Dividing a state utility into four separate business units might sound easy on paper, but the break-up of energy colossus Western Power proved anything but, according the man at the helm of its technology infrastructure.
Dividing a state utility into four separate business units might sound easy on paper, but the break-up of energy colossus Western Power proved anything but, according the man at the helm of its technology infrastructure.
Former Western Power CIO Brian Lee revealed the challenges were immense as the corporatised entity sought to sweep away decades of bureaucratic processes and culture to establish new commercial enterprises.
It was out with the old and in with the new, in a major way – all with a deadline set down by the Western Australian government.
Mr Lee cites the statistics:
• more than 220 software applications required modifications;
• four Enterprise Resource Planning systems were created;
• four data warehouses had to be established;
• 30 new servers commissioned;
• 3,900 desktops changed;
• four new internets/intranets were established; and
• security placed across all this.
The scale of the task underlines the increasing role IT has in business, from a helpful tool to an integral part of every operation.
Like many a business is learning these days, Mr Lee said the key strategies included getting the right people, strong planning and project management and a high level of communication across the group.
In the end, the outcome was the delivery of the reform program on time and under budget, with all business fully functioning from the start.
Mr Lee said the utility’s IT group played two key roles in the break-up program.
“This included the establishment of a new service delivery model and with that implement cultural change, to support the new business,” he told a recent industry luncheon.
“The second was to ensure all systems were effectively disaggregated, to ensure the businesses were fully operational on day one.”
Mr Lee said that this massive change had to take place despite some of the less endearing legacies of Western Power’s bureaucracy – most of which were earmarked to be purged as part of the reform process to create four new businesses – Western Power Networks, Synergy Power, Verve Energy and Horizon Power.
Partly it was about making the new processes more customer focused as much as discarding prac-tices that were incompatible with a commercial environment and which had resulted in internal IT costs rising every year without question.
“The strategies we adopted for this was to establish a new operating model that focused on the customer for the whole life cycle,” Mr Lee said.
He said the results from this huge change came in the form of positive feedback from customers and significantly improved staff satisfaction.
