Upon taking up his role as CIO at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) in October 2006, Michael Beckett was faced with a major image problem. Within ANSTO, the perception of IT was that of a ‘can’t do’ organisation, known for being unresponsive and an inhibitor to the business, according to Beckett, who presented this week on ANSTO’s ITIL deployment at the SAP Australian User Group conference. “The perception from customers, users and the business was that we didn’t deliver value, the help and support they needed, or the reliability of the services,” he says. “IT was seen as a barrier, so we had to initiate cultural change so that when the business came to IT it didn’t say no. Instead it finds a way to support the business, get what you need done, while still respecting the rules we have.” Turning IT around required a framework, specifically an Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework, to bring about positive change. For the detailed breakdown of ANSTO’s ITIL benefits see CIO’s January story. Since deploying ITIL, the organisation’s 80/20 ratio of maintenance/innovation IT spend has been reworked to get close to 60/40 — with the prospect of an even better ratio in the future. “Two years later I now have a cap-ex book worth $25 million I’m working my way through,” he says. “Management now wants us to deliver very large scale transformation projects.” These include an SAP upgrade to facilitate end-to-end business processes automation, a business-wide network restructure to move to a private cloud-based environment for its 1000-plus users, and a fleet management approach to manage IT refreshes to ease the operational costs of its systems. “We’re also looking to strategically mange 40-50 years of scientific data, 70 years of medical data, as well as the tacit knowledge of what’s in our research staff’s head, so a knowledge management project is also a priority,” Beckett says. Click here to view Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) CIO Michael Beckett’s tips on deploying ITIL. Related content feature 10 most popular IT certifications for 2023 Certifications are a great way to show employers you have the right IT skills and specializations for the job. These 10 certs are the ones IT pros are most likely to pursue, according to data from Dice. By Sarah K. White May 26, 2023 8 mins Certifications Careers interview Stepping up to the challenge of a global conglomerate CIO role Dr. Amrut Urkude became CIO of Reliance Polyester after his company was acquired by Reliance Industries. He discusses challenges IT leaders face while transitioning from a small company to a large multinational enterprise, and how to overcome them. By Yashvendra Singh May 26, 2023 7 mins Digital Transformation Careers brandpost With the new financial year looming, now is a good time to review your Microsoft 365 licenses By Veronica Lew May 25, 2023 5 mins Lenovo news Alteryx works in generative AI for speedy analytics results OpenAI integration and AI wizardry for report generation are aimed at making Alteryx’s analytics products more accessible. By Jon Gold May 25, 2023 3 mins Analytics Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe