and sustainment, helping to transport critical supplies and equipment for a range of our government clients.”

The need to shore up cyber resilience

Toll Group has always been a cyber-centric organisation and as a key partner to Australia’s government and defence industries, it wanted to ensure the company’s technology systems meet the same regulatory needs as its largest clients.

Increasingly, that means taking steps to ensure that its operations are secure against an increasingly challenging and complex cyber threat landscape.

Singh says, “We asked ourselves the question, what’s going to make it easier for our government and defence customers to do business with us?

“We knew that cybersecurity was critically important for our largest government clients and that to provide them with the confidence to do or continue doing business with us, that we needed to operate in a secure hardened environment. As we embarked on this programme, we wanted to do so in an accelerated manner.”

In partnership with IBM Consulting, Toll Group embarked on a modernisation and fortification strategy that would enable the business to remain nimble and secure, underpinned by SAP.

Singh says, “As a very cyber-centric organisation, we wanted to modernise and fortify our network and SAP’s sovereign cloud capabilities were a clear choice for us.

“An extension of Toll Group’s existing 51ˇçÁ÷S/4HANA environment, its strong cybersecurity capabilities also provide us and our clients with the assurances we need to navigate an increasingly challenging cyber threat landscape. Working with IBM and 51ˇçÁ÷together, we managed to deliver this program at speed, in just seven months.”

By leveraging SAP’s sovereign cloud capabilities, Toll is now able to reap the benefits of advanced cloud applications in a secure hardened environment.

Amanda Williamson, IBM Australia’s Business Transformation Partner and 51ˇçÁ÷Service Area Lead, says, “As companies embrace a hybrid cloud approach, they’re also seeking partners with the expertise to help them meet the data and security access required in their local jurisdictions. Our long-standing partnership with 51ˇçÁ÷has helped many companies, including those in highly-regulated industries like Toll Group securely modernise their cloud environments. IBM Consulting looks forward to bringing our expertise to help more ANZ clients benefit from SAP’s sovereign cloud capabilities in Australia, respond to today’s challenges where regulations are changing rapidly and cyberthreats are evolving at unprecedented levels.”

About SAP’s sovereign cloud capabilities

SAP’s sovereign cloud capabilities bring together extensive global public sector and highly regulated sector experience, including running a government cloud in the United States for more than 15 years, coupled with decades of partnership across Australian government agencies and highly regulated industries.

To learn more about 51ˇçÁ÷sovereign cloud capabilities, visit:

The post Toll Group Bolsters Its Cyber Resilience With SAP’s Sovereign Cloud Capabilities appeared first on 51ˇçÁ÷Australia & New Zealand News Center.

“Providing sustainable energy to greenfield opportunities in brand new cities and infrastructure is fairly easy compared to older suburbs,” said Guy Chalkley, CEO of Endeavour Energy. “The bigger challenge is transitioning existing customers to a cleaner future. This transforms our company’s business model from historically building assets that keep the lights on to delivering sustainable energy in response to customer preferences like solar panels and EV charging stations.”

Endeavour Energy transports traditional and renewable energy to over 1.2 million people living and working across Sydney’s Greater West, a region that’s considered Australia’s third largest economy. I caught up with Chalkley at theĚýĚýin Basel, after his remarks on an expert panel during the keynote.

Sustainable energy providers dial up adaptability

While Australia is experiencing energy industry disruptions similar to the rest of the world, power networks have been going through fundamental changes in the last few years, chief among them a whole new perspective on customers.

“The biggest risk we face as an industry is that some people still think disruption is happening. They have to accept that it’s already happened,” said Chalkley. “Our customers aren’t just people who want power 24 hours a day. They are people who want to sell energy from solar panels back to us, store their own energy, and charge their electric vehicles. In this kind of changing environment, you have to think iteratively from a future point to envision what that looks like on 2025 and work backwards.”

Digitalisation is core to sustainable future

Admitting that the utility industry has not been a first mover in digitalisation like retail or telecommunications, Chalkley called on leaders to embrace the innovation that will help them adapt to customer needs. EVs are a prime example of a currently nascent but fast-growing and inevitable market opportunity.

