The directories monopoly's technology has been under fire since last year's launch of Sensis.com.au, culminating in chief information officer Len Carver's removal last September.
Criticisms have focused on the functionality and speed of the site. A beta version of the new site will appear later this month, with a full implementation planned for May.
In his first interview since formally taking the reins in February, Sensis chief information officer Chris Stevens said: "We are very keen to make sure that the technology we have got supports the core processes of the business.
"That might entail some updates and a refresh of some of those technologies," he said.
"Over the next 12 months we are sharpening some of those technology roadmap choices and making sure we orient ourselves toward that to keep in step with demand."
Mr Carver was in the role only 12 months. Mr Stevens joined Sensis last year from Westpac.
Mr Stevens said: "What we are doing is looking at what are the capabilities that the business really needs in the years ahead and what are the technology choices that best support that.
"We are going through the capability analysis steps and then that will swing into a technology review. Its about business process and then falls into technology options."
Telstra in the midst of a program to cut about one-third from its $1.5- billion-a-year IT budget over three years, after admitting it could not make a 50 per cent cut.
Mr Stevens said Sensis IT operates independently of Telstra's.
"We are continuing to look at some of the bottom-line efficiencies in IT," he said.
"One of the focal areas is making sure we get the best return on investment for our sourcing arrangements."
Sensis relies heavily on Amdocs, a company that maintains the Oracle databases for the Yellow and White Pages.
Amdocs does day-to-day process and billing for the directories and provide the print output.
"We are reviewing what is the shape of some of those sourcing arrangements in the long term," he said.
"I don't think its an area we would automatically want to do ourselves."
At this stage, Sensis is using internal resources for its review, but it is likely to engage a consultancy to help establish a formal refresh program and sourcing evaluation.
"The other environment we are looking to further leverage are Yellow Pages Online, White Pages Online and Whereis," he said.
"It means building a content syndication engine that will become a central repository for the company's publishable content."
This is being done on an Oracle 10G database.
"We expect to have the first production use of that in July," he said.
Sensis' top management has had an overhaul in the past six months.
In December, long-time chief Andrew Day left to head World Directories, a European directories business. He took three key senior staff with him.
He was replaced by Bruce Akhurst, a senior Telstra executive.
Sensis has a number of projects under way, including a company-wide move to open-source servers, and an Oracle database upgrade.
"We have been progressively going through on a case-by-case basis to look at the value of moving from Unix to Linux," he said.
"You will see Linux co-exist with more modern application types and some of the legacy platforms, but its will become more of a consistent flavour."
Michael Sainsbury The Australian April 19, 2005
No comments:
Post a Comment