Company: Challenger Financial Services Group Limited, Sydney, New South Wales
Company Description: Challenger Financial Services Group is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.At 30 September 2004, the group’s assets under management and administration totalled $26.72 billion.The company has three core businesses, Challenger Life, Challenger Wholesale Finance and Challenger Wealth Management, all working together to serve the needs of intermediaries and clients.
Nomination Category: Organization Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best MIS & Systems Organization

Nomination Title: Challenger Financial Services IT System Transformation

1. Tell the story about what this nominated organization achieved in the past year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Challenger’s vision was to underpin its diverse offering with a common technology
and distribution base that would allow the company to generate scale benefits
arising from high growth and require relatively low capital expenditure. To achieve
this, Challenger needed efficient administration and service processes, based on
excellent technology.

Challenger's business vision provided the driving force for Derek Goh, Executive
General Manager of IT and Facility Management to set the business on a road of
extreme transformation. An ambitious goal was set - to move the company from
its existing legacy technology platform (Appendix A) to a state of the art platform
(Appendix B) with competitive cost of ownership in just under two years.  The
scale of the transformation, in terms of scope, speed, innovation and lower total
cost of system ownership, was almost unheard of in the Australian financial
services industry at the time.

The Journey

In April 2003, CPH Investment Corp and Challenger International Limited merged to form Challenger Financial Services Group. As part of the merger a new
management team was brought on board and in IT, the team found it had inherited
the fallout of an aggressive acquisition program (some 13 businesses). The
technology base was multi-layered and made up of numerous legacy systems,
none of which were integrated (Appendix A). As a result, the support cost was
running at 80 per cent of IT expenditure and added little, or in most cases, no
value to the competitiveness of the business.

The people

Under the leadership of Derek Goh and a talented team of specialists, an intensive
transformation program was put in place. Not only was an aggressive timeframe
set, but the program included unparalleled innovations such as:
- friendly interface and easy navigation – both contributors to user productivity
- the ability to run all core systems on a single software platform - increasing
resusability and lower total cost of ownership
- functions designed across the board to deliver best practice in administration

The result

A new technology platform was born and installed (Appendix B) in just under the
two-year deadline and with a speed to market unmatched by other Australian
industry players.

Internal feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. The system response has
improved enormously and speed of navigation has allowed Challenger to process
transactions in approx 60-70 per cent of the time it took on legacy systems. In
addition, controls and accuracy of checking have greatly improved due to
developments in the new system structure.

Most importantly, Challenger now has the platform required to effectively execute
its business model.

2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

http://www.challenger.com.au/downLoad/SteviesChallengerAppendixA.pdf

http://www.challenger.com.au/downLoad/SteviesChallengerAppendixB.pdf

http://www.challenger.com.au/downLoad/SteviesChallengerMISmag200410.pdf

http://www.challenger.com.au/downLoad/SteviesChallengerMISmag200403.pdf

3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of this nominated organization:

Mike Tilley, Challenger CEO
Mike Tilley became Group CEO of Challenger in August 2004. Prior to his
appointment, Mr Tilley was Vice-Chairman, Investment Banking Group, JP Morgan and a Director on the Challenger Board. Previous corporate roles include
Chairman, Merrill Lynch (Australia) and principal and managing partner of
Centaurus Corporate Finance.

Derek Goh, Executive General Manager, IT and Facilities Management
Derek Goh has a strong reputation for technology development in financial
services, having developed numerous systems and infrastructure for large and
small businesses in Australia. Mr Goh previously held the position of General
Manager IT for Colonial First State.