Insights

The quarterly Interpro magazine

Enable:
From start-up
to the cloud
The battle
for the
enterprise
mobility
throne
Why SEO
is more
than
just
content
A SMARTER
guide
to good
requirements
The Australian
LNG skill
shortage
Hong Kong offce
opens + Interpro
Energy launch
s we move toward the
middle of 2014 these
are the trends weve no-
ticed across the industry:
An increasing demand for
niche skills. The biggest trend we
have seen is the increased need
for professionals with niche skills.
The most in-demand for 2014
are:
Software as a service (Saas)
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Digital talent with creative
and mobile experience
Web development; particu-
larly HTML5, CSS, CQ5 and
various content management
systems (CMS)
SAP particularly ISU and BI
modules
Salesforce development, con-
fguration and customisation
skills
Experience across regulatory
and privacy act changes in
the banking & fnance sector
Large IT projects are moving
quicker than last year. With
many large IT projects com-
mencing or soon to commence,
there has been a faster decision
making process than in previous
years.
More opportunities in private
sector. In comparison to the pub-
lic sector, private industries are
producing contract opportunities
more consistently.
Enterprise size clients outsourc-
ing. Unsurprisingly, the trend
to outsource skills continues
amongst large businesses. The
large consultancies and systems
integrators, on the other hand,
are actively hiring locally.
Contractor rates remain steady.
With the exception of some
downward pressure around Pro-
ject and Change Management,
contractor rates have overall
been considerably steady.
With the rapid change in the IT
industry, many contractors have
been scoping their value in the
market without actively looking for
a new opportunity. Were commit-
ted to provide you with the best
service so please get in touch with
your account manager for a health
check of your current contract situ-
ation.
Kind Regards,
Bruce Hara
2 interpro.com.au
Bruce Hara, National Sales Director
A
Insights
interpro.com.au 3
05
06
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
News
Joshua Bateson: On Enable
The growth pains of enterprise
cloud computing
Why theres more to
SEO than just content
Managing the Australian LNG
skill shortage
The battle for the enterprise
mobility throne
Why projects need good
requirements
Hong Kong housing and constructing
forecast will see labour shortage
Net Promoter Score
In the frst quarter
of 2014, Interpro
launched a new offce
in Hong Kong. The
team of fve are head-
ed by Alan Main, who
will be leading Interpro
into the Asia market.
Interpro Asia will be
servicing the IT, Sales
& Marketing, Property
& Construction, and In-
surance sectors.
Client and partner
focus: Enable
We spoke with Joshua Bate-
son, the Practice Director of En-
able Professional Services. We
discussed the changing scope
of IT strategies within businesses
and how Enable are supporting
businesses navigate their cloud
roadmap.
You can read our conversation
with Joshua on page 6.
Projects &
business
analysis
Lead Business Analyst, Ken
Shome, provided his insight at
an exclusive roundtable session
hosted in our Melbourne offce
in May. The discussion focused
on writing good requirement;
identifying one of the corner-
stones of a good business an-
alyst.
You can read a discussion
post by Ken on page 18.
Interpro
Digital
The digital team at Interpro
have been growing in the
frst half of 2014, with spe-
cialised digital consultants
now based in all of our Aus-
tralian offces.
Chris Wilson provides an
insight into the SEO and
content marketing scene on
page 12.
Interpro
Energy
Interpro Energy has been
launched to service the Oil
and Gas industry across
the Asia-Pacifc region. The
new business is part of In-
terpros growth into new re-
gions and markets.
Divisional Manger, Colin
Chappelow, discusses on
page 14 the evolving Aus-
tralian LNG market
www.interpro.com.au 5
Interpro
news
New staff
Stevyn Monaghan
Chris Wilson
Elliott Young
Peter Thomson
Ian Dunsdon
Andy Thompson
Dianne Dagher
Linda Stephens
Emily Haydon
6 interpro.com.au
ith a firm belief
in aligning IT and
company strategy,
Joshua Bateson
discusses delivering cloud soft-
ware solutions with the end
user in mind.
