
<p>ResourceSmart Schools (RSS) is a leading, internationally-recognised sustainability and climate change education program offered by Sustainability Victoria (SV). The structured framework and facilitated support provides guidance, knowledge and skills to achieve measurable environmental change within schools and beyond the school gate.</p>



<p>ResourceSmart Schools helps school communities benefit from embedding sustainability into everything they do and is well placed to help Victorians take action on climate change. By participating in the program, schools implement appropriate solar generation systems, energy efficiency and other sustainable practices (water efficiency, improved waste management, and biodiversity improvement) through curriculum, school operations, culture and community.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Exco Partners <strong>Digital Experience Runtime,</strong> bridging the enterprise grade performance of Dynamics CRM with an amazing digital customer experience and user engagement capability&nbsp;</p></blockquote>



<p>Despite the RSS program being highly successful to date, SV was facing a significant problem with declining user participation attributable to the legacy web application that supports the program. The legacy web application was built on an ageing technology stack that was relatively slow, unintuitive for users, and caused a range of user-related issues driving user decline.</p>



<p>Sustainability Victoria engaged Exco Partners to address these challenges and uncover better ways to reach and engage with school communities and develop new ways to interact with these groups to support a long-term and sustainable benefit.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/rss-mockup.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3057" width="800"/></figure></div>


<p>Exco Partners delivered an innovative solution based on the Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform. The Microsft Dynamics 365 platform provided an enterprise-grade foundation for customer relationship management (CRM), business process automation and customer support. Teachers and Students interacted with the platform via a React-based user-experience oriented web interface designed by our award-winning design team.</p>



<p>We established the project with the following objectives:</p>



<ul><li>Enable further reach and engagement with the teaching, student and school communities in general</li><li>Develop new ways to create a long-term connection with the above user groups</li><li>Increase the accessibility and usability of the program</li><li>Increase SV’s ability to contribute to Victoria’s positive sustainable and environmental practices.</li></ul>



<p>The project was approached with three key phases drawing on our CoreMethods™ methodology. We designed each phase to address key aspects of the project and drew on specific skills across our multi-disciplined Exco Partners capabilities.&nbsp;</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>“An innovative solution was required to utilise the Microsoft Dynamics platform without compromising the consumer user experience”</p></blockquote>



<p>Our first phase, Discovery, focused on customer research, stakeholder engagement, visual design, and planning. The key finding from the Discovery phase indicated there were three critical areas of focus the new platform needed to address.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Usability: make the system easy and intuitive, reduce steps, automate processes, and simplify user workflow.</p>



<p>Engagement / Motivation: building an environment that encourages and motivates students toward sustainability through sharing, small wins and clarity of benefits.</p>



<p>Support: creating a platform and online community from which teachers and students can manage their journey without the need for a dedicated SV support</p>



<p>Our second phase, Build, delivered the technology solution in a series of two-week sprints. The functional components were documented as User Stories and then iteratively developed and system tested.</p>



<p>A vital requirement of the technology stack was to vastly simplify the legacy platform infrastructure, which required multiple web and database servers.</p>



<p>The back-of-house capability needed a secure and robust data management capability so that the Sustainability Victoria product managers could support their customers. The ability to search, filter and report on school data without speciality support was important, as was the flexibility to continue to evolve school data with data and process automation.</p>



<p>We selected the Microsoft Dynamics 365, and Microsoft Power Platform based on power and ability to integrate seamlessly and securely into an enterprise technology environment, such as managed by Sustainability Victoria. &nbsp;</p>



<p>The power of tools such as Microsoft Power Automate and Power BI further enhanced the capability of the back-of-house solution.</p>



<p>An innovative solution was required to utilise the Microsoft Dynamics platform without compromising the consumer user experience and to address the user research findings of usability, engagement, motivation, and support.</p>



<p>The React framework was desirable for the technology solution of the consumer user interface. React is the most popular framework for delivering amazing user experiences on the web and has significantly enhanced our solution’s user experience capability.</p>



<p>We used our Digital Experience Runtime toolset to accelerate the integration of the front-of-house React user interface to the back-of-house Microsoft Dynamics platform. This integration created a seamless experience for managing data for both consumer and internal SV users.</p>



<p>We selected an Azure Active Directory B2C solution for managing consumer user authentication, reducing the need for bespoke security and user identity management. Our front-of-house user interface solution was deployed in a serverless container environment, which vastly simplified the infrastructure needed to support the system.</p>



<p>The final solution, live mid-2022, successfully delivered a solution that supports almost 3000 schools across Victoria. Sustainability Victoria is also discussing options to bring other Australian states on board using their own branded version of the technology solution.</p>



<div class="wp-block-exco-hero-content exco-hero-content container-fluid secondary">
<h2 class="has-text-align-left"><strong>Our Experience Runtime and RADD stack</strong></h2>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/radd-stack@2x.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3059" width="600"/></figure></div>


<p class="has-text-align-left">Our Digital Experience Runtime is a curated collection of services, tools and methods designed to accelerate the delivery of amazing digital experiences.</p>



