Unisuper
Accelerates Digital Transformation with Bizzdesign
Accelerates Digital Transformation with Bizzdesign
We were impressed by Bizzdesign: it’s an easy-to-use interface, SaaS platform and intuitive front end for business users. Bizzdesign also helped accelerate deployment by providing training and modeling services. From an enterprise architecture perspective, Bizzdesign ticked all the boxes
Country: Australia
Industry: Investment Banking and Asset Management
Company size: 810 +
Funds Under Management (FUM):approx. AUD $110B
Results:
UniSuper has been the super fund for the higher education and research sectors for almost forty years. However, last year it became a public offer fund and is now open to all Australians. The fund has close to $110B funds under management and 500,000 members. Opening to the public has and will require a significant amount of business and technology change. They used Bizzdesign to gain a comprehensive view of their current and future states to ensure better-informed decision-making to accelerate digital transformation change initiatives.
The fund was already amid its digital transformation initiatives due to major changes in the tertiary education sector through Covid-19 when it opened to the public. As an open fund, they required a new level of agility to increase scale to deliver a better retirement outcome for all their members and the ability to adopt change initiatives quickly.
The enterprise architecture team used homegrown solutions made up of Microsoft Visio, PowerPoint, and other applications stored in different places. This meant they couldn’t analyze data properly within a domain or across domains. To find a single fit-for-purpose tool, the team went through an RFP process and researched the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Architecture tools for a list of the leaders in this space.
Among their requirements were finding a tool to support their Business and Enterprise Architectures. They needed a single repository covering all their domains, including business data, application, technology and security. They wanted to analyze within and across domains and remove departmental silos by shifting from a functional to capabilities view. Insights gained from architectural models (e.g. visualizations or abstractions of the business) needed to support the organization’s digital transformation decision-making.
We’ve had tremendous success in helping organizations across Australia and New Zealand taking advantage of Bizzdesign’s platform to help them effectively execute their digital transformation strategies.
The team chose Bizzdesign’s platform because of its easy-to-use interface, SaaS platform, and intuitive front end for both technical and business users. They approached Aquion, a Bizzdesign distributor, to support the implementation of the enterprise architecture platform. They also opted for Bizzdesign’s Business Value Accelerator package, which included training on ArchiMate and Enterprise Studio to ensure that they could accelerate deployment of the platform.
The team subsequently built two anchor models with Bizzdesign Horizzon: they mapped their applications onto a Business Capability Model and overlayed their systems software onto a Technical Reference Model. They also used scripting and metadata to show additional information for business and technical fit and the Lifecycle Management of the applications and system software.
Additionally, the team utilizes Bizzdesign Horizzon to accelerate business process management integration to monitor, control, refine and improve their business and respond to challenges and opportunities quicker. Bizzdesign’s mapping feature also allows UniSuper to understand knowledge gaps in their business processes, with all information stored in a single, central repository. The team is also using the tool for data governance and mapping and maintaining some of the security patterns that need to be applied to sensitive data.
Supporting digital transformation decision-making
UniSuper is looking to become more agile to enable them to accelerate their digital transformation journey. The insights that they’re gaining from their architectural models also support their informed decision-making process. They are working towards having complete visibility into the impact of their change initiatives and the subsequent cost implications. They always have current state information available at the touch of a button, saving them weeks at the start of any change initiative.
Process simplification opportunities and reduction in waste
Apart from having visibility into their application and technology portfolios, UniSuper can now identify potential investment initiatives and the hotspots they need to focus on as part of building their future state architecture. This is helping them minimize technical debt and manage regret spending.
Collaboration across domains instead of silos
Previously UniSuper couldn’t analyze data within or across domains. Bizzdesign Horizzon has given them the power to build collaboration across domains enabling greater transparency and visualization to see the effects of the changes they’re implementing.
Bridging the gap between business and IT
The team has created a Business Capability Map to link business and IT. The map helps them understand what the organization does and how it functions. The team cites that Capability-based Planning has created alignment between IT and UniSuper’s business strategies.
Improved engagement with the frontline business
Engaging with frontline business units from a business perspective was also key. The team now uses visualization tools to model users’ business processes. This is used by business users in their day-to-day work and for training purposes. Users can easily use the platform’s workflow system to upload content audited by the architectural team.
Businesses need to adapt to change by being flexible. We can’t conduct business transformation if we don’t have the tools and information to make informed decisions. The Bizzdesign tool has allowed us to accelerate our initiatives.
