Modern technology moves at a rapid pace, and while our support systems and people infrastructure do their best to keep up with changes, sometimes technology gets out of step with the processes to support it.

That much is true of Information Technology at Macquarie, at least until very recently.

Unfinished restructures and adjustments to the IT operating model, coupled with IT leadership changes and a history of taking on more projects than was feasibly possible to deliver, meant that IT was not set up to provide the seamless technology support offering we needed.

Challenges and Opportunities

When Tim Hume joined Macquarie in June 2019 as Chief Information Officer he saw these issues and many more. Tim’s first six months was a solid ‘listen and learn’ phase to make sure he understood the challenges as well as where the opportunities might exist.

“One of my first observations was that IT had many dedicated staff working very hard to meet the needs of a university that they cared deeply about,” says Tim.

“However, I found that we were not structured or governed in a way that meant we could efficiently and effectively meet the changing IT and Digital needs of the University.”

Tim says there was no clear governance of demand for IT services or projects, and they were seen as both a service unit as well as a provider of infinite, unprioritised projects that were effectively ‘free’ with no real funding governance to ensure that the right projects were being worked on that aligned with University strategy.

“Budgets were under pressure and business units were frustrated with project delivery timelines,” says Tim.

“IT staff did their best to manage the competing demands of the University, however demand always exceeded supply.”

First cab off the PST rank

The introduction of the IT project prioritisation process followed by the commencement of the University Operating Plan helped address some of the issues, but more radical structural change was needed to set up MQ IT for long term success.

Information Technology was one of the first professional services areas to embark on their Professional Services Transformation (PST) journey in 2020 to restructure and meet these changing needs, while embracing the PST design principles of coordination, simple processes, career opportunity, user experience and cost effectiveness.

This wasn’t just change for change’s sake. A three-step plan of work was designed to transform IT and Digital at Macquarie with very clear objectives:

• Bring together diverse faculty and office teams into one central offering to allow more consistent processes and economies of scale as well as better career progression paths.
• Move to a structure that reflected core discipline areas to improve the capability, capacity and depth of knowledge, as well as aligning to the industry standard SFIA (skills for the information age) capability framework. This also supported skills development strategies and professional growth.
• Broaden the remit of the project delivery teams to better align with and meet the needs of the Digital Transformation stream of the University Operating Plan. The project delivery organisation is flexible and scalable to allow for changing funding envelopes and priorities from year to year.

The finish line is in sight

Now more than a year on from completion of most changes, Tim hopes these radical changes for IT  at Macquarie are ones that will set us up for many decades to come. Tim admits this was a hard time on a personal level for all involved, but reminds us that the turmoil of transformational workplace change doesn’t last forever.

“You always come out the other side for the better,” says Tim, who is positive about the changes so far.

“Transformation takes time to get right, but we need to allow it to settle into the ‘new normal’ with regards to operating model and ways of working before we can properly assess the progress we have made.”

The last stage of the MQ IT transformation is the orderly transition of frontline technology service delivery to the newly-formed shared services centre under a Head of IT Shared Services – a role currently being recruited for by Executive Director for Shared Services, Maria-Claudia Romero.

“IT has successfully delivered its savings as part of the PST transformation process and no further job reductions are expected during this transition,” he says.

Creating new opportunities

One of the key objectives of the whole change process, and indeed of the PST objectives more broadly, was to build better career pathways for everyone in the new structure.

A standardised set of position descriptions were rolled out within IT that relied on core skills and competencies and meant that staff could move between roles more easily, sometimes with training or a ‘ramp up’ period to learn new skills or technologies. Management positions were renewed.

Change runs all the way to the top as well, with Tim’s job title recently changing to Chief Information and Digital Officer to better reflect the digital leadership Tim has undertaken as leader of the Digital Transformation stream of the Operating Plan.

Tim says that as one of the first functions embarking on their PST journey, he believed it was imperative to meet with staff and clients in their teams or one-on-one to help ensure the change went as smoothly as possible.

“This part of our transformation was a big investment of time and effort, but this was rewarded with a smooth consultation and implementation process,” he says.

The future is bright for MQ IT

This new way of working will set Tim and his new team of Directors up for success in some ambitious projects he is undertaking. Tim says 2022 is a very full year of delivery, including a large program of work to transition our data centres to the cloud, along with a transformation of our core management systems (student, curriculum and finance), delivering a ‘one-stop-shop’ student portal, transformation of our core learning and teaching systems to next gen digital learning environments and defining our Student CRM strategy – to name just a few!

These projects might sound widely ambitious, and some have been attempted (and abandoned) before. However, the successful streamlining of the Information Technology landscape at Macquarie over the last two years has provided us with an excellent starting point for these transformational projects.