<p class="has-text-align-left">These accelerators enable the rapid development of rich consumer user experiences. The solution is backed by the enterprise-grade performance and flexibility of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power platforms.&nbsp;</p>



<p class="has-text-align-left">The Exco Partners Digital Experience Runtime lets us create innovative and user-experience oriented solutions using the React user interface framework.</p>



<p class="has-text-align-left">The Exco Partners RADD stack allows for a serverless deployment of the Digital Runtime based solution to simplify infrastructure support and management complexity. React, Azure AD B2C, Dynamics and Docker.</p>
</div>


tomatos

A platform for sustainable schools


<p>Enrolling a child in kindergarten is a critical turning point in families&#8217; lives and is a significant, often first, interaction with the local government or council.</p>



<p>With the Victoria Government making significant contributions to early childhood development programs, many local governments are looking for innovative ways to engage, support and sustain their early childhood programs.</p>



<p>Exco Partners have engaged with various councils and local government groups as part of many programs to digitise the citizen experience.</p>



<p>Our most recent work was with Knox City Council (KCC) to design their &#8220;KN Enrol&#8221; system. The objective of the design was to simplify the kindergarten enrolment process for parents and to streamline the enrolment review process for the Educators. In line with the KCC&#8217;s Service Excellence value, it was important for this initiative that the process be efficient, convenient and easy for parents, including those facing language and other barriers.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/knox-concept@2x-1024x630.png" alt="" class="wp-image-2832" width="600" srcset="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/knox-concept@2x-1024x630.png 1024w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/knox-concept@2x-300x185.png 300w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/knox-concept@2x-768x472.png 768w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/knox-concept@2x-1536x945.png 1536w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/knox-concept@2x-2048x1260.png 2048w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/knox-concept@2x-1400x861.png 1400w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/knox-concept@2x-800x492.png 800w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure></div>


<p>Our process started with a design sprint to review the existing processes, conduct research and analysis with the end-users and design a prototype user experience concept the delivered on the specific needs of Knox City Council, its educators and its citizens.</p>



<p>The solution will go live in Q4 2021.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>The Exco team have been fantastic to work with. They worked to really understand what was needed and always had our families in mind and what their experience would be. Their innovative thinking helped us create an enrolment form which is easy for families to navigate and edit.</p><cite>Andrea Bulacios, Knox City Council</cite></blockquote>



<h3>Our solution to Kindergarten Enrolment and Placement</h3>



<p>Our Digital Kindergarten Enrolment and Placement (KEP) solution enables councils to accelerate their digitisation efforts and meet the demands of a digital-first user experience for their citizens.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/kinder-mock-ups-1-1024x943.png" alt="" class="wp-image-2829" width="400" srcset="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/kinder-mock-ups-1-1024x943.png 1024w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/kinder-mock-ups-1-300x276.png 300w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/kinder-mock-ups-1-768x707.png 768w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/kinder-mock-ups-1-652x600.png 652w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/kinder-mock-ups-1.png 1108w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure></div>


<p>Exco Partners have designed KEP to take advantage of existing Victorian Government licences and existing Microsoft based infrastructure to deliver a secure, scalable and cost-effective Kindergarten information management system.</p>



<p>The KEP solution supports the Department of Education and Training requirements (KIMS) for data collection and reporting automating procedures for compliance and funding support.</p>



<p>KEP does not mandate strict and rigid processes allowing complete customisation and integration with existing council infrastructure and operations, including approval workflows, identity management and CRM</p>



<p><br><br></p>


kinder-drawing

Digitising Kinder Enrolment


<p>Major Road Projects Victoria (MRPV) is a dedicated government body charged with planning and delivering major road projects for Victoria. MRPV is part of the Major Transport Infrastructure Authority (MTIA) which was established on 1 January 2019 within the Victorian Government Department of Transport.</p>



<p>The establishment of MRPV saw the assembly of a range of people from across existing government departments and agencies, including Vic Roads, Department of Transport, Department of Treasury and Finance and industry including engineers, designers, analysts and others. This enabled MRPV to establish strong organisational capability quickly with domain areas, establishing specific disciplines almost immediately. &nbsp;</p>



<p>It soon became clear that MRPV would need a well understood end-to-end delivery approach to achieve expected levels of efficiency and effectiveness in delivering large multi-year road projects. MRPV agreed to define and implement a Project Management Framework called PMF incorporating a Program Delivery Approach (PDA). MRPV wanted to present the PMF in an interactive format that was available within the Intranet and allowed users to both browse the high-level framework and access detailed processes, templates and guides quickly and easily.</p>



<p>The objective of the project was to establish a Project Management Framework that would enable a clear delivery approach for all road projects and would be embraced by future MRPV Project teams. The framework was expected to guide future projects in the common application of lifecycle stages, approval gates, process within each phase, key reporting milestones and domain-specific guidance and templates (such as safety, engineering, planning, procurement, controls, etc).</p>



