– Kumar Parakala, President, GHD Digital
FY2022 at a glance
“Our objective was to build a new business that would not only serve our clients and communities, but also support GHD’s internal digital transformation. When we work as one team, we can achieve seemingly unthinkable results, making the impossible – possible.”
Accelerating our Digital business:
4Contents Executive summary 6 Bolstering our collective success 7 Laser focus on client outcomes 9 Enterprise growth and transformation initiatives we support 13 Diversifying GHD’s offerings 16 Regional step-ups 18 Strategic alliances and partnerships 22 Our leaders driving change 24 Incubating the right culture 25 Looking forward
Transform for good Transform for good Transform for good Transform for good Transform for good TransformTransformforforTransformforTransformTransformTransformTransformTransform
Maintained intense execution focus Implemented price increases Took strategic risks
the need to expand global footprint and create additional revenue streams Digital andtechnologiestools,strategiesdriveglobaldisruptions 36GHDteamsfromemployeesCorejoinDigitalAustralia 150+ teamsfromemployeesCorejoinGHDDigitalinNorthAmerica GHD500crossesDigitalFTE 2022 rebrandedeSolutionstoGHDDigital Executive summary
4 | GHD Digital - Business Review FY22
Strengthened our sales force
Developed new sales channels. In FY22, we achieved 45 percent growth from the sale of new solutions and regional steps-ups. This generated a gross revenue of AUD19.8M, an increase of AUD6.2M from FY21. Net revenues increased by eight percent Year-over-Year (YoY), including a 15 percent increase in revenue from product sales. By scaling mature digital services in all key markets, we accelerated our collaborative Go-to-Market (GTM) and client engagement efforts to enhance our return on investment (ROI) and a return on capital (ROC). Our revenue from new and emerging services increased by 45 percent compared to FY21. These revenues now comprise 20 percent of the overall GHD Digital revenue. Together with our Core and Advisory teams, we embraced the ‘One GHD’ spirit to develop our value propositions based on client needs, allowing us to broaden and access a larger share of available opportunities to further our collective success. We are confident that together, we will create sustainable value for our stakeholders and provide a competitive advantage for GHD. recognised
2014 GHD recognised a need to diversify after the ANZ mining and infrastructure crash 2015 GHDCRAacquires 2016 G HDlaunchesAdvisory 2018 GHD NewAustralialaunchedDigitalinandZealand 2019 GHD launchedDigitalinUSAandCanada 2020 GHD launched in UK and UAE EMG
The last two years have brought a constant stream of disruption. The global pandemic, climate change and uncertainty caused by world events have upended supply chains, impacted workforces and imposed an even greater reliance on digital technology. Despite these outside forces, digital transformation remains the biggest source of disruption – and opportunity - for clients today. In this climate of volatility, the need to stay relevant by finding new ways to create value for stakeholders is critical. Through collaboration, openness, and thinking outside of the norm, we can drive impact at scale and accelerate the pathway to a solution for global GHDchallenges.Digital is one of the fastest growing digital businesses globally in professional services. By infusing digital and innovation into our conventional client services and adopting an ‘outside-in’ strategy, we have not only created new trajectories of growth for GHD, but provided a digital transformation pathway for the enterprise. These growth segments are changing the genetic code and mindset of the legacy business. Growing is significantly less risky than not growing, which is why we have created a growth-orientated business. This is a new and unique business model to GHD and rare in our industry. And in FY22, we embraced our varied business models and: Created additional products and services Invested more on technology upgrades
GHD Digital - Business Review FY22 | 5 Employee retention 81.9% Employees 600 Diverse leaders 70+ Win rate 66% Direct Sales (AUD) 35.5M pipelineUnweighted(AUD) 112M Net revenue growth 8% Thought activitiesleadership 175+ Client engagements 2000 Solutions 60+ Client satisfaction rating 4.7 Gross revenue YTD (AUD) 74.6M P ResultsClientseopleGrowth of new solutions and regions 45% Gender parity in global leadership 50/50
– Ashley Wright, CEO
6 | GHD Digital - Business Review FY22
Bolstering ourcollective success
To better serve our clients, we updated our operating architecture framework, serving as a bridge connecting strategy and execution. This updated model reflects the continuous development of GHD’s digital service offerings as they grow out of their incubation phase and begin to Throughoutmature.FY22, we helped our GHD enterprise to retain and win new work through an integrated, multichannel GTM and clientcentric approach. We shifted our differentiated GTM model from passive to active through sales, products and platforms solutions. With higher margin and recurring revenue solutions, we have established a robust, disciplined, consulting-led approach. To encourage greater collaboration and identify opportunities to engage with clients on a new level, we launched our In Collaboration Series. These events are one hour discussions for our global enterprise leaders to hear firsthand from GHD Digital, along with colleagues in the Core business and Advisory, on how digital investments are generating new Tobusiness.further our collaborative efforts, we held successful workshops in partnership with Regional General Managers and their leadership teams in the Southern and Northern Hemispheres. The outcomes have shown a more cohesive GTM strategy, client development, and project delivery across the Inenterprise.March2022, we partnered with Source Global Research to conduct a global study of 777 executives. The survey found that digital transformation is regarded as the main driver of disruption across industries and countries. However, despite some clear vulnerabilities, an overwhelming 94 percent of executives see this as an opportunity, not a threat, with intelligent automation, advanced automation and artificial intelligence/machine learning being cited as critical technologies for their future success. The survey also sought to understand what clients were looking for when it came to professional services firms. The outlook for GHD is significant. The data suggests that not only are we well positioned to take advantage of opportunities in the market, GHD was in the top four of professional services firms that are most relevant to their innovation needsabove competitors including Deloitte, KPMG, EY and Jacobs. It is imperative that GHD can provide clients with digital solutions that address these needs in order to stay relevant, competitive and profitable in this dynamic environment.
