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Superpartners unlocks urgent business innovations using Aviarc
Big business needs big computing; the challenge for most chief information officers is how to keep strategic core computing systems effective and efficient while still meeting the rapidly changing tactical needs of the business.
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What often happens in large enterprises is that business users, frustrated by the time it can take IT to write these urgently needed systems, take a DIY approach and cobble together an application themselves. But rather than clamping down on the practice, smart CIOs are now coming to understand that if they can make those business driven tactical applications more robust, scaleable and secure it should be possible to leverage this coal face innovation across the enterprise.
That was exactly the reasoning that led to Superpartners’ decision to use the Aviarc suite of tools and services as the development platform for its tactical business applications. Administering super funds on behalf of organisations such as Cbus and Hesta, Superpartners is the largest superannuation fund administrator in Australia. It administers over $75 billion worth of funds on behalf of 6.1 million fund members and 667,000 employers. Agile and effective information systems are its lifeblood.
Superpartners’ IT team had struggled in the past however to maintain the right balance between managing its core and strategic information systems on the one hand, and the demand for rapidly generated tactical business applications on the other.
Chief information officer Gary Evans went looking for a way to deliver robust business applications quickly and make them securely available across the enterprise without losing focus on the firm’s core system.
A recommendation from another CIO led Evans to Aviarc Australia which provides software, methodologies and services specifically designed for the rapid rollout of enterprise small systems.
So far so good; one of the first applications Superpartners commissioned using Aviarc will pay for itself ten-fold during the first 12 months according to Evans. Superpartners’ call centre deals with multiple requests for information – a quote for example, or letter of benefits. In the past, documents had to be found, printed, and mailed to the client who might respond days or weeks later.
Call centre managers recognised that there was a better way.
Working with a tactical response IT team that Evans and his manager of tech services Sinan Erbay established, they quickly approved the development of an application using the Aviarc offerings. The new system lets call centre operators log into a database of corporate communication material, find the right document, email it to the caller – and often be able to talk them through the information during a single call. "It’s a system that will pay for itself ten-fold during the year." says Evans.
According to Erbay Aviarc also tackles the scalability, management and security challenges that can otherwise stall attempts to roll out tactical innovations more widely across enterprises. “With Aviarc we can centrally manage the systems and have the application utilised across the whole business,” says Erbay.
Driving the initiative is the compact tactical response IT team which Superpartners calls Operational Initiatives. This group meets with Superpartners’ business managers each fortnight and talks over any new applications that the business needs. Once the value of the proposed applications is assessed and agreed, the team works with the business to develop the application quickly.
Superpartners is now working with Aviarc to develop an online version of the process which it will call The Ideas Incubator to allow scoping requirements to be collected online. “If the idea stacks up it goes to the Initiatives group.” says Erbay.
Because of the tactical nature of the business applications developed using Aviarc, they all run standalone and are considered to have a limited lifespan. Evans explains that at the end of 12 months each application developed in Aviarc is reviewed. If it’s been a success, the firm recognises it as a successful proof of concept, and the application is reengineered (using the Aviarc system as a blueprint) and integrated with the core strategic IT system.
“Aviarc lets us get a quick win – and it’s cost us a small amount compared to the savings.” adds Evans.