Andrew Colley | August 12, 2008
ENERGY Australia has restructured its information technology divisions as it cranks up its operations to deliver a program of capital works valued at $8.6 billion.
The restructuring will create a single chain of command for the company's IT systems, leading to the desk of the energy utility's chief information officer, Sharon Kennedy.
Energy Australia spokesman Anthony O'Brien said the company was not planning redundancies as part of the restructuring.
However, he confirmed that two senior executives overseeing affected divisions had resigned since the restructuring was announced last Tuesday.
John Breen and Malcolm Barnes, respectively the former heads of the utility's business and infrastructure and business and technology divisions, had been asked to remain with the company but chose to leave instead.
Energy Australia's IT services arm will be merged into the utility's IT strategy, architecture and governance division, overseen by Ms Kennedy from within the finance division.
Energy Australia's IT services arm is embedded in the shared services division.
"It's making sure our support areas such as IT are sitting in one area accountable to one part of the business and they can support what our business needs, particularly when we're moving into such a large program of work.
"You want your key areas, under the control of one person, to make sure they're working as effectively as possible," Mr O'Brien said.
Energy Australia was unable to forsee whether it would pursue redundancies in three to six months. Under NSW legislation to facilitate the state's planned $9.6 billion sale of the utility's retail arm, employees offered positions in the new entity will qualify for a one-off transfer payment.
Mr O'Brien said the employees transferred from the shared services operations to the newly merged division would continue to qualify for the payment.
The reorganisation of Energy Australia's IT divisions has been pursued at a time when the company is preparing for a major IT spending program.
Energy Australia has forecast that it will spend $240 million upgrading and its IT infrastructure between 2009 and 2014.
The program was devised following an extensive reviewing of the utility's software and systems.
The plan, outlined the utility's regulatory proposal lodged with the Australian Energy Regulator, flagged a company-wide refresh of the company's current IT systems and software.
"Each system has been assessed for current and future requirements including operating cost components.
"The strategy takes account of like for like replacement for those applications that have ongoing use and scopes new initiatives that are planned for the 2009-14 period," Energy Australia wrote in its proposal to the regulator.
A new call centre and an integrated asset management system were identified as crucial components of the IT cap-ex program. In its submission, it told the regulator that the new data centre "will be a critical component of Energy Australia's IT infrastructure for the next generation of IT systems and will improve data security in line with modern standards".
It also plans to make the company's systems more mobile in order to make its software and services available to field staff.
Energy Australia has set itself a goal to complete the restructure by September 1.