<p>The MRPV project team, MRPV content providers and Exco Partners were bought together in a highly collaborative manner and constructively challenged to deliver short, medium and longer-term outcomes based on an agreed series of two-week development sprints. &nbsp;The team operated to a clearly defined plan and regular stand-ups gave the team the opportunity to communicate, plan collaborative work efforts, clear impediments and celebrate incremental achievements. &nbsp;</p>



<h2>Approach</h2>



<p>The project team, under the guidance of the Project Manager, employed several methods and techniques to ensure effective delivery of the outputs and outcomes.</p>



<div class="wp-block-exco-flex-container exco-flex-block container-fluid large" data-sal="slide-up" data-sal-duration="1000">
<div class="wp-block-exco-icon-card exco-icon-card"><div class="icon"><img src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/rocket.svg"/></div><div class="title">Sprint Based Delivery Method</div><div class="details">Work was defined and sequenced into two-week delivery sprints. At the beginning of each sprint, the team completed a detailed sprint plan to ensure clarity of scope and responsibilities for the sprint. Twice weekly stand-ups enabled the team to coordinate, clarify and unblock. At the end of each sprint there was a demonstration of content and working systems via a showcase. This approach held the entire team to account and positively supported incremental delivery.</div></div>



<div class="wp-block-exco-icon-card exco-icon-card"><div class="icon"><img src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/check-list.svg"/></div><div class="title">Planned &amp; Measured Incremental Delivery Method</div><div class="details">A breakdown of total content (pages) was mapped upfront and content ownership assigned. This gave the team a visual guide of progress and remaining work at all times.

The Intranet site into which the PMF content was published was built early so that draft content could be bought to life in the context of an interactive user driven environment for progressive validation and acceptance.</div></div>



<div class="wp-block-exco-icon-card exco-icon-card"><div class="icon"><img src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/award.svg"/></div><div class="title">Quality Assurance Technique</div><div class="details">Quality was assured using tiered Acceptance Testing. This supported validation and acceptance of the navigation, look and feel, content and user experience within each delivery sprint.</div></div>



<div class="wp-block-exco-icon-card exco-icon-card"><div class="icon"><img src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/directions.svg"/></div><div class="title">Time, Cost and Quality objectives</div><div class="details">The project was delivered within originally planned budget and slightly exceeded the originally intended time frame (15% over). The quality of the PMF solution met and in some areas exceeded the quality criteria set.   The customer (both the PMO and the MRPV User base) was extremely happy with the result. By the end of the project the PMF had become something that people talked about in the corridor, referenced regularly and pointed each other to for information.</div></div>
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<h2>Outcomes</h2>



<p>The project team are proud of what they were able to deliver within the timeframe. For those who contributed content there is a great sense of ownership of the PMF and content owners continue to refine content based on feedback from users and changes in the operating environment. PMF elevated the profile of some content owners across MRPV and have enabled them to position as clear Subject Matter Experts within the organisation.</p>



<p>The project team gained a sense of trust in working collaboratively with an external consulting group to the benefit of the organisation. This has translated to additional follow on work with other consultants since.</p>



<p>The project team have continued to use tools such as planner boards and run rate charts as techniques for planning and measuring delivery.</p>



<p>Ultimately, the project team, through robust consultation across multiple MRPV functional areas and external Departments, delivered an output that places best practice project management at the front and centre of objectives. This has left the project team feeling exceptionally rewarded.</p>



<p>MRPV now has a clear delivery approach. It is documented and presented in an interactive Intranet Site that enables users to find the information they need, when they need it. New starters, consultants and short term contractors have a place to get an overview of MRPV’s approach to project delivery.</p>



<p>MRPV now initiate and deliver projects in a consistent fashion. Different areas of the organisation understand what each other do better than they did before PMF.</p>



<p>This clarity and consistency enables a degree of repeatability in MRPVs goal to achieve excellence in delivery.</p>



<p>The project was seen as a success because it delivered exactly what was expected. The outcome has created interest within the organisation and outside the organisation and it is perceived to have delivered ongoing operational benefit to MRPV. &nbsp;</p>



<p>Furthermore the platform has allowed for the effective release of further innovations in ways of transforming delivery with the subsequent release of the Program Delivery approach (PDA) which targets improvements not just in program delivery but in the evolution of industries that deliver major infrastructure projects.</p>


bolte

MRPV Project Management Framework


<p>Exco Partners have experience in the development of IT Strategy spanning the multiple dimensions of an IT operation including: </p>



<ul><li>Operating model design</li><li>Architecture roadmap</li><li>Service Management</li><li>Capability modelling, benchmarking and uplift</li><li>Organisation design</li><li>Governance and Enterprise Portfolio Management</li><li>Ways of Working</li></ul>



<p>As an example, Exco Partners have recently work with a global Health Insurer and market leader in Australia.&nbsp; The organisation has over 20,000 employees and offers spanning Health Insurance, Aged Care, Dental, Optical and Government services.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>A CIO driven imperative was to modernize their technology platform, systems and operating model to deliver scalability, and embrace new ways of working.&nbsp; Exco Partners led the delivery of the IT strategy which included: </p>



