Tomago Aluminium realigns and upskills for a post-COVID-19 landscape

IT Superintendent Dennis Moncrieff builds a new IT strategy

Tomago Aluminium is a titan of Australian industry. Its New South Wales smelter is the largest in the country, with an annual output nearing 600,000 tons, and the company employs more than 1,000 people, along with 2,000 contractors. All told, the company pumps an estimated AU$2.2 billion (US$1.4 billion) into Australia’s economy.

But Tomago Aluminium is not insulated from the rapid technological change reshaping the global economy. IT Superintendent Dennis Moncrieff, a 15-year veteran at Tomago, understood the company would need to build an IT strategy to adjust and adapt – all while dealing with worsening cybersecurity threats, growing demand for digitalization, an aging workforce, skills shortages, and post-COVID-19 turmoil.

“We were just at the back end of COVID and the ‘great resignation,’” Moncrieff recalled. “The organization was turning over quickly, people were still finding their feet, and that made it challenging to define an IT strategy – but it was something that needed to happen.”

Cutting straight to what works

Moncrieff, known for his deep curiosity and commitment to delivering value, saw that Tomago Aluminium’s IT department would have to learn to do more with the same, if not fewer, resources, but optimizing operations without guidance carried the risk of wasting time and effort. He turned to global IT research and advisory firm Info-Tech Research Group for road-tested expertise on planning that transformation the right way.

“I’m passionate about efficiency, so I didn’t want to do it, get it wrong, and then do it again,” Moncrieff said. “Info-Tech helped me skip that trial-and-error phase and just jump to a solution that works. That was too important to try to wing it myself with a bunch of Google results.”

“I’m passionate about efficiency, so I didn’t want to do it, get it wrong, and then do it again. Info-Tech helped me skip that trial-and-error phase and just jump to a solution that works. That was too important to try to wing it myself with a bunch of Google results.”
– Dennis Moncrieff, IT Superintendent, Tomago Aluminium

Road-tested diagnostics drive measurable change

Moncrieff credits Info-Tech’s suite of survey-based diagnostics with kick-starting his IT realignment, pointing particularly to CIO Business Vision and CEO-CIO Alignment. The diagnostic results revealed the organization’s current and target states and related them to stakeholder expectations.

“The Info-Tech Diagnostics saved me a huge amount of time,” Moncrieff recalled. “They helped me understand what my stakeholders wanted and how they viewed IT – without spending weeks creating surveys or frameworks from scratch.”

Info-Tech Academy training delivered in weeks, not months

Moncrieff prides himself on the attention he gives his team members’ professional development. That instinct, combined with the online training courses offered by Info-Tech Academy, ensured his team had the project management skills they needed for his realignment efforts.

“The Info-Tech Academy was a fantastic resource. I assigned modules to team leaders, and within two weeks they’d completed the training,” he recalled.

Turning contract reviews into budget savings

Doing more with the same resources requires careful cost control. Moncrieff sought savings in the organization’s external contracts with major vendors such as Microsoft, leveraging Info-Tech’s Contract Review and Price Benchmarking services to ensure he was spending no more than needed – which also appealed to his C-suite decision-makers.

“My CFO was amazed I could even produce a Microsoft benchmark. He’d seen other organizations attempt and fail,” Moncrieff recalled. “With Info-Tech’s help, I not only delivered it, but saved time and avoided unnecessary costs – and got recognition for it.”

“The Info-Tech Diagnostics saved me a huge amount of time. They helped me understand what my stakeholders wanted and how they viewed IT – without spending weeks creating surveys or frameworks from scratch.”
– Dennis Moncrieff, IT Superintendent, Tomago Aluminium

Info-Tech LIVE offered a chance to reflect and reset

Aside from offering its own expertise, Moncrieff noted that Info-Tech facilitated learning and skill sharing with other IT leaders across multiple fields through the networking opportunities offered at its Info-Tech LIVE Brisbane conference.

“The Info-Tech LIVE events are really great at resetting your expectations of yourself,” he said. “Not just focusing on the next challenge, the next problem that you're facing, but to reflect as well on what you've learned and what you can offer to others to actually to help them on their journey.”

Info-Tech – a strategic partner embedded in the team

Throughout the IT strategy realignment process, Moncrieff said he relied not only on Info-Tech’s blueprints, diagnostics, and other tools, but also on the hands-on, personalized guidance offered by his executive counselor, who was seen as an extension of his own team.

“I knew the outcome I required but didn’t know the exact questions to ask. Info-Tech would bounce ideas back and forth with me and suggest solutions,” he recalled. “That saved me time and gave me the confidence to move forward strategically.”

Staying lean and ready while preparing for what’s next

Moncrieff says Tomago Aluminium’s IT operations are more lean and agile than before, and the organization is presently in a holding pattern as it prepares for what comes next.

“We don’t want to make giant moves. It’s about becoming more efficient with what we’ve already got – not shifting to a new technology but delivering value and efficiencies from our existing systems,” he said.