Jade Software invited media and analysts to a briefing with its Australian GM, Craig Beveridge, its New Zealand based CIO, John Ascroft, and customer Sarah Cummings, general manager m- development of ClearView Wealth.
It was my first exposure to New Zealand based Jade Software and it was an eye-opener – our cousins from “across the ditch” have been hitting some serious goals since 1978 including its Master Terminal Operating system that is almost the gold standard in 70 ports for mixed cargo, roll-on/off and container terminals around the world.
Jade has also had success by developing its JADE software development and deployment platform first released in 1996. It develops digital and enterprise products primarily for the utilities and finance sectors.
Its client, ASX listed ClearView started out as NRMA Life in 1976. Today it is a leading wealth provider offering quality financial advice and a portfolio of insurance and investment solutions. It insures “only people.”
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Beveridge started by saying there was “room on the runway for disruption” and Ascroft added “and design thinking.” After a brief introduction focusing on its 250 staff and 13 offices in eight countries, we got down to the raison d'être.
“As a nearly 40-year-old company, we have had to continually reinvent ourselves. Today software is not so much about code as leading from a customer experience (CX) view, and coding becomes an implementation detail. Innovation, CX, easy to use, creativity, and a focus on outcomes is what modern software is about. Code cutting is a commodity.”
“Jade has become a trusted partner maintaining a client’s corporate history and frankly taking the nightmares out of new things like APIs and Fintech.”
Cummings said ClearView was attracted to Jade for those reasons and its one of the few “development” companies it allows inside the organisation. “We get access to people who know our business, ascribe to our aims, and they often know more than we do [about our systems].”
“Jade suggests what will deliver the best business outcomes – value first, and facilitates more meaningful discussions.”
Ascroft has been around the software traps for longer than most can remember. But his views on agility, adaptability – business transformation - such as failing fast, failing often and taking risks are right up there with leading edge thinking. His comments are paraphrased.
Businesses need to understand the integrated and holistic approach that is required to successfully implement a digital business model. There are many agencies and integrators that claim to help businesses on their digital journey, often simply add to the confusion and this is a pitfall business need to avoid. Digital agencies offer beautiful, yet often unfunctional mobile applications, while systems integrators cobble together core enterprise applications without the presentation of usable data.
Businesses also need to avoid the trap of treating their transformation as a series of digital projects, adding an app or new functionality. This won’t address the purpose at the heart of a digital business which is creating an agile and responsive service that can transform as customers’ needs change.
A true digital business model requires an organisation to seamlessly connect mobile applications and websites to a complicated collection of legacy systems and applications along with new repositories of information, like Twitter and Facebook, none of which were originally designed to work together.
Digital business models require a new way of thinking, new relationships throughout the organisation, and new processes to support a more connected and engaged consumer relationship. The customer experience has now become the most important focus within a company.
50% of businesses expect to transform, at some level, into a digital business by the end of 2016. Organisations are finding they don’t have the skills to manage this transition, largely due to lag as businesses fill roles that never used to exist, like data scientists, hi-tech developers and digital managers.
The question for a lot of companies is how to successfully integrate these new skills, and a new customer-first mindset, into the way they operate. As John says, they need to "avoid the trap of treating their transformation as a series of digital projects.
Many approaches can stimulate creative thinking: We’ve held workshops with the Elam School of Fine Arts, pairing technology people with dancers and sculptors to explore what creative thinking is and how it can be applied in the business environment.
By learning how to incorporate creative thinking with the typical analytical method, staff can approach an issue from a different and fresh angle, leading to more innovation and better end-user experiences.
While the idea of incorporating creativity into the business process can encounter resistance from within an organisation, the results speak for themselves. When combined with an integrated approach, the required skills and leadership support, businesses can grow their customer base, more effectively capitalise on gaps in the market and reduce operating costs, all while generating additional revenue.
Conclusion
As it was my first exposure to Jade, I can say that it seems to be a leading edge developer taking a different tack – becoming business partners and advisers and delivering outcomes.
Beveridge finished by saying that it was experiencing double-digit growth in Australia and “we are hiring.”