<ul><li>An IT Strategy that was focused on end-to-end enterprise outcomes </li><li>A prioritized roadmap centered on systems, processes and people </li><li>Establishing pro-active senior business partnering roles for each business unit&nbsp; </li><li>Creating a service catalogue and business driven service levels </li><li>Transformation away from on-premise systems to SaaS and cloud-based solutions </li><li>Early adoption of Agile and DevOps based ways of working for targeted areas and projects</li><li>Employee engagement, training and cross skilling opportunities.&nbsp; This led to the highest employee engagement scores at the organisation</li></ul>


chess

Health Insurer IT Strategy


<p>Exco Partners was engaged to implement a customer engagement initiative targeting an immersive and personalised online channel experience for a large international automotive replacement parts organisation.</p>



<p>Data analysis identified a propensity for members to purchase once for a specific need. The hypothesis was that harnessing all of the business&#8217;s vehicle data and matching it to a consumer&#8217;s&nbsp;registration, would allow a car enthusiast could engage in their B2C channel with products, offers and insights&nbsp;tailored to their specific vehicle.&nbsp; It was felt that this would have an immediate impact on sales as well as brand loyalty (shown in&nbsp;repeat visits to the online store).</p>



<h3>Our method</h3>



<p>Purchase data was gathered and analyzed to understand the size and scale of the opportunity (to inform a business case) and to baseline current ‘repeat’ buying by dimension (product, location, car manufacturer and vehicle model) and confirm the viability for using customer registration information in the way needed to provide an accurate result.</p>



<p>The user journey was assessed as part of the overall design and analysis process.&nbsp; The analysis helped to understand that the technology capability needed to deliver the required experience.</p>



<p>The data analysis continued after launch to gain further insight and to particularly cater for quality and error handling scenarios.</p>



<p>For example, the data analysis identified a scenario where “vehicle registration” errors would occur and prevent the consumer for accessing the correct vehicle information and parts, resulting in bounces and/or abandoned carts.</p>



<p>The analysis lead to the implementation of a change to allow for a consumer to identify the issue which would be flagged with a member of customer service for follow up and resolution prior to their next visit to the site.</p>



<p>Whilst the lower-level customer considerations were included as above, the secondary “customer” of a partner wishing to use this service were also considered.&nbsp; In this case security considerations were applied as well as identifying which data a partner had access to (by level) and how they would seamlessly incorporate the API into their technology stack were also part of the architecture.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Within 3 months of first release a total of 10 partners had been able to incorporate the service with little to no technical code changes or deployments needed.&nbsp; This frictionless architecture was a core component of the overall benefit of the solution.</p>



<p>From the initial data analysis insight, Exco Partners defined the user stories, gathered and agreed the specific business requirements from Business, Security, Data and Technology stakeholders, and then designed the technical solution and led the development team to build the API solution.</p>



<h3>The outcome</h3>



<p>Since go-live, the business has seen a significant improvement in ‘repeat’ buying and other identified metrics of loyalty program member aligned purchases as well as an overall increase in the revenue generation of the B2C channel (measured before and after the release of this feature).&nbsp; Additionally, channel partnerships have been established with product suppliers who are utilising this customer to registration API embedded in their own go-to-market channels resulting in more product sales and stronger, more aligned industry partnership models.</p>


car-sunset

Automotive Data Strategy, Analytics & Insight


<p>Founded by the Victorian government’s Future Farming Strategy the National Centre for Farmer Health (NCFH) is an organisation focused on the education, research and innovation into health, wellbeing and safety of farmers and rural communities.</p>



<p>In 2018, farms accounted for 23% of worker fatalities in Australia, yet the agriculture industry made up only 2.3% of the workforce (1).</p>



<p>NCFH had an incredible asset of information, research, and data on farming health, yet a challenge remained:</p>



<ul><li>How can these “hard to reach” community groups be better engaged to build awareness of farming hazards and to create a sustained, long-term and positive impact</li><li>How can the information, research and data be best presented in a way the is consumable, discoverable and in a medium that is useful to the community to utilise? </li></ul>



<p>Exco Partners was engaged by the National Centre for Farmer Health to address these challenges. Specifically, to uncover better ways to reach and engage with farming communities, and to develop new ways to interact with these groups to support long-term and sustainable benefit.</p>



<p>A project was established with the following objectives:</p>



<ul><li>Enable further reach and engagement with the clinical, educational, research and&nbsp;farming communities</li><li>Develop new ways to create a long-term connection with the above user groups</li><li>Increase the awareness of the NCFH and the hazards present in farming</li><li>Increase the NCFH ability to contribute to the positive health, wellbeing and safety, of farming and regional communities across Australia and internationally.</li></ul>



<p>The project was approached with three key phases drawing on Exco Partner’s CoreMethods™ methodology. Each phase was designed to address key aspects of the project and drew on specific skills across a combined Exco Partners and NCFH team. The first phase, Discovery, focused on customer research, stakeholder engagement, visual design, and planning. The second phase, Delivery, focused on software development and delivering the key features/functions as defined during the Discovery. The final phase, Launch, completed launch activities, released the finished project deliverables to the public and supported the release through the initial stages of user uptake.</p>



