Technology and finance are two important topics that often come up in today's modern construction landscape. However, something that not everyone talks about is how these two areas intersect.
Finance and technology (particularly information technology) are highly intertwined. Together, they promote smarter decisions and more efficient operations.
For our latest Digital Builder episode, I have the pleasure of sitting down with Rexine Jones, the Chief Financial and Information Officer at Hansen Yuncken.
We explored the synergy between finance and technology, the power of partnerships, and the role of entrepreneurial thinking in elevating these elements within organizations.
We discuss:
Rexine was appointed as CFO at Hansen Yuncken, later expanding her role to CIO and Company Secretary. She led a company-wide transformation program, aligning functions and strategy at all levels.
With responsibilities spanning finance, technology, and leadership, you might be wondering what does a typical day look like for someone who's both a CFO and CIO?
Rexine describes it as a balance between different bookends.
"It's really about the bookends that I have. There are financial bookends, which are made of marble. They're solid, and they're strong. They're the right numbers, and everyone's clear about our direction and why."
"And my other bookends—technology—are like papier mâché. They move with the business. I get to talk to our technology family, which includes internal teams and partners like Autodesk.”
Finance and technology are deeply intertwined, and as someone who leads both departments, Rexine sees firsthand how critical their integration is for driving business success.
"They go hand in hand because both need that data environment. They require a strong architecture where we can look at what's happening in the business and start to see around corners."
She adds that technology drives the "how," while finance defines the "what." Technology helps navigate the path forward, while the financial figures guide decisions on what's needed to make progress and what to anticipate.
That's why having a robust platform for your data is vital—even if it's not perfect.
"As long as you've got reasonable data, then we can use it to pull the levers to see around the corner," she says.
Rexine also brings up the importance of people because, at the end of the day, it's the teams behind these tools who manage the levers and bring the strategy to life.
In line with that, it's vital to have well-trained teams and instill an innovative mindset, particularly as firms prepare themselves for the future.
"I had this real a-ha moment when it dawned on me that what really underpins everyone is the quality of training. What's more, adopting entrepreneurial thinking helps people progress as they develop."
Beyond training, there's also the relationships aspect, which is pivotal in fostering collaboration and success.
As Rexine puts it, "I have to credit to the people on the ground. It's the people on the project and the relationships that they build. And it's also the Hansen Yuncken culture, along with our partners. We consider the Autodesk team to be part of the family. They come to our strategy days, and they come to our projects. They have their Hansen Yuncken hardhat, which has their name on it. They're the same as us."
"I think our partnership with a few of our key providers—including Autodesk—is incredibly valuable. I feel privileged to have my own team and the whole family to support our projects."
Narrow profit margins and risk management continue to grapple many construction firms, and Rexine admits that these issues weigh on her, too.
As far as solutions are concerned, she believes that improving profitability while lowering risk starts in the bidding and tendering process.
"What keeps me up at night is how we tender today," she says. "How do we take what we're experiencing in today's projects and feed that back to the tender in real time? How do we keep the people who are tendering connected with the project we're building?"
She recalls an instance when she visited a Project Management Review (PMR) meeting, wherein a project manager raised a concern: they needed to adjust their margin by a million AUD because of unforeseen issues regarding a platform at a train station.
Rexine immediately called in the estimator who had worked on the tender, and together, they uncovered a miscommunication about the original plan. The estimator had a specific idea during the tendering process that hadn't been communicated to the project team.
This scenario underscored a critical issue: the disconnect between tendering and execution.
That's why Rexine believes that entrepreneurial thinking—aligning insights from tendering with real time project execution—is essential to managing risk and profitability.
However, it requires constant training and iterative improvement. "You're tendering today for a project that you may not have finished in 18 months' time."
To address this, Rexine advocates for ongoing, bite-sized training to prepare teams for evolving technology and practices.
Our conversation also touches on Hansen Yuncken's technology choices and how they determine which solutions to adopt.
For Rexine, it all starts with your objectives.
"What's the need, what's the vision? If we can articulate that throughout the organization, you get people to follow your vision, which is important for change."
From there, the team evaluates how the technology will impact their staff and operations. Rexine considers whether a solution will ultimately reduce work or introduce more challenges, acknowledging that change initially brings extra effort. Hansen Yuncken also identifies key stakeholders who will champion each initiative.
"Who are the key stakeholders and technology champions? And so, we create a register, an Excel spreadsheet of all of our key champions in each part of our technologies so that we know that if they get a promotion or if they move on, there's a gap there, and we're refilling it."
This system ensures continuity and progress as new technology is introduced and adopted.
Rexine also talks about the maturity levels between different parts of the country.
For example, in Australia, a place like New South Wales has more tech maturity than other areas.
"I've got to consider the multiple maturities and how they play out in all those fashions. We also factor in the speed of change. Before I even go into the value I'm creating, I need to look at the breadth of technology adoption at the executive level."
Rexine continues, "It's really about knowing upfront where we see the value, testing the technology, and then we zip it up all the way through the organization."
At this point, it's all about rolling out the technology. Rexine describes this process as "zippering"—a metaphor for how smoothly things progress depending on the circumstances.
"When everything is aligned, and the team is ready, the zipper goes up easily," she explains. "But if it's a challenging time, like during the holiday season when everyone's a bit stretched, the zipper can get stuck. Sometimes, you have to go back and clear the path before moving forward again."
"When I talk about value, it's really all of those facets coming together. I do think it's going to come down to how we pass the value of sustainability through technology and how the client sees spending money today versus tomorrow's return."
Digital Builder is hosted by me, Eric Thomas. Remember, new episodes of Digital Builder go live every week.
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