“It’s critical for GHD’s long-term future that we enhance our competitiveness, scale new businesses and develop integrated solutions that address emerging client needs in a postpandemic world. This means ensuring that digital becomes part of everything we do. It also means adopting a digital mindset.”
Laser focus on client outcomes The pandemic has radically reshaped the priorities for clients. New challenges have been created, while old ones have been recontextualised, transforming clients’ expectations for what their businesses are able to achieve in even a relatively short window of Withtime. an increased focus on delivering a premium service to clients, we enhanced our innovation capabilities to service clients in key geographies and markets. This resulted in a win rate of 66 percent and a client satisfaction rating of 4.7/5. Overall we achieved AUD35.5M in direct sales to clients which was an increase of 25 percent compared to the last financial Theyear.secret weapon in our client success has been cross-collaboration. Regularly joining forces with Core and Advisory has been a key enabler of growth for all parts of the enterprise. This is evident through the 14 percent increase in integrated sales, which surpassed AUD14M and in excess of AUD20M in “pull through” revenue. 437 new GHD Digital projects won 40+ new GHD clients acquired 325 collaborative client opportunities with Core and Advisory 199 which lead to 199 wins
GHD Digital solutions played a key differentiator in number of integrated wins: BHP Charge On Innovation Challenge (COIC): A unique industry collaboration between mining companies, who have teamed up to accelerate the electrification of mining trucks. Up to eight consortia will progress winning technologies to an MVP pilot. D-Lab is leading the end-to-end innovation process.
8 | GHD Digital - Business Review FY22
Kodiak Gas: Core teams are using the GHD Navigator platform to deliver services including compliance reporting, waste tracking, data analytics, and document repository for auditing purposes.
MTIA: To support GHD’s engineering program, we are providing digital engineering solutions which is an ongoing requirement of the project. This will grow further, as the contract may run up to eight years.
BPX: The GHD NavigatorTM platform was implemented to manage and automate the creation of Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) plans to ensure compliance.
Victoria DoT: We are providing innovation advisory to TransportX, on active transportation, testing services and agile/scrum support. This project has brought our Core transportation team into active transportation, which will lead to further integrated wins in the market.
In recognition of the work we have delivered across the globe, we received numerous awards, including: + AIIA iAwards + APEX Awards + AVA Digital Awards + Chair’s Award for Technical Excellence + Consult Australia Awards + dotCOMM Awards + Hermes Creative Awards + MarCom Award + WebAward. “The Hive is our innovation program, which specialises in creating travel.”waywhileachievementstheInnovationthrilledinfrastructureprojects,advancementsinitiatives,transformativeandbringingpositivenotonlytoourbuttothebroadersector.We’retoreceivetheBusinessAward,whichshowsLXRP’sleadershipandinthisspace,weworktoimprovetheVictorianslive,workand – Kevin Devlin, CEO, LXRP Working on the Level Crossing Removal Project (LXRP), GHD Digital and AECOM collaborated with LXRP to deliver ‘The Hive’ which has been recognised as an ABA100 Winner for Business Innovation in the Australian Business Awards 2021.
Mosaic: As part of a larger integrated Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) program, we are using data and automation solutions.
Max Midstream: This new client is working with us for Green House Gas validation, and through our work it has led to five new core projects, including a green infrastructure project.