<div class="wp-block-exco-flex-container exco-flex-block container-fluid">
<div class="wp-block-exco-icon-card exco-icon-card" data-sal="slide-up" data-sal-duration="1000"><div class="icon"><img src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/light-bulb.svg"/></div><div class="title">Discovery</div><div class="details">Mobilisation and project initiation. Planning, review existing artefacts, user research and analysis and visual design.
</div></div>



<div class="wp-block-exco-icon-card exco-icon-card" data-sal="slide-up" data-sal-duration="1000"><div class="icon"><img src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/tools.svg"/></div><div class="title">Delivery</div><div class="details">Agile software build phase to deliver discovery scope.

Output of this phase will be a tested and release ready software package and completion of business readiness activities such as training.

</div></div>



<div class="wp-block-exco-icon-card exco-icon-card" data-sal="slide-up" data-sal-duration="1000"><div class="icon"><img src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/rocket.svg"/></div><div class="title">Launch</div><div class="details">Business readiness, software released into production and Hyper-care activities to support business change and hand-over to lifetime support.</div></div>
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<p>A “Human Centred Design” approach was used as the centre piece of Discovery activities. Human Centred Design is a method of problem solving and design that seeks to develop solutions that promote consideration of a human perspective. This method was particularly suited to the project as the core outcomes were human related, specifically regarding the health, wellbeing, and safety of farming and regional communities.</p>



<p>To better understand the problem space, the Exco Partners Customer Experience team started with a focused period of heuristic review of existing data and initiated a set of user research.</p>



<p>Exco Partners engaged a user stakeholder group comprising of farmers, industry body representatives, Deakin University, Agriculture Victoria, DHHS and health professionals, running a series of workshops, forums and interviews to understand the problem space. The insight from this stakeholder group informed a series of initiatives including:</p>



<ul><li>Development of a digital Health and Wellbeing Application, the Farmer HAT</li><li>A new Farmer Health Website, focusing on awareness, engagement, discovery and accessibility of health wellbeing and safety information.</li></ul>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/farmer-hat-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-2404" width="700" srcset="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/farmer-hat-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/farmer-hat-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/farmer-hat-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/farmer-hat-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/farmer-hat.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure></div>



<p>The Delivery phase proceeded for the Farmer Health Website and Farmer HAT product. The Delivery phase used a “Scrum” based framework for managing the software development activities. The Scrum framework is a method for breaking down large complex problems to smaller units of work that can be managed and delivered iteratively. Scrum is largely associated with “Agile” software development practices which is a method for managing software projects that promotes collaboration and flexibility over more rigid methods of traditional project management.</p>



<p>The delivery phase was structured in a series of two-week “Sprints”. Each Sprint was planned to focus on a particular set of features as were described in the User Stories. In each sprint, the User Stories in focus would progress individually through the process, as shown in the User Story Life-cycle diagram below, to progressively detail, build and test the required software.</p>



<p>The project team, comprising a blend of Exco Partners and NCFH staff, would meet each morning via video call in a “Stand-up” meeting to review the progress of the previous day, plan for the next activities and discuss challenges preventing progress. A “Kanban” was used to monitor the status of each User Story through the delivery process. A Kanban is a visual method for monitoring and managing units of work moving through a process. The Kanban, represented virtually for the project team in the Microsoft DevOps platform, was key to being able to collaborate on the project delivery with the team members needing to work remotely due to COVID.</p>



<p></p>



<p>The NCFH Farmer Health Website and Farmer HAT launched in September 2020 projected to serve over 50 thousand unique users in the first 12 months since launch and over 100 thousand page views.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<ol><li>Safe work Australia. (2017) <em>Traumatic Injury Fatalities database and national Data Set for Compensation-Based Statistics</em>.</li></ol>


digital-product

National Centre for Farmer Health


<p>Are you a mad-hatter service designer? A guru of customer experience? Are you just a punter wanting to test out a new way to serve your customers? If you are, you have likely scratched your head with how to truly test your new service ideas before committing too much time and energy it making it real.</p>



<p>Sure, you can send out a survey to your customers to get some valuable insight, but that boring right; for you and your customers! A survey can also send you down the wrong path as people will often &#8216;act&#8217; differently in real life than what they might describe in an idealised survey answer.</p>



<p>Why not create something fun for your customers and test your services and experiences in real-life scenarios. A choose-your-own-adventure, if you will. Your customers can click through some real-life scenarios, choosing the paths they would like to take while you gain valuable insight and data from the journey they take.</p>



<p></p>



<div class="wp-block-exco-hero-content exco-hero-content container-fluid secondary">
<h3>Get in touch</h3>



<p>Want to find out more? Send us a message and discuss our customers&#8217; success in using a choose-your-own-adventure style scenario testing method.</p>



