The client

Athena Home Loans have been a major sector disruptor in the home loan sector. Some of their big investment backers include AirTree Ventures, Apex Capital, Australian Super, Hostplus, Macquarie Bank, RESIMAC Group, Rice Warner, Square Peg and Sunsuper. Our involvement with Athena began at its conception and continues to this day.

The challenge

Ingenuity was brought in to support Athena before launch, when there were only 10 employees. There were two main elements to tackle: determining what technology would best uplift their cutting-edge operating model at launch, and supporting them in building an unrivalled digital experience that bolstered their innovative product. The key? To be able to move faster than anyone else. Ingenuity was up for the challenge.

The process

We worked with the CTO to map out the core systems and technology that would support our unrivalled digital experience. The outcome of the initial assessment indicated that using a greenfield Salesforce CRM to build out the core origination and lending platforms would provide the greatest speed and best customer experience. When Athena pushed the limits of what the off-the-shelf system could do, Ingenuity designed and built a replacement origination system on Salesforce. Salesforce became the core system not just for CRM, but also for origination, lending (using Cloud Lending), and identity management.

The outcome

A custom origination system was built for a fraction of the cost of a commercial option on Salesforce. It is best-in-class, tailored to their needs, and highly sustainable from both operating cost and skills perspectives. The lending platform built by Ingenuity on Salesforce is core to Athena’s operations and success. From zero to $3.4 Billion in Loans in 3 years

The comments

“Ingenuity has been a key partner in Athena's journey and have supported us from the beginning of our journey in becoming a disruptor in our sector. Ingenuity have worked with us to determine the most pragmatic way to achieve our ambition and were embedded in our team from the beginning.”
Peter Georgiou Chief Technology Officer, Athena

The client

Macquarie University was established in 1964 as a bold experiment in higher education. Built to break free from traditions and work in tandem with industry, they strive for the extraordinary by challenging conventions and embracing different views. Macquarie University also has the largest internship program in the country – under the title of PACE (Professional and Community Engagement program), it links employers with students and provides a unique experience to enrich their education and build in-roads into employability after graduation.

The challenge

Macquarie University, like many universities, had a disjointed approach to systems – they had no overarching IT strategy or architecture, which had a detrimental impact on the student experience. Ingenuity was called to undertake a whole IT systems strategy review. The aim was to form a holistic, customer-centric approach to systems design. We were tasked with helping visualise the current state, and additionally tasked with consolidating a future systems approach to truly support the needs of the staff and student/customer base.

The process

The engagement kicked off with a full review mapping into standardised education capability framework. Visualisation occurred through a process of engagement across both the support staff, students, and employers. We conducted a gap analysis, finding that a CRM uplift would provide the largest initial impact. We concluded that this increase in efficiency should focus on supporting student engagement across two key areas: future students and employment/careers (PACE). Process mapping commenced and a solution was proposed which involved utilising the under-used Salesforce CRM as a data source to drive marketing activities, including integration with Marketo. Then, we tackled the migration of the whole PACE administration into Salesforce – streamlining the admin and allowing the database of employers, students and their employment interests to be maintained in a single place. This enabled the PACE team to pair up employers and students more easily into meaningful engagements.

The outcome

Upon the solution’s initial release, the PACE users – both administration staff and students/employers – were impressed with the streamlined processes, finding usability much improved. It was also well received by the broader University community who immediately began looking for more ways to utilise the power of our re-built CRM. This project provided a strong forward-facing vision of a systems architecture which was cohesive and customer focused. It also proved the viability of the technology already in place through a proof of concept – using Salesforce to streamline an antiquated and admin heavy process. Marketing no longer needed to use individual loads to manage their data, allowing them to leverage the power of Marketo to drive their work.