Tell us how you came to join
Enable?
Ive always wanted to be
involved in a start-up and when
the opportunity was presented
which aligned with my vision
of a consulting company the
decision in the end wasnt too
difficult.
I started my career in soft-
ware consulting before mov-
ing into solutions architecture
and during that time I realised
that being purely focussed on
technology wasnt my passion;
it was leveraging my capabil-
ity to analyse situations, elicit
requirements and guide teams
to deliver to those require-
ments, using technology as the
catalyst.
So what sets Enables busi-
ness model apart?
Its a good question, in the 3
or 4 months since we started,
Enable has evolved. Initially
Bruce Hara [Enable Regional
Director] and I thought we
would be a Business and IT
consulting company but we
needed to differentiate.
From the conversations we
Joshua Bateson
On Enable
W
Joshua discusses the challenges that
come with IT projects and how
Enable are helping organisations
traverse their own cloud roadmaps.
Joshua Bateson is the Practice Directorof Enable
Professional Services, the start-up delivering digital
and cloud software consultancy services.
Bruce Hara (Sales Director) and Joshua Bateson (Practice Head)
interpro.com.au 7
were having we realised that
not many organisations are
purchasing commercial off-the-
shelf software anymore, for a
variety of reasons. Companies
are looking for viable options
and cloud provides that. Thats
where Enable comes in. Were
passionate about providing a
pragmatic approach to lever-
age cloud software and plat-
forms to automate business
process, its about transform-
ing the way an organisation
delivers service both internal-
ly and externally to clients
across all areas of the organ-
isation. We have created a
portfolio of services tailored
to where we see the industry
driving toward and so our
market differentiator is digital
and cloud software services.
Were certified partners with
two of the biggest players
in that field [Sales force and
Service Now] and that allows
us to rapidly deliver best of
breed solutions
And where do you see these
businesses cloud roadmaps
heading?
There are a lot of facets to
cloud and it means a lot of dif-
ferent things to a lot of differ-
ent people. I truly believe, with
the right Platform as a Service
(PaaS) and associated digi-
tal services, an organisation
can meet one hundred percent
of their business application
needs and that is a fantastic
position to be in, but it is a
matter of whether that is a
pragmatic, appropriate, and
cost effective approach based
on your business model.
Taking that pragmatic
approach is part of Enables
and by extension your
approach. Where does this
methodology stem from for
you?
Ive seen a lot of time and
money invested in projects for
IT; to integrate systems, con-
solidate data, virtualise infra-
structure or streamline pro-
cess, with no value realisation
or correlation to the broader
organisation. Because of this I
think a lot of organisations are
quite wary of the value and
services their IT department
provide.
If youre pragmatic you can
understand how IT can be lev-
eraged to deliver value to the
core business functions. Im a
big advocate for aligning IT
Not many organisa-
tions are purchasing
commercial off-the-
shelf software any-
more, for a variety of
reasons. Companies
are looking for viable
options and cloud
provides that
interpro.com.au 9
and IT strategy with organi-
sational strategy. There needs
to be an intrinsic link between
the two and we are gradual-
ly seeing the trend of IT and
business departments starting
to talk to each other again.
That relationship is maturing
and we feel weve got a part
to play in it.
When youre working with
clients, how does your back-
ground help you?
Being able to understand
both sides of that relationship
between IT and the business
is important to get the most
value realisation.
Part of my career has been
process consulting in the ITIL
framework, a best practice
framework for IT departments
to effectively define and deliver
their services. Ive worked with
a lot of senior managers in that
space, CIOs especially. We
now apply similar concepts in
a broader context; similar prin-
cipals can be applied to ser-
vice management. This allows
organisational departments to
work with IT and leverage tech-
nology to improve end client
service delivery.
Do you think the focus on end
users happen enough in the
industry?
I think over the last 12-18
months there has been a piv-
otal shift in focus on service
delivery for external clients as
well as internal business clients
of IT services, and this will
expand to internal business cli-
ents of other internal services
Large enterprises are starting
to understand that they need
to be dealing with their clients
on the clients terms rather than
their own. Its about commu-
nicating with clients how they
want to be engaged and con-
tinue the same conversations
across a variety of mediums
and at a convenient time for
them.
