Lend Lease | Every Action Adds Up
Smarter Systems
Detail
Contents
- Improving Business Processes
- Automated Interfaces
- Improving Analysis
- Reporting and Performance Indicators
- Communication and Knowledge-Sharing Systems
At Lend Lease, people are our greatest asset and the key to us successfully realising our aspiration to become a sustainable leader, but they can't do it alone.
We recognise that in order for them to meet our goals there needs to be a transformation. This transformation will deliver changes to our business practices that provide process improvements and that support our advocacy and leadership position. In short, we need to deliver smarter systems.
It is imperative that our employees understand sustainability and that they have information available to them to guide them in successfully developing and implementing change. They need systems to:
- Help them gather information so that they can assess our environmental and social impacts;
- Allow them to monitor and report our performance, trend it in relation to competitors, and identify and manage risk;
- Provide Interrogation services and tools to ensure they can most effectively analyse that information;
- Provide knowledge to enable them to innovate and capitalise on any opportunities to drive efficiencies and reduce waste and costs, open up new markets and commercialise opportunities.
We also need to ensure communication and information-sharing systems are in place to enable their successes to be replicated across the organisation.
We know that knowledge is gained through interaction and our people want to work in environments that stimulate and challenge them to develop. To do this, we need to be creative and organised, as well as independent and open to innovation.
We seek to capitalise on the major shifts that are changing the way our people work, particularly through the use of Information and Communication technologies.
Improving Business Processes
Historically, business use of technology has resulted in the development of monolithic systems, which provided complete solutions for a business process. Unfortunately this approach has left business with systems that are time consuming to maintain and administer.
Multiple-legacy systems for different processes have also led to a greater problem: the inability to compare data and information from one system to another. This has resulted in organisations having to manually transfer data and information between systems, which is costly, time consuming and leads to data quality concerns.
Our approach has given us an opportunity to rethink our business processes. Instead of focusing on what one function does from start to finish, we look at the separate elements of a business process– such as data capture, task allocation, workflow, analysis and reporting - and deliver them using a common library of metrics, targets and indicators.
These processes are backed by common approaches to data quality and master data to deliver quality data in flexible, efficient systems. We have invested in the deployment of new Information and Communication Technologies and data integration tools to marry up the data from different information systems and bring them together to form a tool set for management that will help better business decisions be made more efficiently.
The systems we have created give us greater access to business and market intelligence. They signal a major opportunity to create competitive advantage and are helping us to achieve excellence across our organisation.
Automated Interfaces
Manual administrative processes are a highly inefficient way of doing business.
They also lead to employee frustration and stifle the ability of individuals to develop, as the large majority of their time is spent just gathering the data; they do not have time to practice the analytical and strategic skills that their training and experience offer a business.
The automation of interfaces between data capture systems - either from suppliers, our supply chain or our operational systems - frees up this time and enables people to
develop their knowledge and skills through the application of strategic thought and analytical assessment. Business gets a better return from an engaged and developing
workforce as the knowledge of individuals and the Group grows.
We are working on the development of ‘on demand’ collection processes that are provided by automated data and information feeds and the mining of internal and external information sources.
The automation of manual processes has so far delivered the following outcomes:
- Diversification and integration of management reporting roles which enable us to assess environmental and social data with financial data sets
- Lead versus lag indicator reporting
- Accessibility to, and presentation of, real-time information by senior management
- Reduced annual maintenance costs
Knowledge and Information Diagram
Improving Analysis
While we produce a wide range of qualitative and quantitative data and information, we need a standard approach for researching and analysing trends, and for reviewing our performance so that we can identify and agree on the most appropriate standards and performance indicators for our business and sector.
A main focus of our investment in smarter systems has been the development and agreement of master lists of key aspects of our business. This has been a crucial step for the development of smarter systems for our organisation because it enables analysis across different operations and functions.
This process means that we now have a standard approach to creating data stores for our Financial, People, Health & Safety and Environment data sets. By developing this approach, we are now able to use these different data sets to complete the analysis of our business and operational performance.
Our employees can analyse data and information of all the projects we deliver, the assets we manage and the offices that we work in, at a local, regional and global level.
These master lists also enable us to compare and contrast the different things we manage and do, taking into account their location, their use and our level of financial or operational responsibility.
This comparison helps us to build our business and market intelligence. We also have the assurance that the data and information we capture and use is consistent and meets our internal and external reporting requirements.
Insight Environment Analysis
Health and Safety Analysis
Insight People Analysis
Financial Analysis
Reporting and Performance Indicators
In connecting our business data and information, we are now able to go beyond standard financial statutory reporting. We will continue to develop our approach to non-financial reporting and its use in enabling us to understand the health of our business.
We participate in best practice voluntary reporting so that we are can research and develop our internal and external reporting needs, and stay ahead of the legislative curve. Our annual non-financial reporting is completed and reported to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and the Carbon Disclosure Project >>see Adding Up.
We are also working with the Global Reporting Initiative to develop and agree global Construction and Real Estate Sector specific performance indicators that better assess our economic, environmental and social impacts. This leadership and advocacy work is enabled by our approach to non-financial reporting, meeting of regulatory requirements and the use of Information and Communication Technologies >>see Adding Up.
As a global company, getting the Construction and Real Estate Sector Supplement performance indicators right, means we will be able to make real and meaningful comparisons across the sector. It will also provide a basis for our benchmarking and target setting.
Once these new indicators are agreed, we will be able to more reliably inform our investors and other stakeholders of our sustainability performance, and communicate the contributions our sector makes to economic growth, ecological balance and social progress.
It will also enable us to develop the integration of our financial and non-financial reporting needs and requirements so that we can gain a balanced view of the health of our business. The use of smarter systems means that we can access Financial, People, Health and Safety, and Environmental data sets to understand the objectives, measures, targets and initiatives necessary to improve the performance of our business.
Our work is leading our people to work across historic functional and operational boundaries and enable cross-functional analysis.
Communication and knowledge-sharing systems
While Lend Lease has many examples of sustainability projects of excellence, we know that better communication and knowledge sharing of these successful achievements would ensure replication and continual improvement across the Company.
As with all industries that work in a creative and innovative space, the construction and real estate sector relies heavily on the skill, experience and knowledge of its
people. Knowledge sharing and communication technologies are vital if we are to continue to unlock the creative potential of our people. They are also critical to our
future success, creating a smarter, fact-based organisation positioned to thrive.
As a global business, it is critical that we use our collaborative intelligence to create new solutions for the unique challenges we face. Information and
Communication Technologies enable us to work closely with all our stakeholders, industry, government and the broader community so that together, we can radically
alter our society and our planet for the better.
We have a range of communication and knowledge-sharing initiatives to suit the varied work styles of our employees, managers and extended workers – who demand flexible work environments across the globe. Our vision is to empower each individual by giving them access to the right tools, information and people, and by providing a work environment that promotes productivity.
Workbench
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