“A massive uptake of EVs will happen quickly, and the networks will need to respond because they have no choice. Think about where we’ll be in 2030 or 2040 and what we need to get near that constellation,” he said. “Get comfortable in that uncomfortable space that allows people to make mistakes. Don’t chase perfection because these solutions aren’t nailed down. Listen to many diverse voices in the room to keep learning and challenging yourself so you can move forward.”

Co-innovate clean energy with communities

As a longtime 51ˇçÁ÷customer, Chalkley said that Endeavour Energy was committed to finding the right solutions that will deliver the best customer experience. He saw flexible partnerships critical to the rapidly transforming energy industry.

“51ˇçÁ÷solutions likeĚýĚýhave given us a stable foundation, and we can start leveraging the greatest value from partnerships along the energy value chain,” he said. “We might co-innovate with the customer to build a new solution, then partner with 51ˇçÁ÷to enable that solution. Suppose a real estate developer is constructing two 50-story buildings. When everyone has an EV in five years or so, we need to have those charging capabilities in the network to meet those future requirements. As a provider, you’re more like a consultancy as opposed to building a substation and connecting the power with poles and wires.”

In one project, Endeavor Energy is building aĚýĚýdesigned to provide a resilient, renewable, and reliable power supply to the coastal communities of Bawley Point and Kioloa in NSW.

Acting on sustainable business obligations

The Australian government expects the population of Greater Western Sydney to continue rising. Supplying both urban and rural communities with sustainable energy that supports the region’s growing infrastructure and services is key to economic success for providers and the people they serve. The good news is that energy providers are starting to act on the level of rapid and monumental change that has roiled the industry.

“The industry is now moving quickly, forcing organizations to make choices and keep progressing even though we don’t know everything at this point,” said Chalkley. “In addition to running our business, we have an obligation to make sure the future is secure as well. You do that by working with the entire community.”

This article originally appeared on Forbes Brand Voice

The post Endeavour Energy: How To Bring Sustainable Energy To 1.2 Million People In New South Wales appeared first on 51ˇçÁ÷Australia & New Zealand News Center.

The iAwards, driven by the Australian Information Industry Association, are Australia’s longest running and most broadly scoped innovation recognition program, rewarding excellence in Australian innovation that is making a difference and has the potential to create positive change for the community.Ěý

51ˇçÁ÷Green Token is a solution which provides a new level of transparency into complex raw material supply chains. It was co-founded by two 51ˇçÁ÷employees, James Veale and Nitin Jain, to tackle the challenge of tracking hard to trace bulk raw materials back to their origin.

It’s long been a challenge for business, with two in three companies faced with limited to no visibility into the origin of their upstream raw materials. For example, is that palm oil in your consumer product from a recently deforested area? Is that lithium in your mobile phone mined using child labour? Is that recycled plastic in your drink bottle really being recycled?

51ˇçÁ÷GreenToken is a completely new approach to material sourcing transparency, using digital twin product tokens to track raw materials and blockchain technology to keep an immutable record of where the material has come from and where it’s going. Ěý

It was built to drive rapid adoption across a company’s supply chain business partner network by making it an easy to deploy cloud product with built in integrations to 51ˇçÁ÷ERP.ĚýĚý

By capturing unique attributes on the token, such as commodity origin, carbon footprint, deforestation status, and ethical and fair-trade labour, GreenToken enables businesses to accelerate their shift to new auditable sustainable practices.ĚýĚý

Furthermore, by informing you, the consumer, of where the products you purchase are derived from, shoppers can make more informed purchasing decisions that help to improve people’s lives and ultimately, the environment.ĚýĚýĚý

To learn more about 51ˇçÁ÷GreenToken and how you can secure environmental, social and governance data exchange in your supply chain, click here: ĚýĚý

The post GreenToken by 51ˇçÁ÷wins at iAwards Canberra appeared first on 51ˇçÁ÷Australia & New Zealand News Center.

