Deloitte trumps PwC; REA new CTO; CBA job cuts

IAG utilises digitisation and data for staff movements

IAG has improved, and in some cases digitised, process workflows for onboarding new staff and "cross-boarding" or offboarding existing employees.

The insurer made the changes in its Radius HR platform, which is powered by ServiceNow's employee center product.

Radius is used by IAG employees to?search HR knowledge articles, raise a service request, chat directly with a HR consultant and complete various safety and wellbeing forms and checklists.

Meanwhile, "the digitised cross-boarding and offboarding capability prompts employees and leaders on the tasks and activities that need to be completed to successfully transition employees to new roles or when exiting the organisation."

The upgrades are the latest "iterative" improvements made to the ServiceNow platform.

REA Group appoints a new CTO

REA Group will have a new chief technology officer from October as a replacement for Chris Venter, whom it was revealed had a “severe accident” mid last year.

The digital advertising company said that senior vice president and chief digital officer of Auto Trader in Canada, Steve Maidment, has been appointed to the CTO role.

At REA, he will assume oversight of “the platforms which underpin REA’s products, services and operations,” the company said in a statement.

Venter - who joined REA in June 2021?- “had to take medical leave from his role after a severe accident”, REA said.

Commonwealth Bank to cut about 250 jobs

CBA?has told staff it is cutting an estimated 251 jobs across its IT, business bank and retail bank in an effort to reduce costs.

It follows cuts at Sydney-based rival Westpac, which has slashed 400 roles inside the bank and another 400 from contractors as part of a push to reduce headcount by a fifth against its 2020 levels.

The job losses are concentrated in Sydney and Melbourne. The Finance Sector Union said 822 roles were made redundant, but the bank would redeploy 571 workers.

CBA employs about 49,200 full-time equivalent employees, with the cuts representing less than a percentage point of its overall workforce. It does not affect bank branch roles.

Toll Group signs on to SAP 'sovereign cloud' services

Toll Group has emerged as one of the first enterprise users of “sovereign cloud” services that SAP has stood up for Australia.

“SAP’s sovereign cloud capabilities were a clear choice for us as an extension of Toll Group’s existing SAP S/4 HANA environment and one that mirrored the environment of our largest government clients,” President of government and defence Perry Singh said.

It appeared IBM Consulting had a role in the adoption by Toll Group, characterising the project as “secure modernisation” of Toll’s cloud environments.

SAP said it had established “hardened, secure facilities” in Australia and New Zealand to house managed services and cloud services.

Deloitte set to snatch top spot from imploding PwC

Deloitte is on target to become the largest of the big four consulting firms this financial year thanks to the collapse in revenue at its once-dominant rival PwC.

The firm’s annual income jumped more than 14 per cent to $2.85 billion in the year to May.

While PwC is still the larger firm, the devastating tax leaks scandal of the last financial year means it will be a much reduced outfit in 2023-24.

Deloitte’s strong result, driven mainly by its powerhouse consulting arm, comes as sector leaders adjust to a political environment poisoned by PwC’s tax scandal.

The firm now has about 1000 partners and has grown staff numbers by 2000 to almost 14,000. This includes hiring 1400 graduates and about 3000 experienced hires during the 2022-23 financial year.

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