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<div class="wp-block-button"><a class="wp-block-button__link" href="/contact" rel="">Contact Us</a></div>
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adventure

Designing and Testing Services


<p>Effective Portfolio, Program and Project Offices provide significant benefits through leadership, clarity, focus and alignment. Good ones will increase efficiency, deter missteps and support the organisation to deliver change in a calm and fit for purpose manner. They will also enable a balance of stability and adaptability consistent with the organisation’s way of working and market environment.</p>



<p>Strong offices are able to provide support and add value in environments that leverage traditional and contemporary delivery practices and play a key role in helping organisations transform they way they work. We are observing more organisations that are employing multiple modes of delivery and relying more heavily on the enterprise office to assist in the alignment of the modes. &nbsp;</p>



<p>Exco Partners are experts in Portfolio, Program and Project Offices and have been helping organisations to define and uplift offices for over fourteen years. We define and implement flexible offices that align to an organisation&#8217;s current and intended way of working. Our models balance support and assurance to provide confidence, transparency and visibility of future forecasts. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>Our team have a depth of experience across a range of offices from enterprise portfolio offices to concentrated large project offices. We leverage our breadth of existing models, best practice and intellectual property that has been refined over the past fourteen years. Our team brings a robust methodology for not only defining a fit for purpose office framework, but also managing organisational change to enable uplifting capability and embedding new ways of working.</p>



<p>A change in office framework and approach often leads to a need for change in the project management system (PPM) technology. We are also skilled in the leadership, management and delivery of the PPM technology implementation. As an example of our work, we assisted a new strategically important and fast moving, Government entity with the design and definition of their Program Office and delivery framework. The implemented model immediately helped the organisation to deliver the initial set of pilot projects and identify opportunities to adapt and adjust the delivery model and requisite legislative powers.</p>


swing-bridge-bush

PMO Implementation


<p>Exco Partners was engaged by a Victorian Government Department review the Procurement and uplift the approach and detail in order to support more effective delivery and continuous improvement.</p>



<p>The review and subsequent implementation of the framework will enable greater consistency through the refinement of accessible process diagrams and workflows to guide detailed feasibility, engineering and design, procurement and delivery stages of major road projects.</p>



<p>The engagement aimed to identify, and where possible quantify, the specific process areas that have been impacted by changes to the procurement framework, benchmark the current state with other major infrastructure organisations operating within the same procurement framework, and identify potential process changes to improve process efficiency and effectiveness. The engaged sourced a significant data sample of completed procurement requests, developed and analysed the data to inform the design of the to be process models.<br></p>



<p>The engagement then moved to the implementation of the initial recommendations, specifically a fit for purpose to-be process model designed to reduce the number and frequency of non-conforming procurement requests, make the procurement process (regardless of procurement type) easier to consume, provide greater visibility of the in-flight procurement requests, and define a consistent way of working for the businesses procurement team.</p>



<p>The engagement included the development of an interim automated solution (share-point) to drive earlier stakeholder engagement, and consistent procurement advice to reduce the ‘time to procure<br>metric’.</p>



<h3>Approach</h3>



<p>The DMAIC six sigma approach was use to complete the engagement, as follows:</p>



<div class="wp-block-exco-flex-container exco-flex-block container-fluid">
<div class="wp-block-exco-icon-card exco-icon-card" data-sal="slide-up" data-sal-duration="1000"><div class="icon"><img src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/pencil-ruler.svg"/></div><div class="title">Define</div><div class="details">The existing process was not well defined. The engagement documented the current
business practices and compared them to the stated procurement framework (owned by the MTIA).</div></div>



<div class="wp-block-exco-icon-card exco-icon-card" data-sal="slide-up" data-sal-duration="1000"><div class="icon"><img src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/scales.svg"/></div><div class="title">Measure</div><div class="details">A large sample of 1100+ completed procurements was undertaken to understand the
magnitude of the problem. A clear insight was the effort/value relationship on procurement activity.</div></div>



<div class="wp-block-exco-icon-card exco-icon-card" data-sal="slide-up" data-sal-duration="1000"><div class="icon"><img src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/magnifying-glass.svg"/></div><div class="title">Analyse</div><div class="details">The analysis of the as-is process (via a series of quick start workshops), identified areas
of non-alignment with the MTIA and helped prioritise to-be changes</div></div>



<div class="wp-block-exco-icon-card exco-icon-card" data-sal="slide-up" data-sal-duration="1000"><div class="icon"><img src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/tools.svg"/></div><div class="title">Improve</div><div class="details">The as-is process was then reviewed via 3 difference lenses. The customer, the
approver and the MRPV procurement team to identify and prioritise the improvement areas</div></div>



<div class="wp-block-exco-icon-card exco-icon-card" data-sal="slide-up" data-sal-duration="1000"><div class="icon"><img src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/award.svg"/></div><div class="title">Control</div><div class="details">In order to ensure uptake of the to-be process (from all stakeholder groups) a detailed
‘playbook’ for the procurement was developed referencing the new automated solution (also
developed).</div></div>
</div>



