Business growth demands robust IT systems
“To become a great team delivering the best portfolio, we have had to evolve – in size, function and process maturity – very rapidly. Partnering with Datacom allowed us to upgrade our IT infrastructure to be robust and scalable. The technology depth and breadth Datacom brings to the Guardians is allowing us to implement new capabilities to help our business teams drive productivity.” Greg McHugh, Head of IT
Solution snapshot
Customer
Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation
Industry
Finance
Business need
The Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation needed robust and sophisticated IT systems to support projected growth and organisational requirements. A resilient, scalable, functional, and secure IT infrastructure system was required.
Solution
Datacom took over the IT management for the Guardians and rapidly rolled out an aggressive programme of infrastructure improvements and platform provision to meet current changing needs, as well as to support increasingly sophisticated future IT requirements.
Benefits
• Datacom improved the stability and manageability of IT with a relentless and aggressive programme of work
• The IT infrastructure projects were aligned with a rapidly evolving business to meet the current changing business needs, while planning for future requirements
• The improvement in IT maturity facilitated by Datacom has allowed the organisation to use IT as a key enabler of business process improvement, rather than just an administrative tool.
Case study
IT roadmap paves way for growth
The New Zealand Superannuation Fund (the Fund) was created by an Act of Parliament in 2001, to partially pre-fund the future cost of New Zealand Superannuation, expected to increase as a result of New Zealand's ageing population.
The Fund is managed by the Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation (the Guardians). The Guardians began investing the Fund in 2003 and by May 2010 assets under management totalled $15.9bn.
By 2007, the Guardians employed around 35 staff members who were supported by a relatively basic IT infrastructure and a small in-house team. Business systems were unsophisticated, based largely on Excel and MS-Access.
While this had been sufficient, it was recognised that a higher level of organisational maturity, supported by more robust and sophisticated IT systems, would be required for the future. The Guardians’ headcount was projected to double over the following 18 months, as funds under management grew and the organisation brought some previously outsourced investment functions back in-house.
The process and governance requirements of these in-sourced activities required a far more resilient, scalable, functional, and secure infrastructure than the in-house IT team could deliver.
Therefore, the Guardians issued a Request for Quotation for IT Services, to take over management of existing systems and to assist the Guardians in maturing IT systems to support organisational growth.
Aggressive programme drives change
Datacom met the requirements with ease and took over management of the Guardians’ IT infrastructure in 2008.
In the first three months of the engagement, Datacom brought the infrastructure up to a basic level of fitness for purpose, including: resolving critical storage-management problems; tightening security processes; verifying licence compliance; and standardising desktop builds.
The following three-month phase focused on introducing service and capability improvements demanded by the business. For example: implementing a secure application for distribution of Board papers, and improving the security and reliability of data-transfer with the Guardians’ financial services providers.
With these challenges overcome, the focus in 2009 shifted to supporting and enabling business-process improvement. Workflow initiatives were supported with the implementation of a content-managed intranet and a management dashboard.
Alongside the IT upgrade and improvement programmes, there was parallel activity of infrastructure improvement. Servers were virtualised and moved into one of Datacom’s state-of-the-art data centres to enhance security, flexibility and resilience; and more users were migrated to thin-client technology to improve support.
By the end of 2009, Datacom’s solution ensured that the Guardians had moved IT to being an enabler and driver of business change.
Key points
• The Guardians needed an IT partner to bring a broad range of technology competencies; that was a good fit with the Guardians’ collaborative and collegial culture; that could assist the Guardians to quickly develop IT maturity; that brought a strategic and business-oriented view of IT; and that had the financial strength to stand behind its services. Datacom delivered on all fronts.
This Case Study for Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation is provided by Datacom.