Shell: We are leading the data migration and optimisation of Shell’s implementation of ENFO (a new GHD Digital partner), contributing to GHD’s client delivery program for Shell. Union Pacific Railroad: Core teams are using the GHD Navigator platform to deliver services including compliance reporting, waste tracking, data analytics, and document repository for auditing purposes.
BHP, Rio Tinto, Vale: For phase two of the COIC, D-Lab is working with GHD’s mining, Advisory and engagement/communities teams to establish a taskforce focused on the interoperability of haul truck electrification solutions.
City of Carson: We partnered with Advisory to develop an effective and sustainable asset management program, built upon a “Digital Nervous System” for the 2028 Olympics.
City of Toronto: Advanced analytics served as a differentiator to win this project where we forecasted the city’s long-term residual waste requirements.
GHD Digital and DT teams initiated the Digital Data Collection Change Champion initiative. The initiatives involved 12 Core staff members representing all North American regions to drive digital data collection innovation across our business sectors. This resulted in a 533 percent growth of projects using digital data collection from February 2022 to April 2022. Our MRDE (Mixed Reality and Digital Engineering) and Intelligent Automation teams have contributed to the success of DT initiatives by building a common standardised process landscape and toolkit for GHD’s service lines’ harmonisation and to support DT’s effort to onboard each of the service lines. Our Digital Experience team provided automation expertise to establish seamless integration across various common data environments used by GHD service lines. To further nurture and propel growth, we play a pivotal role in bringing MIR initiatives to life and, by leveraging digital and innovation, enable internal transformation of the GHD enterprise.
DeliverysupportinitiativestransformationgrowthEnterpriseandweTransformation(DT)
Environment 4.0 We are playing a leading role in accelerating the digital transformation of our client’s environmental programs and GHD’s environmental business. This is being achieved through strong collaboration between Digital, Advisory and our environmental teams, as well as the development and integration of digital solutions and strategic partnerships across all aspects of our environmental business. Digital sales across the environment market are on-track for greater than 50 percent growth YoY.
Transformed the EHS program, including business processes and digital systems, of a mining client through close collaboration with Advisory and the EHS service line
10 | GHD Digital - Business Review FY22
Highlights include: Environmental reporting for a number of our clients using GHD’s Automated Report Creator (ARC) resulting in reduced costs and improved consistency in quality of reports for our clients, and significantly improved profits across the projects for HelpedGHD many clients develop Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and decarbonisation goals, life-cycle analyses, data strategies, and assisted them to select and implement digital tools (including partner software) to track progress against goals
Three strong and coinciding trends in the market are creating new market opportunities for our environmental business:
Ourcommunities.FutureCommunities
commitment - to help clients deliver thriving places and spaces that put people first - are being made real with human-centered design. In a GHD first, leading with GHD Digital’s human-centred approach, we responded to a proposal for Transport for New South Wales (TfNSW) with integrated insight across GHD’s 50+ service lines, maximising our combined strengths and potential value for TfNSW AUD72B infrastructure project. “ I can foresee teams like Engagement and Communities, Urban Planning, Architecture, and Digital coming together to work on projects for TfNSW to deliver better people-centric outcomes.”
Helped a transportation client better understand the risks and track possible impacts to its rail operations from wildfires using a predictive solution developed by our location intelligence team.
Future Communities
- Mateen Rauff, Digital Strategy and Transformation Lead, GHD Digital Future Energy We played a key role in the enablement of GHD enterprise pursuits: Our D-Lab team have ideated a real-life game/ simulation targeted at the C-suite and General Management level to help them envision and strategise asset transition We are committed to support the ongoing commercialisation of the innovative technologies coming out of the COIC. We are working closely with BHP, Rio Tinto and others to address the interoperability of haul truck electrification solutions, which have the potential to realise a 12 organisationsclient 25 participants 5 solutions
1. Our clients are embracing ESG, decarbonisation and sustainability
2. Our clients have identified digital innovation as the key to accelerate and track progress towards their ESG, decarbonisation and sustainability goals
3. Our clients are being asked to be more efficient and do more with less. With these strong trends, our integrated Environment 4.0 strategy will take on more importance in FY23. When we integrate digital into our environmental client offerings, we are differentiating GHD from our competitors and winning new work.
Created an integrated data management and map-based portal to enable a client to easily and quickly view Contamination, Assessment, and Remediation (CAR) data and documents, and obtain approvals for subsurface activities across a complex and large industrial facility
Developed a Residual Waste Analytics model using artificial intelligence and machine learning for a city to improve the accuracy of landfill capacity planning, and enable planning scenarios to be run based on future variations in population growth, recycling, changes in regulations, etc.
