Photos: Westpac launches Sydney innovation hub

The bank claims to have set up the 800m2 centre in the space of just 90 days and at a cost of less than $5 million. The space is designed to encourage staff to avoid the group-think mentality that can encumber some big organisations. It will be home to between six and ten project teams at any one time, plus staff from Westpac’s partners, and the idea is to cycle through groups from elsewhere in the organisation as they come up with new innovations.

Chief Operating Officer John Arthur told the crowd assembled for the launch that “when we started talking about turning Kogarah into the epicentre of our innovation, people must have thought I had forgotten to take my medication”. But it makes sense, he insists.

“It is close to the airport, and it won’t only be Sydney based teams that come in here.”

Les Vance, Group General Manager for Core Transformation, thinks that being out of the CBD offices actually helps staff to think outside the box.

“It takes people out of their day-to-day headspace. When staff come out here for a specific purpose they are not immersed in their business-as-usual.”

Kelly emphasised the bank’s history as Australia’s oldest company and the first Australian bank to offer online banking.

But “the world is moving forward so jolly fast,” she said. “Innovation is in our DNA, but this is a step up”.

Already they have built a Samsung Gear based banking application, and on 23 September will launch 'Get Cash', an app enabling cardless ATM withdrawals.

Staff can use Apple TV and Crestron to wirelessly project onto the displays.

Video conferencing enables "virtual co-location" explained group head of innovation, Ian Hill, "so we can get a greater diversity of views on a particular idea or project”.

It also features a 3D printer, which is photographed here producing a piggybank.

The use of Microsoft 365 based collaboration and video conferencing tools “is starting here” said Vance.

"We are using two public clouds, Amazon and Azure. We will learn from using them here and then take those lessons when we roll them out more broadly," he added.

The final say on deployment, however, will fall to new CIO Dave Curran, who has "big shoes to fill" according to his new boss John Arthur.