<h3><br><strong>Governance</strong></h3>



<p><br>The overall engagement was managed by an allocated Exco Partner – who was responsible for<br>service delivery and commercial oversight.<br>Skills, capabilities &amp; systems</p>



<ul><li>Development and management of tendering strategies addressing good commercial and<br>government policy and practice</li><li>Development of project tender documentation, including Invitations for Expression of Interest,<br>Requests for Proposals, Tenders and/or Quotes, Project Briefs and Service Agreements,<br>incorporating:<ul><li>Clear and measurable output specifications,</li><li>Performance standards and performance management requirements</li></ul></li><li>Advice on and/or management of Tender processes including:<ul><li>Tender processes and evaluations (may include interactive tender processes and<br>workshops)</li></ul></li></ul>



<h3>Outcomes</h3>



<p><strong>The outcomes of the engagement:</strong></p>



<ul><li>A clear, concise, consistent process for procurement regardless of type (new,<br>variation or exemption) or value (less than or greater than $250k)</li><li>A vastly improved customer experience for the departments business. An easier to consume<br>process, and an automated procurement initiation document (PID) that improves the time taken<br>to seek approval and provides visibility on the status of the procurement activity.</li><li>A significant improvement in the effectiveness and efficiency of the departments procurement<br>team’s output. More proactive advice as opposed to reactive execution (as was the case before<br>this change)</li><li>A closer alignment of the departments process with the overarching MTIA procurement framework with<br>the express purpose of reducing the incidents of non-conforming procurement.</li></ul>



<p><br><strong>The performance of the engagement:</strong><br>This engagement was impacted by a number of business issues that required<br>changes to the initial scope, schedule, and timeframes of delivery (the introduction of new<br>stakeholders and delays to the Sharepoint development environment being two issues that required<br>changes to the priority and sequencing of deliverables). The engagement was completed within the agreed timeframes and within the agreed commercial construct to a very high quality standard.</p>



<p>As a value-add the Exco team have agreed to recurring reviews (initially fortnightly and then<br>monthly) to ensure the new process is embedded, review the performance of the automated solution<br>and review the data associated with team performance to ensure it is delivering as expected.</p>


melbourne-roads

Victorian Government Procurement Process Design


<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has changed a lot of things. Things that once felt certain, no longer are. As we learn to work with this uncertainty, the only real certainty is that we can expect ongoing change. An organisations ability to work with this uncertainty as they recover and grow may be the difference between folding, surviving or thriving.</p>



<p>One of the changes we expect to see is less funding for projects than has previously been available. Organisations that have been able to fund a broad range of projects in the past will need to be more selective and laser focussed on those that deliver strategic benefit and shareholder value. Additionally, organisations need the ability to react and adapt to ongoing changes in order to compete.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Exco Partners are experts in Portfolio Management. We define and implement flexible portfolio planning and capital management models that align to an organisation’s way of working. We leverage the best of Lean Portfolio Management, traditional portfolio planning and sound financial and resource planning principles. Our approach enables an effective balance of stability and adaptability. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>Our team have a depth of experience across strategic planning, portfolio management, finance operating models and organisational model design with a robust methodology for managing organisational change covering aspects of building awareness and advocacy to uplifting capability and embedding new ways of working.</p>



<p>We are also skilled in the leadership, management and delivery of the portfolio management technology implementation.</p>



<p>As an example of our work, we assisted a pre-eminent Suicide Prevention- Not for Profit organisation to reimagine their approach to Portfolio Management. In order to support a revised operating model, a future proposed way of working and a need to be more adaptable, we guided the organisation through a significant re-design and definition of their Portfolio Management Framework. This aligned with during the first wave of COVID-19 and the need for the organisation to promptly address changes in funding sources and mix. &nbsp;</p>



<div class="wp-block-exco-flex-container exco-flex-block container-fluid" data-sal="slide-up" data-sal-duration="1000">
<div class="wp-block-exco-icon-card exco-icon-card" data-sal="slide-up" data-sal-duration="1000"><div class="icon"><img src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/scales.svg"/></div><div class="title">Lean Portfolio Management</div></div>



<div class="wp-block-exco-icon-card exco-icon-card" data-sal="slide-up" data-sal-duration="1000"><div class="icon"><img src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/rocket.svg"/></div><div class="title">Agile Delivery</div></div>



<div class="wp-block-exco-icon-card exco-icon-card" data-sal="slide-up" data-sal-duration="1000"><div class="icon"><img src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/team.svg"/></div><div class="title">New Ways of Working</div></div>
</div>



<p>The implemented model leverages principles of Lean Portfolio Management and immediately helped the organisation to adapt to changes in the environment, funding arrangements and services. It continues to support the organisation to incrementally review and refine their near-term portfolio of work at regular intervals whilst not losing sight of their overall strategic commitment.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The model, processes and planning behaviours is also proving successful in supporting the organisations transition towards project delivery with increased agility. &nbsp;</p>


friends

Lean Portfolio Management in Not-for-profit


<p>Exco Partners were engaged to design the User Experience of a product for the management, engagement and sharing of information across Melbourne University&#8217;s multi-billion-dollar research capability. The objective was to design a tool to increase user engagement, compliance to costing policy and greater transparency and collaboration.</p>