We collaborated with the Future Communities team in various events. One of these was our Smart Seeds workshop, a facilitated discussion on the challenges and opportunities to creating more balanced lives through connected, inspired, resilient and productive
GHD Digital - Business Review FY22 | 11 significant reduction in carbon emissions associated with diesel fuel consumption Our Future Energy focused Smart Seeds workshop aimed to equip participants with the skills they need to support the push towards a decarbonised future of green, renewable energy. “ The Smart Seeds x Future Energy program enabled participants to rapidly acquire and demonstrate many of the skills needed for the future. This program, and our commitment to building capabilities in this space, is one way we are playing our role in this transition for our clients and -communities.”SarahFitzGerald, Australian Future Energy Lead, FutureGHD Water We contributed to the first Future of Water Sprint, built on outcomes from the previous Water 4.0 initiatives. This included the development of: The new client value proposition for the Digital Realisation workstream, including Going Beyond AMI and Digital Twins Online (DTO) which will receive further investment in Sprint 2 Artefacts to share insights and align strategies across GHD, including collaborative client partnerships, partner frameworks, client testing and competitor analysis, Digital Twin definition, digital strategy review and a value driven framework New skills and mindsets for sprint teams supported by training and coaching from D-Lab in Agile and lean start-up methodologies. 14 organisationsclient 32 participants 6 solutions 12 weeks 4 workstreams 27 team members 100+ ideas captured 29 client conversationsinsight 55 client conversations 9 Digital Realisation value propositions
“ Our innovation strategy provides an overarching, enterprise level framework. It helps ensure we continue to build from our strong innovation foundations and transform with our clients and -communities.”ElizabethHarper, Group CIO, GHD We facilitated the global Townhall in March, centred around the topic of innovation to promote common innovation language and highlight innovation values. This was followed by creating and publishing an online video series showcasing the innovation strategy and principles in practice, with specific examples from our clients and colleagues. We helped produce the Innovation Strategy microsite, which communicated our shared understanding of why we need to innovate, our north star and the six commitments that our people can embed in their day-to-day. We launched the IdeaHub platform as a tool for our people to ideate and co-create, including an innovation campaign for GHD’s Brisbane 2032 Olympics bid in partnership with the major bid team.
“ This is a prime example of making it real and innovating through technology as an enabler to execute on our strategy. Even better, by working closely with select, early-adopter clients, we’ve created a unique advantage for GHD, giving us the chance to enhance our clients’ experience and bring more to our relationships.”
Infrastructure 4.0 To align our approach to the needs of our clients, we created a conceptual framework and broad consulting methodology which enables us to participate in the transformation conversations at a higher level through an integrated end-to-end approach. The framework and “TransformONE” methodology are business unit agnostic, and designed for every part of GHD, not just Digital and Advisory where and was built. In collaboration with the broader GHD enterprise, our Infrastructure 4.0 team continues to position us for a number of major opportunities with key clients such as BP, BHP, Rio Tinto, TfNSW and others.
- Sonia Adams, Chief Client Officer, GHD Innovation Our D-Lab team has played an integral role in developing and launching our GHD Innovation Strategy. With our global D-Lab team trained in the latest ISO 56002 Innovation Management Standards, we assessed and aligned the innovation strategy against it.
Infrastructure 4.0 is playing an active part in other strategic step-up initiatives such as Future Communities, Future Energy, Future Water and Delivery Transformation.
