Construction firm AGC in IT renaissance

Perth-based fabrication, construction and services company AGC has gone through an extensive overhaul of its research infrastructure over the past year that has seen — among other things — a number of Windows 95 PCs when all is said and done phased out and the latest network, storage, datacentre, desktop and telephony innovation installed.

Redpath said when he joined AGC, it was obvious the company — part of the larger AusGroup conglomerate — needed a refresh of most of its innovation infrastructure, as it had outgrown its previous generation of research.

The first step for the CIO

The first step for the CIO was to conduct a review of the situation to discover what where the current issues, as then as what the company wanted to achieve with a refresh. A strategy document was at that time produced, detailing waves of innovation roll-outs that would affect virtually the entire company.

Network and storage platforms were addressed, with one of the largest pieces of AGC's overhaul being the purchase of two IBM XIV systems to support its storage strategy, which had earlier been based on EMC. Redpath said AGC went through "a proper tender process" to buy the hardware, with multiple vendors competing.

The difference between IBM's pitch

The difference between IBM's pitch and those of its rivals, he said, was that Big Blue had listened to what his company was trying to achieve with its strategy, to put it more exactly than just asking how much disk space it needed. To boot, he said the XIV avoided a traditional problem with storage area networks in that virtual drives on a storage area network mostly needed to be set to a certain size and couldn't be easily changed without rebuilding the storage area network.

AGC's desktop platform has as well seen a revamp, with the company standardising on Dell PCs and Windows 7 being rolled out through Microsoft's System Center Configuration Manager tool. Redpath said the company's users had as a matter of fact been pushing his team to get the roll-out done quicker, because some had Windows Vista on their desktops and wanted to upgrade to Windows 7, with many staff already having the new operating system at home.

XP was as well in use inside the company, and even some Windows 95 machines, which Redpath said had been carrying out very specific functions in the company's workshop.

Office 2010 roll-out is on the cards in the new year

An Office 2010 roll-out is on the cards in the new year, and AGC has as well carried out a migration to Exchange 2010, as then as an upgrade of Active Directory. Other current projects include a new ERP platform, with the company currently going through the selection process, and Microsoft's Lync desktop communications platform will be deployed in 2011.

With such a wide-ranging roll-out across the organisation, Redpath's IT department will be on the cutting edge of new corporate innovation for some time. Nevertheless the CIO is already looking to the future with a view to staying on top of the trends.

"I would be very surprised if most organisations hosted an Exchange environment in five years' time," the CIO said, noting that in general he thought cloud computing had "a huge part to play". AGC already uses some security products hosted in the cloud, and Redpath said he believed most of the questions around the limitations of the cloud would be answered in the straightway few years.

In addition, like Jetstar chief information officer Stephen Tame, Redpath sees physical desktop telephones by degree vanishing from employees' desks as softphones like Microsoft's Lync platform become more popular. "My view and my aim is the death of the desk phone," he said. "I just don't see the need for it. I look around the office these days and very few people use a desk phone."

However, Australia's infrastructure may not totally be up to the tests which cloud and IP telephony will place on it just but. "The thing with Australia that's holding it back is the lack of broadband," said Redpath. "In the UK or some of the Asian countries, broadband availability is much better." The problem, the CIO says, is particularly an issue for dispersed branches in remote parts of Western Australia.

Ultimately, much of what AGC has done is to ensure it has the best environment to support and retain its staff. Redpath notes that employees are expecting more from their employers as the consumerisation of innovation in the enterprise gathers pace.