<p>The objectives of the project were to deliver a tool to simplify and better manage the budgeting and costing process for research work at the University. Given the scale of research at the university, even small savings in effort or cost overruns had the potential to save the University millions of dollars per year.</p>



<p>The project was initiated with series of user journey-based workshops to understand the key flows, transactions and use cases for the system.</p>



<p>Desktop research followed to further explore the problem space and draw on inspiration from other similar concepts.</p>



<div class="wp-container-4 wp-block-columns">
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/uom-ant-workshop-1024x642.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-2467" width="400" srcset="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/uom-ant-workshop-1024x642.jpg 1024w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/uom-ant-workshop-300x188.jpg 300w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/uom-ant-workshop-768x481.jpg 768w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/uom-ant-workshop-800x501.jpg 800w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/uom-ant-workshop.jpg 1141w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/uom-research.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-2469" width="300" srcset="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/uom-research.jpg 294w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/uom-research-285x300.jpg 285w" sizes="(max-width: 294px) 100vw, 294px" /></figure>
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</div>



<p>A low fidelity Figma based wireframe was developed to validate the concepts with key stakeholder groups. Some examples below:</p>



<div class="wp-container-7 wp-block-columns">
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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" width="404" height="228" src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/uom-low-fi-2.png" alt="" class="wp-image-2471" srcset="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/uom-low-fi-2.png 404w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/uom-low-fi-2-300x169.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 404px) 100vw, 404px" /></figure>
</div>



<div class="wp-container-6 wp-block-column">
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/uom-low-fi.svg" alt="" class="wp-image-2473" width="400"/></figure>
</div>
</div>



<p>Based on the initial user feedback, the low fidelity wireframes were then elaborated to build out a high-fidelity clickable prototype, again using Figma. This prototype was tested with end-users to further validate the concepts.</p>



<p>An example of the prototype output is shown below:</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/uom-hi-fi-1024x769.png" alt="" class="wp-image-2475" width="600" srcset="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/uom-hi-fi-1024x769.png 1024w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/uom-hi-fi-300x225.png 300w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/uom-hi-fi-768x577.png 768w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/uom-hi-fi-1536x1154.png 1536w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/uom-hi-fi-1400x1052.png 1400w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/uom-hi-fi-800x600.png 800w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/uom-hi-fi.png 1677w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure></div>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img src="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/mu-budget-app-1024x768.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1783" width="600" srcset="https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/mu-budget-app-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/mu-budget-app-300x225.jpg 300w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/mu-budget-app-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/mu-budget-app-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cms.excopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/mu-budget-app.jpg 1400w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure></div>


library-shelves

Melbourne University research experience design


<p>The benefits that are available for an organisation through simplifying, organising, automating and re-imagining its finance operation can be enormous. More than simply removing cost, the benefits can span all aspects of the business from improving customer experiences to improving cash collection, reporting and forecasting, enabling further opportunity for strategic investment and growth.</p>



<p>Exco Partners are experts in transforming finance operations. We have a refined and structured Service Design based approach to re-engineering and imagining all aspects of finance processs including Order-to-cash, Produce-to-pay, Record-to-report and more. This approach is important as it is at this stage when true innovation and transformational decision making happens. We have seen too often that simply replacing the technology and systems will simply result in the as-is being rebuilt. Addressing this, we have spent considerable time establishing a strong practice for the people and process design phase of transformational change.</p>



<p>Our team have a depth of experience across finance operating models and organisational model design with a robust methodology for managing organisational change covering aspects of building awareness and advocacy to uplifting capability and embedding new ways of working. </p>



<p>We are also skilled in the leadership, management and delivery of the technology implementation, often a significant component of a finance transformation.</p>



<p>As an example of our work, we are leading a major financial transformation with the Nine Entertainment media group. The transformation will deliver benefits across all operational aspects of financial management within the organization and will deliver transformative change across people, process and technology for the whole group which combines Channel 9 TV Broadcast, Fairfax Print and Digital, Domain, Stan and Macquarie Radio.</p>


video-production

Transforming a finance operation


<p>For an organisation to be able to deliver transformational change, thorough careful consideration and preparation are needed in the design of the change program itself. It is not enough to simply pick a delivery methodology and a technology platform. A successful and truly transformative change program needs as much consideration into the&nbsp;<strong>how</strong>&nbsp;as the&nbsp;<strong>what.</strong>&nbsp;Yet the&nbsp;<strong>how</strong>&nbsp;it is often overlooked or neglected with leaders simple stating &#8220;we will be using agile” or creating an org chart and assuming everyone will just work it out.</p>



<p>We believe the three important design steps for planning a change are the people design, the information design and the interaction design. </p>



<p>Read more about our thinking about designing for change <a href="https://excopartners.com/2020/04/22/designing-a-transformational-change">here</a>.</p>


Portfolio