Diversifying GHD’s offerings
GHD Digital - Business Review FY22 | 13
In FY22 we helped drive diversification of GHD’s offerings through innovation, products, solutions and consulting. 01. Advanced Analytics (AA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions Our investment in AA was focused on creating scalable solutions that will be used to directly generate revenue and open the doors for larger projects. The team is making steady progress as solutions move from a minimum viable product (MVP) stage to completed Wesales.continued to expand our footprint in North America by delivering new data science solutions. Some examples include: The City of Buffalo required support improving their aging water infrastructure, which was operating with high-risk Lead Service Lines (LSLs). Through a cutting-edge machine learning method, our team delivered an innovative solution that predicted the likelihood of households having these LSLs, potential costs of replacement, and an alternative approach to traditional ground extractions. We developed a forecasting model for the City of Toronto that will incorporate different scenarios that may impact the City’s waste management system and the residual waste stream to be managed for the next 50 years. For the Region of Peel, we developed an AI based algorithm to help them understand what citizens are expecting from them to directly consider their feedback in the decisions and initiatives that impact their community. We saved approximately 30 percent in cost for IBM contamination assessment and remediation program by optimising sampling activities. For Pioneer, we used the optimised document mining pipeline, which streamlined documents’ categorisation, key data fields identification, extraction, and compilation. As a result, we automatically located regulatory agency’s websites to gather all published permits, applications, and technical reviews to help Pioneer in on-site permit reviews after a large acquisition. This part of our business is far more matured in Australia, with some highlights being: Major Transport Infrastructure Authority tried to convince their five subsidiary companies to use their enterprise analytics platform but failed to achieve acceptance. We remedied the situation within four weeks. Phase 1 of this project has generated AUD250k in revenue, and phase 2 is expected to generate AUD500k+ (currently being GHDnegotiated).wascommissioned by the Department of Defence to support a confidential, multi-site program of works. The project brings together information from multiple sources across numerous sites with effective data management and presentation of information being critical to success of the program. We established and maintained a dedicated, web-based collation of national, state and local datasets enabling both internal and client users to map and report site constraints. Leveraging Australian hosted Azure cloud infrastructure and the ArcGIS platform, we
We partnered with Advisory and Core to combine our full suite of offerings for New Zealand Defence AsemForce
Increased our drone service remote inspection and capture capability
14 | GHD Digital - Business Review FY22 enabled these dashboards to be directly integrated with web mapping capability. This is an ongoing, multi-year engagement.
06. Location intelligence
Increased collaboration opportunities across our digital practices on projects like Victoria’s Big Build and Paramatta Light Rail Stage 2
05. Intelligent Automation (IA)
02. Cybersecurity With Australia’s Security Legislation Amendment (Critical Infrastructure) Act 2021 kicking in last November, the focus on securing the country’s critical infrastructure is truly underway. Our team has been engaged in some key strategic deals: Our cybersecurity capability was a key differentiator in winning a project with Advisory and Core worth more than AUD420k for the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and AsResources.partofour Cyber Risk COE services, we are delivering to Evoenergy (one of the largest energy and gas utilities in Australia), and a first of its kind, we are integrating our services with the application of an automation tool that will automate workflow and correlation of multiple standards. In a GHD Digital first, in FY22 we began building an Operational Technology Cyber Risk Management course module as part of La Trobe University’s Masters of Cybersecurity course. Once developed, the course will be marketable to our clients as microcredentials.
We rolled out the Engage platform to support digital stakeholder engagement and communication projects, in collaboration with the GHD ECC business group and directly with clients Delivered high-profile visualisation content, supporting Oceanex Energy’s New South Wales
04. Mixed Reality and Digital Engineering (MRDE) We expanded our dedicated capabilities with three core teams making up MRDE; immersive digital solutions, digital assets and engineering, and mixed FY22reality.has seen an uplift in our collaboration with GHD’s traditional service lines, particularly in transport, water, energy, major infrastructure and digital engineering along with direct client engagement, that has resulted in significant progress and success in key areas: Secured places on the Cross River Rail and Major Transport Infrastructure Authority Visualisation panels, which resulted in the delivery of high quality/high-profile rendered and Unreal Engine outputs. It also helped us secure work with LXRP, Rail Projects Victoria and the North East Link
Developed VR training systems for the Queensland Police Force and developed the Unreal Engine Urban Planning tools for the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning.
03. Globalisation of digital innovation capability Following a global expansion, the innovation team (D-Lab) saw a 30 percent growth in FY22, notably within the EMEA region. We were pivotal in securing significant new opportunities for clients such as BHP and Rio Tinto in their COIC. We also continued to develop Innovation-as-a-Service for clients like LXRP, surpassing over AUD1M.
offshore windfarm announcements
Zabin, Digital Experience, was awarded the CX Award for outstanding relationship building and creation of outcomes for Wellington Water
Our team has transformed what it means to lead Geographic Information System (GIS) in our business and accelerated achievements with our people, performance and client excellence. With a team of 100+ globally, including successful growth investment in the Northern Hemisphere, we are scaling our geographic footprint and are making positive impact collaborating with our technical authority for our clients.
