About Powerhouse
Located in Sydney is the Powerhouse, which sits at the intersection of the arts, design, science and technology, and plays a critical role in engaging communities with contemporary ideas and issues. Powerhouse is Australia's largest museum group and is the custodian to more than half a million objects of national and international significance and is considered one of the finest and most diverse collections in Australia.
Powerhouse were in the final stages of implementing the NSW Government Process and Technology Harmonisation (PaTH) ERP program and concurrently were seeking to further elevate the finance function with a state-of-the-art, contemporary, financial planning solution. The platform would enable effective strategic, project, workforce and business operational planning, performance management, analysis and insight generation as the organisation was undergoing transformative change through their renewal program – including the new purpose-built Powerhouse Parramatta and the revitalisation of Powerhouse Ultimo.
The Problem to Solve
Powerhouse is undergoing a renewal program with Powerhouse Parramatta, one of the most significant new museum projects in the world which will be the first major cultural institution in Western Sydney. In addition, Powerhouse Ultimo is undergoing a revitalisation to deliver expanded museum exhibition and learning spaces within a new dynamic creative industries precinct for Sydney.
During this period of significant and rapid transformation, Powerhouse has been one of many NSW Government entities to migrate to MyWorkZone – a unified SAP S/4 HANA solution, delivered by the NSW Government 'PaTH' program.
Recently Greg Johnson was appointed as Director, Finance with a focus on modernising the finance function ahead of these milestones, which would be addressed through a system and capability uplift to effectively manage these programs of work. However, uplifting the maturity of the Finance function needed to be promptly actioned within tight timeframes and budget constraints.
"We needed to assess, select, design and implement a Finance & Planning solution within six months to meet our program commitments. Furthermore, we had to quickly and easily develop budgets and improve our forecasting capability to ensure our program finances are being planned and managed effectively. In addition, it was critical to de-risk the impact of the PaTH implementation by ensuring we were able to bring data from our legacy ERP system together with data from our new ERP (MyWorkZone) so insights could be quickly developed to inform decision-making and targeted timelines remains on-track."
Greg JohnsonFinance Director, PowerhousePowerhouse sought expertise from an experienced Systems Integrator to support the development of a high-level system design and implementation, in addition to an understanding the nuances of NSW government finance reporting requirements, including reporting to NSW Treasury via their PRIME solution.
Powerhouse put to market an accelerated competitive process to seek a partner to assist. Decision Inc. Australia was selected for the project as they demonstrated extensive experience meeting tight deadlines and implementing similar programs to assist government departments while undergoing a PaTH program.
"The challenging timeframes and conditions were understood from the first engagement with them, and we went through the process, along with our FP&A platform partner Workday, fully aware of the critical nature of the project. But once we were selected, we were able to hit the ground running."
Tony ButlerManaging Director for Decision Inc. Australia
