eKourier Jan 2014

Preparing Our Infrastructure for the Future FEATURES

Customer Feedback

“Dear Team, Congratulations on providing stellar customer service. I phoned today and Dianne’s assistance in your Customer Care Centre with my enquiry was first class. She also went the extra mile and followed through promptly as promised. Even after I candidly said ‘I called you guys last’; meaning I suspected I could not get a better deal elsewhere! We had a laugh at that, and I was right. As the customer always is hey? Thank you for leaving such an impres- sion on me, in this stressful time of moving and having to deal with many companies customer service for various associ- ated things during a move, Dianne was outstanding to the point it compelled me to recognise it by writing this, which I have not done before.” “Kylie from Browns Plains, kept in touch with me from the very first phone call and after I moved into store. I felt welcomed and not pressured. Kylie is professional, informative, interactive, proactive and in general a very warm friendly person. The storage unit was exactly as described and perfect for my requirements. Very tidy neat establishment. Would recommend to family and friends.” “Robert and Owen at the Klemzig storage centre were friendly and extremely helpful. I really felt reassured knowing that they had covered all bases, including what facilities and equipment is available, security etc. The 40th Birthday special was also a bonus! The cleanliness of the centre is impeccable.” “Absolutely fantastic storage. The people who run the Wanganui storage are so nice, friendly, helpful and efficient. Lovely new storage sheds in a great location. We used the shed as we sold our house so stored our gear while we were building a new one. Thank you.”

K SS has grown exponentially in the last ten years, today we majority own and operate 79 Centres (and counting) compared with 24 in 2003. Our growth is a testament to our people, our brand, vision and strategy, times are good. Growth however has many challenges, particularly when it has been organic for a sustained period of time. From a technology point of view, we need to be thinking five and ten years ahead. Coming back to ‘organic’, this describes precisely the technology infrastructure in place at KSS today and the dilemma of “will it support tomorrow”. Technology infrastructure is many things, most importantly it has become the foundation our systems rely on. To appreciate its significance think about it like you would if you were building a 20 storey building. If you don’t get the concrete and steel right you are in big trouble. With that in mind, rebuilding from the ground up is an enormous task. Ideally you already have the infrastructure in place that considers expansion, risk, scalability, compliance, disaster recovery and so on in the originating design all those years ago. Building on what you have in place ‘today’ isn’t really the best option. You can’t add another storey if the concrete slab and steel won’t support it.

Like anything else in business, ‘change’ presents opportunity, in the case of ‘infrastructure’ that window presented itself through the planned relocation of THQ to Macquarie Park in 2014. Now, it would have been far simpler to just relocate todays infrastructure however, that wouldn’t make any sense from a strategic long term point of view. Behind the scenes in 2013 a good chunk of time was invested heavily planning and designing the new infrastructure our systems will run on by forming partner- ships with external providers that will manage and build our infrastructure. Together, you can expect better perfor- mance all round and the benefit of having the KSS IT Team focus more on ‘business value add’ leaving the day to day ‘upkeep’ of infrastructure to external partners. New infrastructure will be delivered in stages in 2014, and mostly implemented in the background. Completion is expected mid-2014, at which point our position will be reviewed ongoing, with new elements being switched on progressively. Jeff Xanthos Chief Information Officer

Kennards Kourier January 2014

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