Advancing the nation’s data culture and maturity

AUSTRALIA, 9 SEPTEMBER 2024 – As the world continues to face seismic growth and change in the creation, scope and impact of data, the question of how it can best be managed, protected and strategised has been an increasing focus for those charged with defence and protection.

JLL is working with Australia’s Department of Defence to advance the nation’s data culture and maturity, in a project supporting an Australian SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) in the digitisation of Defence processes, with a focus on efficiency and a user-friendly outcome.

JLL is working with data and analytics firm Analytical Progression – an SME founded in 2020 that was named Australia’s #1 Analytics Leader by the Institute of Analytical Professionals Australia. The firm specialises in digitalising government processes.

JLL’s Defence Lead, Geoff Camp said, “We recognised the skill set of Analytical Progression and their award winning digital transformation projects. Our role was to guide them through the process of using their expertise while also meeting the stringent security and regulatory compliance of a government contract.

“We pride itself on using our reach to open doors for smaller players, particularly with government contracts, and particularly for projects that involve a customer first approach.

“The success of working with SMEs like Analytical Progression allows us to provide agile solutions for our clients, utilising the cutting edge digital transformation ideas and tools that we typically see from start-ups.

“We are proud of the fact we work with a range of SMEs across a number of projects, to provide the very best solutions in the market,” said Mr Camp.

Analytical Progression’s CEO and Data Scientist, Sean Pereira said digital transformation projects are focused on unifying elements such as analytics, customer experience, design, technical builds and more to unlock the potential of data in enhancing decision-making and productivity by, for example, moving away from information silos.

“As a small business in the data analytics space, we complemented a part of JLL’s business. So our partnership with JLL really focused on them opening doors, working collaboratively together and allowing us to do what we do, but trusting us to do it in the best interests of them and their clients.

“It was about JLL introducing us as an SME business in partnership,” said Mr Pereira.

Mr Pereira is grateful for the ongoing support of Defence, noting that while, by necessity, they will always need to work with large businesses, their commitment to supporting small businesses to thrive as part of a three-way relationship including PRIMEs and SMEs remains exciting.

As part of the JLL/Analytical Progression partnership, the initial piece of work for Defence – one that continues to develop to this day - was developing a Small to Medium Business (SME) and Indigenous Business (IB) data diagnostic tool.

While the project was complex and multifaceted, the ultimate aim was to transform existing data architecture to enable outcomes such as streamlined reporting, the identification of possible efficiencies, the delivery of digestible and actionable insights that may previously have been latent and the ability to showcase businesses that Defence had helped to grow – and also identify those which were ready for engagement but may have previously stayed under the radar.

With phase one workings delivered in less than a year, and evolutions ongoing, the white-label project has resulted in a far more digitally driven and data-driven analysis platform.

Its success has been so marked that at the 2020 Commonwealth Procurement Awards for Excellence, it picked up the Gold Award in the category of Engaging with Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

The company’s customer-first approach to data has been so successful that at the Australian Defence Industry Awards 2023, Analytical Progression was named as a finalist for SME of the Year.

The honour gave Mr Pereira impetus to reflect on the relationship.

“As a small business, you do have your ups and downs,” he said. “Running a business and sustaining it is difficult. And to be acknowledged, and to reflect on the value we’re delivering; that the hard work we’re doing as a team really means something.

“It was also a chance to reflect on all the people who have helped us, because there’s no way we’d ever be able to do any of this by ourselves. The trust from both JLL and Defence means a lot,” Mr Pereira said.