We supported the implementation of a custom COVID-19 Site Protection Readiness System for LXRP. This project helped cement our team as one of LXRP’s trusted technology implementation partners. Beyond the strengthened relationship, the system has set the precedent for Alliance site connectivity and data via a centralised database. The potential of such a database is broad with extension into other cross-program delivery management opportunities
Continued support of the GHD DT program in digital engineering and information management
Some of our recognitions across FY22 include: Our work on digital transformation projects created a harmonised approach to our innovation on workflows and future capability of the special science service line We engaged the Core business to apply our inhouse technology, InDeGO, on more projects across regions We were awarded a Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) from Esri We generated nine percent operational profit in FY22, with a significant growth in the Southern NorthHemisphereAmerica
Implementedservices Docusign for
18 awards won 16 people certified with designationa 57 clientsbids&tendersacquired
GHD Digital - Business Review FY22 | 15
488 deals won 200 completedprojects 46% responseeSurveys rate 4.6/5 satisfactionclient 30 people hired in
07. Products and Platforms With the brand migration of eSolutions and Digital Citizen Experience, the Products and Platforms business unit was born. We innovate with our customers and internal practices to develop profitable, scalable products and platforms that will help our clients transform their businesses, embrace the future, and change communities for good. This has been an adventurous and exciting transformation for our business and we are well on our way to success. As part of this evolution, we: Completed the internal migration to Microsoft Azure cloud hosting where we migrated 161 servers, 2,000 client sites and over 10,000 endpoints –Changed our pricing models which saw a minimum of 20 percent increase on all pricing, in some cases a 125 percent increase
Implemented marketing automation in Hubspot Implemented new contracts for digital products and contract automation are based. Philippines
Location Intelligence had explosive growth (35 percent + YoY) with high profitability based on collaboration across GHD, focus on innovation, and diversification beyond traditional sectors.
external customers for GHD Navigator Waste Manager and assisted to leverage Waste Manager to decommission Apple Stores in New Zealand as part of an evaluation for global usage. The GHD Navigator team also landed Valero as a direct Launchedcustomeraproduct billing system
Developed price books for all products and services that
Launched a new customer management system (CMS) that provides more than 90 percent gross Landedmargin
package
02. EMEA
03. Canada Momentum is building in Canada, and we are seeing a greater interest in embedding GHD Digital into deals and leveraging our services to expand the Core business and to demonstrate innovation. We have seen some challenges with retention in the Canadian region, but now have a core team of market leaders in place, and with an increased focus on our public sector solutions through the Products and Platforms practice we are well positioned for growth.
01. New Zealand
Regional step-ups
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We continued to complement our well-established businesses in Australia and North America with focused step-ups in:
Our team was the first-to-market for GHD with Virtual Engagement Rooms (Engage Platform) for Auckland Transport, which successfully provided community engagement through COVID-19 lockdowns. We have transitioned our defence client engagement by pivoting our delivery approach for technology services to an Agile methodology. This involves our clients as part of our delivery teams and decision-making process. This has resulted in upsells and the transitioning of defence to a client promoter versus detractor. Through our launch of MRDE consulting services, we have partnered with two key clients to help them accelerate their digital engineering journey which includes development of their standards and specifications to help create an industry-wide approach. Additionally, we have been appointed to Waka Kotahi’s Asset Management Database Steering Committee to assist them in developing asset data standards for the industry.
The production of ARC, an internally developed platform by the EMEA Digital Intelligence team, has now been used to support our business and clients on a number of projects including Phillips66, Northrop Grumman, and Concrete Maturity for Canadian Asprojects.aninnovative differentiator, the refined Digital Twinning Online (DTO) solution is resulting in new client activity won and delivered. EdF Energy has trusted GHD Digital in using DTO to build out a proof of concept for nuclear decommissioning. Our product was the differentiator that displaced other competitors including Atkins and Capgemini, and although we competed against Arcadis, they are now a partner on the project with us.
04. Asia We relocated Sukalp Sharma to Singapore to expand into the Asian market, reflecting a major growth opportunity for GHD Digital. Our initial focus will be strengthening GHD Digital’s visibility and client footprint in the region, whilst working closely with our Advisory and Core businesses.
“GHD Digital’s move to Singapore to work alongside our existing Advisory business is another exciting step in realising GHD’s Asia Strategy. Bringing our digital capabilities to Singapore and the wider region means we can better support our clients current and future needs and make a difference.”real – Ian Fraser, Chief Executive Officer APAC, GHD
GHD Digital is partnering with select industry leaders to create and deliver transformational solutions to enhance the overall value GHD provides clients. In the process, GHD Digital is cocreating propositions with Core, Advisory and our clients and partners, aimed at solving complex industry issues and enabling the digital transformation journey for our clients.
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Strategic alliances and partnerships
Environment: We are currently working on finalising a strategic alliance with ENFO, which has an enterprise cloud application to manage environmental cleanup portfolios, that will bring together GHD’s Core, Advisory and Digital businesses to support clients with managing their environmental impact. This is projected to bring revenues of around USD750k in FY23.