Organisations that are moving to the cloud need an agility that enables them to anticipate and address changes in real time, improve organisational productivity and drive operational efficiencies. As more and more businesses become reliant on storing and operating using dataĚýfrom the cloud, we cannot ignore that some organisations have already made significant investments into on-premise solutions and are now choosing to invest further in multi-cloud strategies to kick-start their journey to the cloud so as to minimise any potential data loss or downtime that could erode a competitive advantage.

This competitive advantage gained from moving to the cloud has lent itself to creating a buyer’s market in which businesses can choose to switch cloud providers depending on their business needs. While moving from one provider to another based on specialisation makes sense, it also reveals a key issue which is widely overlooked. An issue that we at 51ˇçÁ÷refer to it as the ‘data tax’.

Read more of this article in Technology Decisions

The post The hidden data tax affecting businesses appeared first on 51ˇçÁ÷Australia & New Zealand News Center.

Know your Employee Value Proposition (EVP)

Think of the EVP as the ultimate packaging and internal branding to attract and retain the right people. An EVP spans the unique set of benefits that an employee receives in return for the skills, capabilities, and experience they bring to a company. The traditional and most obvious elements of an EVP include pay and benefits and professional career development.ĚýĚýlike flexibility, purpose and sustainability are important additions, but are fast emerging as a “given” and will not be a major differentiator. So, what will?

Put people first

The employee experience is individualised depending on gender and age. What’s compelling for staff in the workforce for one year are different to those for 20 years, so policies must be flexible enough to meet each employee’s unique circumstances. Would your company’s leave policy adequately cater for an employee that needs to take six weeks off for surgery if they have only been with the company a few weeks or months?

51ˇçÁ÷is exploring how organizations worldwide are adopting “people sustainability.” 51ˇçÁ÷defines people sustainability as the intersection of employee engagement, empowerment, and corporate responsibility. Of the three pillars of sustainability—People, Planet and Profit—the People pillar has less priority. However, recent research from IDC confirms this attitude is changing, as the People pillar is growing in importance to an organizations’ future success. Other highlights from the IDC Research include:

• 86% of over 3500 full-time employees and business leaders across the globe believed investments in people sustainability could drive positive economic and environmental sustainability outcomes.
• 76% of organizations found it more valuable to address people sustainability topics strategically and with a unified approach and respondents expected to see improvement in key business outcomes i
• 72% expect better financial performance, 78% expect better employee job satisfaction and 77% expect better employee engagement.

The role of Intelligent Tech

Just as HR policies need to support putting people at the center of the business so do the appropriate tools. Providing employees personalized experiences through intelligent technologies was viewed by companies as a way to positively impact employee experience but employees were yet to see the personalisation aspect in the technology they used every day according to anĚý

The research aims to understand how organizations can create the right conditions so that intelligent technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) enhance the employee experience, rather than detract from it. Employee experience was found to be rated the second important motivation by HR Leaders globally for moving up the intelligent technology maturity curve after Business Sustainability.

Both HR Leaders and employees considered learning new skills, development opportunities and HR self-service use cases as positive applications of intelligent technologies. However, HR also identified recruiting and career pathing as high priorities for current and future Artificial Intelligence (AI) implementation, but employees had less positive reactions to these use cases, implying opportunity for personalized technologies that accelerate talent development and help make people sustainability a tangible outcome for organisations.

The critical the role of people managers

In a hybrid work environment, an employee’s connection to their manager may be stronger than their connection to the organization. Continuously train and support management in their ever-changing journey as both an employee and manager. And while employers can create and execute on company strategies to create a fulfilling employee experience, meaningful connections to employees and understanding individual needs are critical in creating a healthier and more profitable organization.

The post HR Leaders: Do You Know Your Employee Value Proposition? appeared first on 51ˇçÁ÷Australia & New Zealand News Center.

Restaurant Brands specialises in managing multi-site branded food retail chains. Headquartered in Auckland, it operates KFC stores in New Zealand, Australia and California, Taco Bell stores in Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand, Pizza Hut stores in New Zealand and Hawaii and Carl’s Jr. stores in New Zealand. It also has customer service centres in Auckland, Sydney, Honolulu and Los Angeles.