The comments

“The Ingenuity team were able to seamlessly integrate themselves into the broader University community. They felt like part of the team and had our best interests at heart. Once the wider University could see the value of the PACE program and the power that Salesforce was providing we had departments across the institution approaching us for a similar outcome.”
David Reeve Chief Information Officer, Macquarie University

The client

Lusio Rehab is a NDIS approved Assistive Tech start-up that gamifies the physiotherapy experience through an ecosystem app with wearable sensors. The sensors attach to any part of the body and connect via Bluetooth to an ever-growing number of FUN exergames created to entertain and motivate players, particularly children, through their tailor-made PT programs. Lusio sells to both direct customers (often families) as well as NDIS providers, Occupational Therapists, and Hospitals.

The challenge

Like many lean start-ups, Lusio Rehab was operating off basic web platforms which offered little for their sales approach. They were ‘losing leads’ in the gaps between systems and did not have a robust way to manage their pipeline or their workflows. After discussions with Ingenuity’s team, they realised that adopting a customised CRM which was built to support their unique B2B/B2C business model would allow them to grow and scale easily. They wanted to do this in an efficient and economical way, enabling them to scale, but not breaking the bank in the process.

The process

The Lusio Rehab and Ingenuity team worked together to ensure that their unique needs were catered to and that their future operating models would also be supported. After review of possible solution options, Salesforce was chosen as the most flexible, scalable and extensible – ensuring their requirements would be met today and into the future. But most importantly, they were met at a price-point that made sense for a small business. Lusio doesn’t have project resources, so Ingenuity deployed team members in a part-time capacity alongside the Lusio Rehab team, ensuring that the project could pivot when necessary and deliver quickly – completing the initial CRM build in 6 months. The most critical element of the build centred around workflow automation, which ensured that new leads were able to self-complete the process – moving themselves through the pipeline and ensuring that the customer could access the wider support services efficiently and independently. This streamlined the process for both customer and the business – enabling Lusio to more easily scale their sales cycle.

The outcome

In just six months, Lusio Rehab was able to build a customised CRM system with workflow automation to support their sales processes from the ground up. Ingenuity was able to help the Lusio Rehab team continue to build upon the success of the new system and ensure that they were set up for growth. They were able to see 100% increase in new business in the last 18 months, thanks to an incredibly streamlined sales cycle and a significant reduction in the ‘lost’ leads that featured so heavily before the CRM was built.

The comments

“Ingenuity understood we were starting with a blank slate, and they took the time to work with us to define our goals and solutioned to those. No matter what the challenge they always found a solution – it wasn’t always easy, but they never stopped supporting us in finding one. Our pipeline management has become much more efficient and transparent. We now can easily and professionally communicate with clients and customers in a consistent and branded way. Ingenuity listened to exactly what our needs were and worked alongside us to get the best outcomes.”
Robin Sydney Communications Manager, Lusio Rehab

The client

Working with 50 universities around the world, Study Group’s reputation and expertise in international education ensures success for their partners and students. They are united in working with universities to build a better world through education.

The Challenge

Study Group were looking for a way to engage their disparate agent network more closely and to streamline their admissions process. They had a large Salesforce implementation and capability in house to do development but required support to clearly articulate the vision and define within the architecture and data landscape how best to bring it to life. ​

The process

Ingenuity worked closely with IT and the business to work through options of how this could come to life. We reviewed the current IT landscape and the flow of data between systems to help make recommendations around the architecture to support the implementation. ​ Study Group interviewed agents who provided input into the designs and features the business was looking to implement. ​ Ingenuity started the initial build of the portal which was completed by Study Group.

The outcome

Study Group was able to, within 8 months, build an industry leading Agent Portal which provided agents with meaningful, actionable data in real-time. The portal streamlined Study Group’s application processes and provided global teams with better visibility of both pipeline and agent performance. ​

The comments

“Kyle and Ingenuity really helped us articulate the technical detail which underpinned the agent portal. Then they clearly defined the architecture which brought it to life.”​
​ Marty Grant Former Global Head of Delivery and Architecture

The client

ORIX is one of the world’s leading Fleet Management company. They are a long established and global provider of car financing solutions to organisations and individuals.