Recently, GHD Digital and KETOS partnered on a pursuit for OceanaGold, a gold mining company based out of New Zealand. The strategic alliance allowed us to bring the full value of each company. We brought the skilled and qualified resources from both Digital and Core on the ground in New Zealand to conduct installation and support, while KETOS’ innovative technology (e.g., hardware and software) offered a competitive solution that we otherwise could not offer without the partnership.
Further showcasing the value of this strategic alliance, we were engaged by SANTOS to develop an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) report and the public submission statement related to a gas project. Our partnership with UiPath allowed us to automate the process of feedback aggregation and analysis of public opinion submissions by leveraging a hybrid Wesolution.alsohave a strategic partnership with SAP Signavio in the Southern Hemisphere with revenue surpassing AUD500k in FY22. We are working to extend this partnership to North America in FY23.
GHD Digital - Business Review FY22 | 19
Future Water: We are finalising a strategic alliance with Go-Aigua that will integrate with our Digital Experience and Digital Intelligence practices to bring an end-to-end Smart Water Platform to help our clients with their entire water lifecycle. We are actively pursuing opportunities with two cities where initial assessment fees are ranging from USD150k and USD250k. Future additional digital implantation and analytic services have associated fees ranging between USD1M and USD3M. We are closing a strategic alliance with Xylem that will help clients monitor and manage various critical parts of their water information management needs from water run-off to waste water. We are currently engaged in multiple opportunities with the City of Phoenix (a five-year contract with fees estimated between USD3M and USD4M), New Orleans (a multimillion-dollar opportunity we recently won), and Shreveport (a new pursuit).
Mining and resources: We have a Teaming Agreement with PAM in place to deliver a holistic wayfinding solution to various clients, including those in the mining industry. We are negotiating a proactive proposal with BHP to pilot a joint solution for one of their mining villages with approximately AUD300k in fees. Future opportunities for full deployment to remaining villages have estimated fees of over AUD3.5M to AUD5M. We are finalising a GTM agreement whereby GHD will develop a client-ready solution that will be powered by PAM and can be marketed to various other clients, industries and markets (e.g., Rio Tinto FMG, college campuses, corporate campuses, sports stadiums, and sporting arenas).
Together with our partners, we are creating innovative GHD solutions and joint propositions in the industries and sectors where GHD operates. In developing leading-edge solutions, our focus is on: Enhancing automation: With a strong strategic alliance in the Southern Hemisphere with UiPath, we are expanding this to North America and working to further extend the partnership in the EMEA region in WeFY23.have partnered with UiPath to produce a webinar that will be targeted to municipal and provincial clients in Canada. This presents us with an opportunity to leverage existing relationships, established contractual vehicles and a solid product and service reputation towards the expansion of the software automation practice and capability within GHD Digital.
20 | GHD Digital - Business Review FY22 Products and Platforms: We partner with multiple companies that provide strategic software solutions that are built-in to our citizen portal experience solutions for clients (e.g., single sign-on, payment processing, note taking, eSignatures, etc). In FY22, we had approximately ten vendor solution partners that have generated CAD625k in fees. We are looking to build on this success by expanding the number of our strategic partners to continue to bring innovative and meaningful functionality to our clients based on their Weneeds.recently hired a Partnerships and Alliances Manager to focus on continuing to identify and build additional strategic partners. This will help us to further enhance our Citizen Portal which will add value to our clients while increasing subscription revenue.
To ensure FY23 is as successful, we continue to create meaningful partnerships and are currently involved in discussions with Bentley, MicroSoft, IBM and TownSuite Municipal Software. In addition, we are also collaborating with Esri to evolve our current partnership with Core to innovate and bring joint solutions with GHD Digital and Esri.
“The last couple of years with GHD Digital has really just been the cherry on top of a long-term business partnership that we’ve had going back some 15 years.”
- Mark Goldman, Director AEC Industry Solutions, Esri
Kumar Parakala President, GHD Digital
Our leaders driving change The FY22 growth agenda was driven by a team of talented leaders across the globe. Our leaders come from diverse backgrounds and experiences, and they are much more than their job titles. They are also accountants, actors, artists, athletes, economists, innovators, lawyers, musicians and software developers.
