Taronga Conservation Society Australia leveraged SAP BTP to optimize their processes in order to allocate more resources to conservation initiatives
Naturally saving time, money, and energy enables organizations to increase profits and productivity. For
Taronga Conservation Society Australia, however, efficiency means something even greater.
Taronga began as a zoo in 1916 and has evolved into a leading conservation, research, and education hub dedicated to helping animals survive and thrive. The organization works with governments, universities, and conservation partners to help secure a shared future for wildlife and people.
As a government-owned non-profit organization, all profits go towards wildlife conservation initiatives. Every resource, including financial, people, technological, and physical, is highly valued and crucial for Taronga to run its operations and spearhead its purpose. Any efficiencies are channeled back into what matters most: wildlife conservation.
To further their mission, Taronga chose to digitize their organization. In this episode of Better Together: Customer Conversations, we explore how Taronga leveraged
SAP Business Technology Platform to increase operational efficiencies, optimize resources and achieve real-time reporting for data-driven decisions.
This episode features:
- Mark Kemp, Project Manager, IT Team, Taronga Conservation Society Australia
- David Jensen, Coordinator Digital Transformation, UN Environment Programme
Mark joins us to delve into Taronga’s digital transformation and David joins us to discuss the invaluable and inevitable intersection of conservation, sustainability, and digital innovation.
The Challenges
With a large employee base across two locations totaling nearly 900 acres, Taronga wanted to optimize its operations and employee efficiency. They were interested in developing a simple, intuitive solution that would digitize their paper-based processes across the finance, procurement, human resources, and guest experience departments. They aimed to create an app that would reduce manual effort, improve accuracy, and enable their staff to spend more time in the field.
Taronga also sought to develop a robust analytics foundation. The data collection and reporting processes had been stretched across siloed systems, making it difficult for the management team to find important metrics. Decision-makers had to access disparate data sources across multiple lines of business to generate manual reports, which left room for not only delays but also errors. Taronga’s goal was to develop a unified data framework for real-time detailed accurate visibility into their key metrics.
The Technology
Taronga partnered with
Bourne Digital to develop solutions that would address their two key challenges. On the staff side, they built an SAP workflow management tool called Staff Experience Application, or Stax. They leveraged SAP Business Technology Platform via UF1 framework and used Fiori for the front end. They integrated staff information and core business processes into this single mobile and desktop application for an enhanced user experience.
In terms of their analytics initiatives, Taronga and Bourne Digital leveraged SAP Analytics Cloud to deliver a scalable, robust, and system-based approach to enterprise reporting. Their suite of dashboard tools delivers timely access to insights through a simplified interface and enables users to standardize their metrics.
The Results
The Stax project delivered a fully deployed cloud application that optimized workflow processes for all employees. The app is the go-to solution for staff members submitting animal supplies, leave requests, requisitions, and site-wide alerts, all which allow for more time and resources for animal welfare.
Since implementing Stax, Taronga achieved:
- 87% guest satisfaction with helpfulness of staff
- 33% of staff users are mobile-first
- 25,902 unique page views
On the analytics side, the project modernized and streamlined Taronga’s data experience. The management team now uses a single source of truth to quickly evaluate costs and make data-driven decisions with confidence. The unified framework gives them the flexibility to pivot based on real-time data. By eliminating manually retrieved reports and integrating isolated systems, Taronga enables its staff to access timely, accurate data.
After developing the analytics framework, Taronga attained:
- 50% reduction in time to prepare monthly management reporting packs
- 4x increase in visibility of revenue results and cashflow forecasts for ops management
- 100% improvement in the analytics experience for Taronga’s executive teams
Most importantly, Taronga has improved efficiencies in both their operational and analytical processes, which frees up more time, resources, funds, and energy for wildlife conservation and recovery efforts.
Tune into the episode
Join us to hear the full story, from the thought-leadership podcast to the practitioner’s LinkedIn conversation:
- Podcast: I sit down with Mark Kemp and David Jensen to discuss why data-driven decision-making is key for organizations to become more sustainable.
- LinkedIn conversation: Mark Kemp digs into Taronga’s design, development, and implementation processes, and shares what’s next in their digital strategy.
Check out more stories about streamlining data for increased efficiency:
- Natura: Keeping Customers and the Planet Beautiful with Help from Intelligent IT
- NEOM: Building a Futuristic, Cognitive Urban Area That Reimagines Urban Life
Visit
sap.com/btp to find all the
Better Together: Customer Conversations. I’m always interested in hearing from you; let me know which topics you would like us to discuss further. Please
contact us if you would like to be a guest on a future episode.
