Fletcher Building(MIS100 2010)

By Jess Meyer | Thursday, May 27 2010

2009 ranking: 6

Senior IS executive: Paul Knight, CIO
Reports to: CFO
Size of IS shop: 130

PCs: 5580
Mobile PCs: 2465
Terminals: 1900
Hand-held devices: 2330
Total screens: 12,275

Industry: Manufacturing
PC environment: Windows XP, Vista; Dell
Server environment: HP, IBM, Dell, Microsoft, Unix, Linux
DBMS: SQL, Oracle, Lotus, DB2
Address: 810 Great South Road, Penrose, Auckland
Website: www.fletcherbuilding.co.nz
Key IS projects this year: E-commerce; CRM for New Zealand; ERP refresh, e-commerce, desktop upgrade for Australia; ERP refresh, e-commerce for the rest of the world.

Improving customer engagement will be key for the company over the next 12 months, as Fletcher Building strives to improve interaction with customers through use of ICT and other measures, explains CIO Paul Knight. As part of this improvement of customer engagement, Fletcher Building will continue to invest in multiple technological areas, with particular focus on VoIP, wireless, unified communications, mobility, cloud computing/SaaS, virtualisation, business intelligence, ERP, CRM, e-business solutions and business continuity/disaster recovery. Investments in financial management information systems have been completed for the time being.

Key IT projects this year, in terms of budget and complexity, will be a CRM refresh and e-commerce implementation in New Zealand, with an ERP refresh, e-commerce investment and desktop upgrades planned for Australia. Other global offices will also benefit from ERP refresh and e-commerce investment.

The FB management and board completed financial planning and budgeting for the coming year in early April, and chief executive Jonathan Ling told a trans-Tasman business circle in Auckland in late March that New Zealand firms were in a better position to maximise earnings, as reported by Business Day, as “they had undergone extensive restructuring and reworking of business models to adapt to the new environment”.

The organisation has done away with outdated equipment to maintain a strong level of competitiveness, and has discussed plans to reinvest in new technology as the ANZ and global markets recover. Golden Bay Cement, a subsidiary of the FB group, has opened a $45 million service centre at Auckland’s Bledisloe Wharf, more than doubling storage and discharge capacity through flat-store technology. "This facility secures our position in the key Auckland market for at least the next 35 years. We are uniquely positioned to increase our levels of customer service in a market that is going to see a high level of market growth, particularly in the infrastructure sector, out in to the future," said chief executive for FB’s building infrastructure division, Mark Binns, via a media release.

Effective cost management and careful evaluation of ROI will remain critical to Fletcher Building this year and into 2011, which is expected to benefit the company in the long term. Consolidation and strategic acquisitions are also being considered.