GHD Digital - Business Review FY22 | 23 Jacyl Shaw Global Practice Director, D-Lab Natalie Cousens Global Marketing and Communications Leader Tony Butler Operations Director, Southern Hemisphere GHD Global Digital Leadership Bob Armacost Regional Market Development Leader Northern Hemisphere Nipa Basu Global Practice Director, Digital Intelligence Ali Carden Global Practice Director, Products and Platforms Catherine Crofton Market Development Leader, Canada Penny Harold Global People Leader Bernadette Kan Global Finance Leader Steve Lennon Digital Leader, Australia Rojo Mathai Global Practice Director, Digital Experience Matt Winkelman Operations Director, Northern Hemisphere Max Stevens-Guille Chief Technology Officer Craig Stockton Digital Leader, EMEA championsChange
In a highly competitive and dynamic market, it’s critical that we attract and retain the best talent with diverse backgrounds and experience. In FY22, the following initiatives were seen to help foster a positive culture: Launched our global mentoring program with 60 Formalisedparticipantsan awards program, hosting our first global celebration forum – Pause for Applause 2021 Successfully hosted two leadership summits bringing together our senior leaders of the business and several other senior leaders from across the GHD enterprise. These sessions helped crystalise our ambition for GHD Digital and secured strong alignment and buy-in to our growth strategy and Asapproachamember of the New Zealand Asia Association and Chinese Women Association of New Zealand, Joy Chen delivered an I&D presentation for service lines to increase the awareness and value of culture differences for stronger team building.
Incubating the right culture
We often focus on digital transformation but underplay the people. Not only do people create the technology to fuel transformation, they incite how it connects, integrates, works and automates. Key to this is diversity. Generating ideas is the easy part. It’s the merging of ideas from people with different backgrounds that culminates in innovation. Our diversity is creating a competitive advantage and internal transformation, which is why we have made it a priority to leverage GHD’s Inclusion and Diversity (I&D) journey and take actions that help foster a highperformance culture through diversity. Women in engineering and technology careers are still highly underrepresented. We are focused on changing the statistics by sourcing talented females from around the globe to bring fresh and innovative perspectives. This is reflected in our global leadership team that consists of 50 percent gender parity. Across our regional teams, we not only display a diversity of gender, but a diversity of race, age, skills, experience, and Talentinsights. is the engine for value creation and a leading indicator of where our business is headed.
02. Enable internal digital transformation of the GHD enterprise through availability of diversity of skills for an outside-in perspective, leveraging digital and innovation as Weenablers.willprioritise and focus on three key areas in FY23.
Looking
01. Drive diversification of GHD’s offerings and broaden its value-chain influence through digital innovation, products, integrated solutions and consulting services.
“We want to be seen as an innovator in the market. Every client conversation should include how we can use our digital capabilities to help our clients in their transformation, find new ways to solve their challenges and create and capture value.”
- Jim Giannopoulos, Chief Executive Officer Americas, GHD
02. Digital transformation of the GHD enterprise to deliver operational benefits: By infusing digital and innovation into our conventional client services and adopting an outside-in strategy, we will continue to create new trajectories of growth based on new products and services for the digital age. Feedback suggests that digital experience, data, analytics and innovation are critical capabilities and enablers, required to maintain GHD’s competitiveness, future-proof the enterprise, and retain and grow key clients.
01. Continuing to build digital business assets of significant value to GHD: Very high valuation of digital assets has become a barrier for M&A activity. In this environment, significantly enhancing organic investments to scale the business is an attractive option. The digital business, with more than 75 percent of its new capabilities in adjacent and edge horizons, requires ongoing investments to capitalise on the disproportionately large potential in a post-pandemic, digitally-accelerated world.
03. An integrated GTM approach to increase integrated GHD sales: We will carefully manage strategic tensions relating to growth vs profitability, short-term vs long-term ROI, core vs new businesses, AEC vs non-AEC competitors, conventional skills vs new skills and inclusivity in shaping the enterprise’s growth and success agenda.
GHD Digital - Business Review FY22 | 25 FY23 marks a crucial period for investing in GHD’s long-term future. It will enable us to capitalise on unique market opportunities that align to our ambition of diversifying our influence on client value-chains, enhancing our competitiveness, scaling new businesses and developing integrated solutions that address emerging client issues in a post-pandemic, digitally accelerated business and social environment. We will continue to evolve our strategy in FY23 with a focus on driving growth of the GHD Digital business to maximise enterprise value and building differentiation for GHD. Our two-prong approach:
forward
We are focused on a combined determination to embrace technology and innovation to find new ways to solve long-standing problems. From renewable energy to water scarcity and sustainability, our industry can shape future communities for years to come.
Find out more: Kumar Parakala | President, GHD Digital kumar.parakala@ghd.com
