State Water Corporation

About This Project

The complex organisation required a new IT Strategy and also a Business Transformation Strategy and support for its delivery to deliver an integrated water service.

The Situation

State Water Corporation was embarking upon a significant ICT enabled transformation including ERP (finance, procurement, assets, HR, payroll), customer portal, water management and some river management/SCADA integration capabilities.  Information Professionals was first engaged to develop the Business Transformation Strategy.  The program priorities was to replace a number of systems which had been hastily established to stand up the fledgling organisation, but which had increasingly become non-fit-for-purpose.  The program was delivered in stages and would aim to replace these technologies with COTS solutions, improve and standardise business processes, deliver services and water information direct to customers and support improved management of assets, customer services and data analytics, including IT/OT integration.

The Approach

Information Professionals was engaged as an independent third party to work with SWC to develop an IT and Business Transformation Strategy and the strategic, tactical and operational aspects of the change being sought given the unique characteristics of State Water Corporation.  At the strategic level, this included addressing issues such as a compelling business case for change, a clear picture of the future state, the link of the improvement outcomes to the overall strategic vision of SWC, the governance arrangements to guide and direct transformation activities, and the level and extent of stakeholder involvement.

At the tactical level, these aspects looked at the integrated approach for managing transformation across the organisation, the roles and responsibilities within SWC to drive the transformation, and the key risks and benefits associate with the transformation.

Finally, at an operational level, it covered the critical path across the portfolio of work and relevant priorities, and the resources and capabilities within SWC to undertake, manage, and deliver the transformation work and the change associated with that work across the organisation.

The organisation was subject to management changes and eventually merged with Sydney Catchment authority to create Water NSW.  The program overall was highly challenging given the organisational environment, mergers, changes to executive and sponsorship, overall longevity as well as the normal challenges of an enterprise transformation agenda.

The Impact

A number of water management, customer portal and IoT projects were completed.  The transformation project was then re-initiated and eventually delivered in the new organisation.  The project ultimately went live with minimal issues.