Aurecon continually innovates to achieve its purpose of bringing ideas to life to create a better future for people and the planet. “Our purpose really resonates with our employees,” says Chief Information Officer Carl Duckinson. “They can see how their skills and contributions make a difference in the world.”
When Duckinson was appointed CIO, Aurecon had already deployed multiple Workday products—a trend that has been accelerated. “Aurecon is essentially a professional services business, so our people, project, and financial data is vital as we innovate,” Duckinson explains. “Workday brings all that data together into an integrated platform so we can make informed decisions that guide us to achieve our purpose.”
Spending more time working on the business.
As more Workday modules have been introduced at Aurecon, IT is spending less time on technology and more time helping to solve problems or create value for the organization. “My team can spend time working with their counterparts in people, finance, and operations to get better outcomes for the business as it innovates,” Duckinson explains.
Duckinson says Aurecon uses the data Workday surfaces to make better decisions. “We can see what happened, we know why it happened, and we're better informed about what we can do next.”
Rapidly recovering from a cyberattack.
When Aurecon suffered a major cyber incident, our leaders were impressed at the speed with which IT was able to get Workday back online.
Because Workday was born and bred in the cloud, we were able to stand up our Workday instance within 24 hours and keep the business running.
Chief Information Officer
Harnessing Gen AI.
Aurecon aspires to be the most admired tier one engineering, design, and advisory firm in Asia Pacific. “It's a lofty set of goals,” admits Duckinson. “But we're looking forward to the future.”
One of the most critical external factors in achieving these goals is Gen AI. “It’s going to change everything we do,” says Duckinson. Good AI outcomes depend on good data management, which Workday provides. “As we think about how we can use AI to help our clients, we recognize that it’s all about the data,” Duckinson says. “This is how we will get more efficient at how we deliver value to our clients and make sure that sustainability is in everything we do.”
I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do together as Workday introduces more AI and machine learning capabilities into its platform and evolves in the engineering industry.
Chief Information Officer