The company had grown rapidly, primarily through acquisition, surpassing NZ$1.2 billion revenue in 2022. Previously the organisation operated a number of different systems which meant generating consolidated reports was not easy. The required manual intervention took time and had the potential to introduce errors.

The 51ˇçÁ÷implementation, which took 10 months, was managed by 51ˇçÁ÷Partner Lagom and comprised of solutions including: 51ˇçÁ÷S/4 HANA Private Cloud Edition, 51ˇçÁ÷EnableNow, 51ˇçÁ÷Concur, and (BTP).

Restaurant Brands is seeing significant business benefits since going live in April 2022. Increased automation has led to faster payment runs, month-end processes and consolidated reports, giving better information for faster decision making. Automation has also freed up resources to enable greater collaboration and sharing of knowledge across the different regions and has also helped to solve the organisation’s supply chain integration issues, with teams now able to successfully manage supply and demand planning as well as anticipate any future global supply chain disruptions. Over a hundred thousand orders have been placed and processed via the new 51ˇçÁ÷system to get produce out to the stores.

Transitioning from a number of systems to a single, new ERP system has given Restaurant Brands the opportunity to implement 51ˇçÁ÷Best Practice and align all its operations to a consistent way of working. Previously there was not a set of global work processes across the different regions. Now all areas (or functions) of the business are using the system in a consistent way, which gives clear insight into how each area and the whole business is working.

Thuy Le-Kim, Group Systems Accountant and Product Owner at Restaurant Brands, says having a single solution means the business is more efficient, has greater transparency and has the flexibility to scale rapidly as required.

“We wanted a system that would be able to grow and evolve with the business. We now have consistent, robust processes that mean we can increase in size without needing to dramatically increase the number of people we need to run the business.”

“Our approach was unusual, we didn’t start with a current state analysis, because each region was operating differently. Instead, we started by looking at 51ˇçÁ÷Best Practice to see if it was right for our needs – if it would deliver the key outcomes we needed. Any requests to vary from standard went to our Solution Standardisation Board to review to make sure that the change was necessary and that the required extra work to change, test and maintain the variation would be justified by the outcome,” says Thuy.

“There were definitely some things that we changed, but there was a lot of rigor around the decision-making to ensure the organisation could maintain changes on an ongoing basis. Significant work was done to ensure that there was minimal variation from standards, the result was a system that works effectively with a reduced cost of ownership over its lifetime.”

Sofiane Ainine, Head of MidMarket, 51ˇçÁ÷Australia and New Zealand, says that implementing cloud solutions was a key factor in Restaurant Brands being able to simplify its processes to achieve its business goals.

“Implementing 51ˇçÁ÷cloud solutions, including 51ˇçÁ÷S/4HANA Private Cloud Edition, shows the value our RISE with 51ˇçÁ÷approach is delivering for customers. The ability to consolidate, streamline and standardise operations across multiple geographies is enabling Restaurant Brands to adapt to change faster and free up more resource across the organisation to focus on opportunities for growth.”

Restaurant Brands worked with 51ˇçÁ÷Partner Lagom, on product selection and implementation and continues to work with Lagom as its application management and centre of excellence partner.

“Lagom was definitely the right fit for our organisation. We’re a fairly lean and flat organisation, so we needed a partner who was agile and had a lot of experience. We relied on and valued their expertise and their flexibility to adapt throughout the process,” says Thuy.

Paul Tombleson, General Manager of Delivery at Lagom, who closely oversaw the project, says that the approach that Lagom adopted ensured that the team never lost focus on the outcome and all aspects of delivery were looked into.

“The focus on doing the right things at the right time, while utilising the RISE with 51ˇçÁ÷approach, resulting in a successful implementation across NZ, Australia, Hawaii and California in the space of 10 months. The difference this initiative has made to the business is substantial and Lagom are really proud of being the partner that helped to enable this remarkable journey for Restaurant Brands.”

Restaurant Brands’ future plans include exploring additional opportunities to support ESG and reporting requirements.

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