Opus International Consultants(MIS100 2009)

By CIO staff | Friday, July 24 2009

2008 ranking: 57

Senior IS executive: Neil Kane, IT manager
Reports to: CFO
Size of IS shop: 35

PCs: 2324
Mobile PCs: 600
Terminals: 150
Hand-held devices: 200
Total screens: 3274

Industry: Business management and scientific services
PC environment: Dell, Windows XP
Server environment: Dell, Linux, Windows
DBMS: Postgres, MySQL, SQL
Address: 100 Willis Street, Wellington
Website: www.opus.co.nz
Key IS projects this year: Telecommunications review.

A strong ICT infrastructure continues to be critical to service delivery and management of Opus International, says IT manager Neil Kane.

From an IT perspective, he says standardised systems and processes are important to help facilitate growth and ease the integration of new business acquisitions.

“Sound, basic systems are essential to allowing our staff to deliver innovative solutions for the thousands of projects we do each year,” says Kane.

ICT budget and project budgets have decreased by more than 10 per cent in 2009, however Opus International is continuing ICT investment in unified communications, VOIP, business continuity and disaster recovery systems.

“Maintaining an up to date, standard desktop configuration, an effective WAN across four countries and 90 sites, good security, reliable back-office systems and effective user support, will continue to absorb most of the IT effort,” says Kane.

While these technologies are expected to deliver business benefits including reduced cost and improved collaboration, implementation and management will continue to be time consuming.

Opus will also continue to invest in engineering applications and to develop more effective ways to use these applications in the delivery of services to clients. Larger and more realistic models of engineering projects, increasing use of 3-D approaches, as well as more dispersed participants in design teams continue to be challenges.

This year, Opus will also focus on routine hardware upgrades and continue to realise the benefits of server virtualisation.