Connell Wagner deploys Open Text E-document solution

Connell Wagner, whose head office is based in Melbourne, is one of Asia Pacific’s largest multi-disciplinary consulting practices which employs around 4,000 staff.

Employees deliver projects in a network of 45 offices across Australasia, South-East Asia, China and the Middle East.

The company provides planning, surveying, engineering, environmental, scientific, business advisory and project management services for buildings, urban development, and the transportation, energy, defence, industrial, water, environment and telecommunications sectors.

The solution is being deployed by Open Text Premier Partner, Fastman Consulting and Solutions.

“Connell Wagner’s purchase of LiveLink demonstrates Open Text’s ongoing leadership in the ECM arena,” said Chris Petersen, manager for Channels & Alliances, APAC, for the Open Text Corporation.

“The Open Text ECM Suite enables a customer’s entire journey from many departmental solutions towards an integrated enterprise-wide ECM strategy.

“This contract win demonstrates the value brought by channel partners, whether they are systems integrators or resellers, in providing consulting, implementation and project management skills to organisations headquartered in Australia but operating globally.

“Indeed, Fastman Consulting and Solutions was recently awarded the Open Text Asia Pacific Partner of the Year Award at last month’s Content World held in Orlando, Florida.

"We are very proud to have partners such as Fastman who are continuing to be successful in the marketplace,” he added.Tony McCusker, chief financial officer at Connell Wagner claims Open Text’s solution will enable engineers and consulting staff across the globe to collaborate, exchange documents and establish project teams regardless of geographical distance and organisational boundary.

He said the solution will replace shared drives and several locally implemented document management workflow systems with a platform which will enable Connell Wagner to consistently manage and share information across the business.

“We chose Open Text for its return on investment performance, Web-friendly environment, strong support for a distributed environment, scalability, broad feature offering, and ease of integration with our existing legacy environment.

"In addition, Open Text had a proven track record of successful deployments in our industry,” said McCusker.

Open Text will enable the organisation to automate business processes such as new employee hiring, contract review and project document control and management.

It will also automatically manage all emails received and sent by the company, including the management of cascading storage layers and archives.

“The Open Text project aims to significantly enhance our capacity to consistently manage and share information across our operation centres and move towards a philosophy of managing and sharing documents effectively,"said McCusker.

"Open Text will help us to improve our management and information sharing practices as they directly influence our productivity, the level of service we provide and, ultimately, the future success of the company,” he added.

The solution is deployed in two phases with the first rollout being completed this month.

This will include support for document management for all centrally provided shared services, including human resources, payroll and contract lifecycle management.

The next phase, to be completed by mid-2009, will include group wide document management with a focus on project delivery.

“Open Text is a key part of a significant business rejuvenation program at Connell Wagner to ensure the ongoing success and growth of the company," said McCusker.

"It will help reduce duplication, promote consistency, and streamline project administration,” he added.

Connell Wagner is involved in many of Australia’s highest profile infrastructure developments including the Santos Shaw River power station development in Victoria, HMAS Stirling Upgrade in Western Australia, Abbot Point Coal Terminal and the TrackStar Alliance rail project in Queensland, Northern Corridor road and rail express way in South Australia and the Sydney Harbour BridgeWorks Alliance and Tillegra Dam project in New South Wales.