HR platform consolidation unlocks the value of data at Aurecon

By consolidating its finance and HR systems, engineering consulting firm Aurecon can now unlock the value of its data, according to CFO Andrew Muller. 

The company is undergoing a digital transformation journey, and Muller spoke to Digital Nation about how developing a unified view across the organisation allowed for better alignment of people, finance and projects.

“We got to a point where most of our systems and platforms have been put in place, you know, probably 10 to 12 years ago,” Muller says.

“We made the decision then to transform our entire platform across people and finance and in our project space. We've been on that journey for the last couple of years.”

Muller says that Aurecon’s transformation program gave the business tools for better decision making.

“Having that system across finance and HR means that, particularly for a business like ours, which is predominantly people-based organisation, we have confidence that we've got all the right data in front of our people at the right time.”

Digitising the HR and finance functions onto a single platform has simplified previously clunky and manual procedures, ultimately allowing for greater productivity and resource allocation in the business.

“We used to have people running around the business trying to track down missing time and missing expenses. Now we're actually able to centralise those sort of functions, get those things done, either through robotics or through better reporting, and better use the system to enable some of those things.”

Aurecon’s focus has been on building what the company calls a networked organisation, with the aim to allocate the right influence across varied projects.

“We’ve got a traditional structure but we ensure that we run networks of people through the organisation that, whether it’s how we share knowledge, how we shake, how we share capability, how we deliver our projects, that tends to be done through a series of networks through the business.”

Credit: The video was produced by Josh Lundberg and Matthew Ryan.