Defence CIO Excited about Improving I.T.

Peter Thomas, Chief Information Officer

NZDF’s 350 Communications and Information Systems (CIS Branch) staff look after all our communications and information systems, the 10,000 PCs on DIXS, our laptops, phones, and secret and secure networks such as SWAN.

They deliver the corporate applications that support our organisation, including SAP, ATLAS, and KEA. They’re spread across the country at the various Camps and Bases, at the primary data centre in Porirua, and at a secondary data centre in Devonport.

Here we talk to Chief Information Officer Peter Thomas about the future direction of our corporate and military network information and communication systems, and about what his staff will be doing.

NZDF’s Chief Information Officer Peter Thomas arrived in the job about the middle of last year and is still hugely enjoying the Defence work environment.

He’s passionate about his role as head of the Communication and Information Systems Branch, and says every day he comes across something new or exciting that can be done to improve NZDF’s Communication and Information Systems (CIS). ‘It’s an extremely exciting and challenging job. Every day I find a new opportunity.’

After a 22 year corporate career working for Westpac, starting in branch banking when he joined as a 16-year-old cadet, Peter says it’s a refreshing change to be working for a public service organisation doing good for New Zealand, in a work culture that is flexible and supportive.

‘I consider myself a passionate New Zealander and when an opportunity came up in this environment, I was extremely excited about coming to work here,’ he says.

When Peter took up the CIO role as head of Defence IT he brought long and varied corporate civilian experience managing change and improvement. He spent 17 years working in financial markets and was instrumental in moving banking financial markets functions from paper-based processes to electronic systems.

‘When I started I didn’t even know what financial markets were, that we had dealing rooms and people who basically punted the bank’s money in foreign exchange and interest rate markets. It was probably the start of a passion for me in that particular field, and I spent 17 years in that environment, to a stage where I was looking after international operations for New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.’

Faced with the prospect of having to move to Sydney early in 2002, Peter choose to stay in Wellington. ‘I didn’t want to go to Sydney.’

He moved to retail banking, ran all back office bank operations, looked after property, sourcing, procurement, and was on the executive leadership team, reporting directly to the CEO. “The reason I left the bank was my job went to Auckland and I didn’t want to relocate.”

He also felt it was time for a change, he wanted more work-life balance, more time with his wife and three young children, less demanding work travel, and an end to an 80 hour working week. He and his family are keen on sports, especially soccer, keen on fishing, and love spending time at their beach holiday property in the Wairarapa.

‘I was working extremely long hours and on a plane somewhere every week. I wanted to try and do something a little bit different, to get into a different sector. This may not have the level of remuneration available in the banking sector or even in the private sector, but for me, coming to work in an environment where we are doing good for the New Zealand public and looking after the New Zealand citizen is something that I felt very passionate about.

‘Also, I saw a huge opportunity to change and improve the CIS function within Defence. Through my interview process it was the passion I saw from the CDF and GMOS, about how they could really see how the power of IT could improve our outputs that inspired me. They were really keen to embrace change in this part of the organisation. I found them extremely inspirational, and I decided that I really wanted to work for people like them.

‘The most important thing when searching for a new employer is that you get your values aligned. It doesn’t matter whether the money is really good, or the career opportunities are really good, or whatever it might be, if your values get compromised you are never going to succeed or realise your true potential. And I did feel that in my last few years in the banking sector there were a number of cases where my values were compromised in terms of the things I was asked to do. Whereas, I feel my values are far more aligned to the culture of this organisation and to the strategies that NZDF has.’

Though now chief of the NZDF’s information technology functions, Peter says IT is not his speciality. ‘If I am honest, I’d have to say I am not an IT specialist,” he says. “I consider myself to be a people leader and change manager. My strengths have been in bringing teams together for outcomes for an organisation, change management, and strategy. So while I have had a fair bit to do with IT, I’m not an IT specialist,’ he says. ‘I’m not a noughts and ones guy.’

Not having a military background makes little difference, he says. ‘I am only one person of a large team. Whilst I may be the senior IT person in this organisation, I don’t get anything done by myself. I rely on the expertise in my team and in my customer base. If we can get the people pieces right we will get the right outcomes. It doesn’t matter if you’re in banking, in the public sector, or running the corner diary, the principles of leadership are the same.

My role as the CIO, and what I have been asked to do, is come in here and transform the CIS function so it is seen more as an enabler to our customer base, particularly to our front line, to the pointy end of our organisation.’

From now Peter says more effort will go into using IT to enable military outcomes and advantage. “The focus of IT has (previously) largely been in the corporate domain. We have achieved some really good outcomes in the operational domain as well, but as we move forward it’s the power IT can bring to our war fighting community that’s going to be the real transformational change that occurs here. We are still just scratching the surface on what the power of IT can do for us in terms of enabling our business processes.

But also, Peter strongly believes that business and military issues cannot be solved by information technology alone. ‘The solution is not IT. We can bring new capabilities to bear from an IT point of view relatively simply. But it’s actually how we change our business processes to use the new technology which is the real big challenge - the change management, the training required, the changing of mind sets, to think and act in a different way, and use that technology. In my view the IT solution is easy. It’s actually how we integrate that into business processes and into our culture that is the big challenge for us.’

Peter says that new IT will increasingly enable Defence effort, but is only a tool. ‘There is no such thing as an IT project,’ he says. ‘All IT projects do is enable the business to achieve its outcomes. So we should think of all our projects as business-led projects. IT may be a component, but the focus needs to be on our people and our processes.

‘Everything starts with our people. It doesn’t matter what our trade is or what our outcomes are, if we focus on our people and create the right working environment, the people will be successful. If we don’t get the people aspect right up front, we won’t get to achieve the levels of outcomes that we could achieve.’

As part of his efforts to really understand the IT needs of the NZDF, Peter already has spent time in various Camps and Bases, and expects this year to visit deployed forces in either East Timor or Afghanistan.

When not out and about, he works three days a week in Defence House, and two days a week at the Computer Centre in Porirua.

New Technology Enhancements

CIS Branch staff will introduce some basic technology capability enhancements this year that will improve the IT experience and work outputs of everyone in the NZDF. These will include:

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