CIO50 2023 #1 Sheridan Ware, Charter Hall

Name: Sheridan Ware
Title: Chief information and technology officer
Company: Charter Hall
Commenced role: March 2019
Reporting line: Managing director and group CEO
Member of the executive team: Yes
Technology Function: 44 staff, 5 direct reports

Over the last 18 months, Charter Hall has focused on generating efficiencies in its retail division and digitalising the experience for customers, including developing its own mobile application, called Autom8.

“The app allows our retail tenant customers to update their monthly sales figures in a matter of seconds,” says Chief Information & Technology Officer, Sheridan Ware.

This saves customers from submitting sales figures through less secure and more time-consuming channels such as phone calls, in-person, mail or email.

“Prior to Autom8, over 75 of our retail shopping centre staff would spend over 300 hours every month collating this data in a process that would usually run for 10 days,” says Ware.

The app has been adopted across all 56 Charter Hall retail shopping centres with a 96% adoption rate across its retail tenant customers.

“The new solution has significantly reduced time spent and increased the speed with which this data can be captured, collated and analysed, while also improving data accuracy.”

Following Autom8’s launch Charter Hall achieved its highest level of retail customer satisfaction in its annual survey and has reduced the time taken to collect monthly sales data to an average of two days, with retail shopping centre staff now freed up to spend more meaningful time with customers and shoppers.

Digitalised leasing process

Following the success of Autom8, Charter Hall developed another app – Lease Easy – which digitalises the leasing process from initial lead to executed lease.

“Our retail team execute over 500 leases each year, involving over 100 people from across our business, as well as external legal partners and our customers,” says Ware.

“By digitalising the process end-to-end, we have been able to reduce time and effort, provide greater visibility and increase customer engagement throughout.”

“While in the early stage of release, Lease Easy is on track to reduce the time to issue offer letters to retail customers from six days to 24 hours, reduce the number of steps in the leasing process from 93 to 55 [and] reduce shop turnaround time from 12 weeks to 10 weeks – saving on lost rent,” says Ware.

Both these innovations were enabled through a comprehensive design thinking process involving Charter Hall staff and its retail tenant customers, says Ware.

“A human-centred approach was taken to deeply listen to and understand people’s needs and ensure solutions were co-created with them throughout.”

During both design cycles the company also engaged with other retail landlords to understand their processes and any industry best practices that could be leveraged.

The company’s achievements were recognised through various awards, including the Australian Financial Review (AFR) award for Most Innovative Company in the Property, Construction and Transport category.

These outcomes are evidence of Ware’s influence in the organisation and the property industry. As a member of Charter Hall’s Executive Committee, she is charged with providing confidence and insights to her peers and the company’s board of directors on the risks and potential opportunities presented by both existing and emerging technologies.

Fiduciary responsibilities

“This is particularly critical as Charter Hall acts as a custodian of over $88 billion of funds invested in the Australian commercial property industry, sourced from listed, wholesale and retail investors,” says Ware.

“Charter Hall’s fiduciary responsibilities in protecting these funds, including people’s retirement incomes, is paramount in deciding how to leverage new technologies for the benefit of our people, customers, communities and the planet.”

Ware regularly reports to the board on cybersecurity risk, leveraging findings from multiple annual audits and other metrics, to advise and continuously adapt the organisation’s approach while leading wider conversations about the risks and opportunities presented by emerging technologies.

Sheridan’s influence and contributions on cybersecurity and emerging technology extend beyond Charter Hall to the wider property industry. As Vice Chair of the Property Council of Australia (PCA) Cybersecurity Roundtable, Sheridan has helped led the development of a range of standards and best practices for the industry, including a cybersecurity accountability framework, technology supplier standards and industry-wide incident response plan.

Ware has also spearheaded the development of a set of sustainable digitalisation principles for the property industry and a framework for applying them to ensure the industry adopts emerging technologies ethically, responsibly and sustainably. As a member of the six-person Steering Committee for the Sustainable Digitalisation Project, she has helped pull together over 70 practitioners from across the industry, government, academia and the legal fraternity in regular conversation and to find practical ways to apply environmental, social and governance principles in a rapidly-evolving technology landscape.

Diversity champion

Ware is a champion of diversity and inclusion on multiple fronts and serves as Charter Hall’s executive spokesperson for D&I. As executive sponsor of Charter Hall’s CH Proud committee she played a critical part in leading the organisation last year to its first placement in the Australian Workplace Equality Index, an award that recognises Australia’s leaders in LGBT+ inclusion.

Louis van Wyk