The Challenge

ORIX operates a very traditional business model, using a similarly ‘traditional’ (legacy) technology stack. With a new CIO appointed, ORIX was keen to understand disrupting business influences and how technology could enable them to adapt their own business model.​​

The process

Ingenuity provided ORIX with a technology strategy scoped to fit their budget and tight timeframes. This was as much about executive engagement as it was technology analysis, so it was fundamentally aligned to business goals.​​ We challenged the legacy approach to mobile applications and proposed a more innovative approach using the newly released Mobile Publisher (mobile portal) features of Salesforce - the first use of this feature in the region.​

The outcome

ORIX gained a technology strategy that was enthusiastically endorsed and supported by the executive team. ORIX delivered two new customer apps in record time, delighting the business, and leaving the technology team with a sustainable technology solution. The solution was highlighted at the Salesforce Financial Services Showcase.​ The efficiency project has gained more and more momentum and is now an organisational priority.​

The comments

“The Ingenuity team were up to the task of undertaking an implementation which had never been done in region. They were transparent throughout the engagement and merged seamlessly with our team to deliver a fantastic outcome – on time and on budget.”
Richard Hilliard  Former Chief Information Officer​

The client

The Department of Education is a government department in Victoria, Australia. Formerly known as the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development until January 2015 and Department of Education and Training until January 2023, the department is responsible for the state's education system.​

The Challenge

DET Victoria currently uses a host of legacy systems to make up the Victorian Student Information system. The Student Insight programme is a multi-year digital transformation program to transform the way student information is managed at Victorian Government schools. It is digitising many paper-based processes to create a new way of working. Ultimately Student Insight will create a single record for each student, placing the student at the centre of their journey through the school system.​ The goals and capabilities of the program include:​

1. Centralise student related data and processes with a focus on each individual student​
2. Enable Schools & central functions to share and collaborate on all aspects of student care​
3. Transform the student administration process​
4. Business insights capability for Schools and Central staff​
5. Student Insight has been and continues to be progressively co-designed with schools and central staff​
6. Efficiencies within Schools to allow School staff to focus on the children and not the admin​

The process

The engagement commenced with the Ingenuity team understanding the current landscape and legacy platforms at DE. A roadmap was produced sequencing out the capabilities that would provide the most benefits across Schools and the Department to be completed first. The first release was focussed on producing a digital Enrolment process followed by the digital 6-7 Placement Process - currently paper based and time-consuming processes across all Schools.​ Our team integrated the overall Agile run program which was broken down into multiple (up to 6), parallel Scrum teams with each having a discrete but inter-connected area of responsibility. We have been running typical Agile rituals to run such a program at scale, including Daily Stand-ups by workstream, weekly Scrum of Scrums, Program level Stand-ups, Sprint Planning across workstreams, and technical shoulder checks. At the User Story level, these are refined in the workstream and then prioritized by Product Owners. Workstream Retros and Program Level Retros involving both the Technical and Business Teams are continually looking at ways the program can improve its execution. ​

The outcome

The digital enrolment and the digital year 6-7 placement process was piloted to 18 schools in 2023. While it is early days, we are seeing significant efficiency benefits. For example, a 13-page paper-based digital enrolment form which previously took a school officer 45 minutes to re-key data is now only taking a few minutes. Full rollout is in progress to provide the digital process to all schools and obtain the benefits at scale.​ The program has, to-date, achieved the successful transformation of a paper-based system to fully digital process using the Salesforce EDA model. It is currently live and in pilot mode with 18 schools undertaking their enrolment processes for both a primary and a secondary school year. The next committed phases of work (currently in development) is the expansion of the number of schools and years supported, as well as the ability to transfer and exit from schools.​

The comments

“This engagement has been outstanding. Resources were skilled and experienced in the product, communicated regularly and were easy to work with. A very successful engagement, with no hesitation to engage the partners in the future."
Edel David Program Director Student Insight Program​