A member of Nomura Research Institute (NRI) Group since 2016, ASG Group Limited (“ASG”) is an IT service provider that, since its founding in 1996, has provided IT field solutions and consulting, including enterprise resource planning systems and business data analysis, to public- and private-sector clients in Australia.

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A key player with a leading role in the Australian IT marketplace, ASG uses a distinctive approach to support organizational innovations. This article introduces two case studies in which digital transformation was accelerated by transitioning to IT environments with superior cost effectiveness and visibility.

Case 1: Main Roads Western Australia

Enabling Continuous Improvement of Highway Network Performance

Main Roads Western Australia (“Main Roads”), a Western Australia state government organization responsible for planning, constructing, maintaining, and managing highway networks, operates in close partnership with the Department of Transport, public transportation bureaus, and local governments to provide a world-leading road transportation network spanning 18,500 kilometers over a region of more than 2.5 million square kilometers. Main Roads’ stated aspiration is “to provide world-class outcomes for the customer through a safe, reliable and sustainable road-based transport system”.

In order to improve its service, Main Roads needed to update the “Network Performance Report System” (“NetPRes”) which assess the performance of major highways from acquired road sensor data. Major concerns included declining precision resulting from maintenance difficulties, as well as a lack of expandability compatible with additional data processing, the amount of time required to create reports, and the absence of sophisticated analytics and functions for executing machine learning.

In response to Main Roads’ request, ASG identified bottlenecks in the existing system and created a roadmap for improvement. After PoC and selection of the necessary components and platforms, ASG provided a state-of-the-art cloud data platform constructed in Microsoft Azure. As a result, Main Roads’ network operations team was able to visualize the entire highway network’s performance with high precision.

Primary Outcomes

• Construction of system enabling easy maintenance in response to changes in road network;
• Although data volume did increase by four times, queries that had previously taken one hour now took only a few seconds;
• Ability to utilize sophisticated analytics and machine learning functions;
• Ability to add data sources and data types in less time at lower cost; and
• Construction of platform allowing workload development at a fraction of the previous cost

Case 2: Australian Capital Territory

Software Asset Management Program Successfully Reduces Costs by 230 Million Dollars

An enclave of the state of New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory (“ACT”) is an independent administrative division that is controlled by the Australian government, comprises the capital city of Canberra and six surrounding townships, and is responsible for a wide range of operations centered on the federal government. Under the constraints of its massive and complex ICT environment, ACT had become preoccupied with day-to-day operations and had begun to deprioritize portfolio management for the software expanding within its organization. With software license purchases and annual expenditures growing at alarming rates, ACT found itself unable to assess how this software was being deployed and how much of it was being used, and in the end, it could not even determine whether value was being provided commensurate with the cost, or whether there was room for improvement.

In response, ASG’s software asset management (SAM) team (Group 10 Consulting, a 100% subsidiary of ASG; “Group 10”) conducted a detailed analysis, which revealed that millions of AUD in costs were being incurred each year, while also identifying the following problems.

• More than the necessary amount was being spent on license costs;
• Ongoing support costs were being incurred for unused licenses; and
• There was risk of non-compliant software being deployed.

With the aim of reducing costs and mitigating risks, ACT decided to introduce end-to-end SAM services for software procurement and management. When introducing these services, Group 10 drew on its wealth of experience as an IT provider, and was able offer the following.

• A cost reduction program that would allow for substantial annual savings;
• Improvements to software management methods to increase investment effects;
• KPI to measure service effectiveness;
• Maturity evaluation of SAM and a roadmap for ongoing improvement;
• Ongoing implementation of compliance programs;
• SAM technology roadmap in line with trends in architecture;
• Advice for optimizing licenses; and
• Streamlining of processes and governance matters

As a result, ACT was able to realize cost reductions and expenditure minimization to the tune of 230 million AUD, as well as visualization of the deployment and state of use of software, reduction of software compliance risks, and wide-ranging user experience improvements. ACT is currently seizing on this efficient development of processes, programs, and governance to expand cloud technologies rapidly throughout its organization. Group 10 will provide ongoing support for this, while also making efforts for the further improvement of software detection functions and management capability.