Pervasive -- there is a lot of technology out of the remit of the IT department... e.g. Building information systems, monitoring (e.g. doors and air-conditioning) systems, security systems

We are the experts with technology -- we could help more with the asset development areas, help them understand what they are purchasing (e.g. the wifi at whetherill park).. should be moving into areas such as air con and other building plant.

If we get ahead of the game on this then we'll have a mass of information that we can use to make our asset development and management more efficient (e.g. at LS the planned maintenance cycles lengthened because we understood what the right level of maintenance was -- it saved millions)

VCAD came out more than 2 years ago, RL unit assessment form last year

Platforms are good -- Westfield are only developing apps using the same platform as VCAD. RL forms is built using .net which we have skills in.

What we've built has been well received -- VCAD demonstrated to retailers that we were a technically advanced company but there was no follow up. Later editions mainly overcame limitations in reporting platforms -- just better ways of analysing data

To quote Steve Jobs "customers don't know what they want until you show them"

We should be generating ideas of where we can help end users

Stop recommending that users use JDE -- most of them hate it even after we spent more than $4m on a upgrade. It's not a training issue -- DMS proved that even comprehensive training can't make a turd shine. Siebel is not much better, openUI was supposed to be more user friendly but it didn't work and what worked was poor -- $1.8m for that upgrade.

A successful project is one that delivers business value -- not one delivered on time and on budget. Business value is only delivered when people use systems in the way they were intended.

Hide complexity, provide user friendly screens that are role focussed, not generic.

We have to change our thinking that it's the users fault when they don't follow process... it's because the process or system is wrong.

Think like a commercial software company, if users don't like your systems, or they're too hard, then they'll go elsewhere. Think about "what's in it for them", what motivates them, why they'll want to do what we want them to do.

Work on better ways to collect information -- having a resi salesperson trying to enter data into siebel while a customer is present is ridiculous (and they don't do it)... however using face recognition to identify the customer, and voice interfaces (such as mind meld) to serve up content as a customer is speaking will give the agent more time to sell.

Accept change will happen and be prepared to react -- this will allow systems to improve. Repeat Steve Jobs "users don't know what they want until they see it"

How do we do this? copy the same design methodology that digital agencies use... start getting interested in the latest technologies... think laterally.