So back to Enable, how are
you helping businesses iden-
tify these opportunities as the
industry changes?
The key is to look at what the
end users want; what kind of
experience does your organi-
sation want to provide them?
The person out there on the
street who is looking to buy a
new mobile phone, the internal
user requesting to know their
annual leave balance or has
an issue with printing; how
does your organisation want
to interact with them? How
will they interact to fulfil their
request? And how do the con-
sumers want to then connect
with all the other end users
regarding their request? That
is whats going to drive how
technology evolves.
People will come up with
new, great, exciting, smart
ways to evolve the client expe-
rience and I think thats whats
really exciting not the tech-
nology itself, its all about what
the technology enables.
Large enterprises are
starting to under-
stand that they need
to be dealing with
their clients on the
clients terms rather
than their own. Its
about communi-
cating with clients
how they want to be
engaged and contin-
ue the same conver-
sations across a vari-
ety of mediums and
at a convenient time
for them.
10 www.interpro.com.au
loud computing is in
an awkward growth
phase. Businesses
have been excited by
the potential for a few years
now, but were at a stage
where using cloud computing
as an end-to-end enterprise
solution is still quite young.
Lower costs, ease-of-use and
regular updates have been
major selling points from basic
data storage to complicated
enterprise resource planning
(ERP) software. However, as
more businesses have dipped
into these services, a different
picture formed.
Forrester claims theyre see-
ing more interest in cloud-
based ERP solutions than ever
before, but current trends and
the types of questions being
asked lend themselves more to
SaaS ERP add-ons. Businesses
are not comfortable enough
just yet with cloud services to
move something so compre-
hensive offsite.
Gartner cites a 15.8 per-
cent increase in the industry
over the past year, but its
not coming anywhere close
to early estimates. Excitement
ran high for an easy-to-update
ERP offering high cost effec-
tiveness, speed and function-
ality. Unfortunately, downtime
problems have left some CIOs
uneasy.
Downtime and lost data
If Internet giant Amazon can
let their customers including;
Netflix, Pinterest and Instagram
down time and again, is there
any hope for reliable service?
Experts say its time to accept
downtime as a necessary evil
and put steps in place to ready
customers for the inevitable.
A reasonable system for cov-
ering lost time and data needs
to be in place for these tasks to
ever migrate. Currently, cloud
providers dont offer insurance
for lost data and few regu-
larly credit back hours lost to
downed servers or provide
free retrieval assistance.
Hidden costs and
expensive extras
While Microsoft has begun
to fight cost concerns, Gartner
research director, Sharon
Mertz, was able to identi-
fy several nuisance charges
involved in cloud-based pro-
cesses, included simple cloud-
based add-ons to on-site pro-
grams.
Thats unfortunate as
Forrester showed this was
an area of keen interest. Of
the 15 percent of compa-
nies planning to adopt the
service in 2013, roughly
two-thirds intended it only
for add-on purposes. As
support for an on-site busi-
The growth pains of
enterprise cloud computing
C
Sophia Marek, Senior Account Manager
Lower costs, ease-
of-use and regular
updates have been
major selling points
from basic data stor-
age to complicated
enterprise resource
planning(ERP) soft-
ware.
interpro.com.au 11
ness solution, cloud can be
quite convenient. Mertz warns
against frivolous fees, Unless
the SaaS solution is strictly a
one-off purchase. While add-
on subscription-based plans
allow businesses to invest in
the services they need as they
need them, hesitation ripples
through industries as CIOs
also struggle with concerns
regarding security and scal-
ability.
One major player looking
to solve these problems is
Microsoft with the software
giant now the second larg-
est cloud provider, behind
Amazon. With all five major
cloud services achieving year-
on-year growth, the growing
market will become more com-
petitive.
Executive Vice President of
Microsoft Business Solutions,
Kirill Tatarinov, certainly believes
Dynamics is the answer. In a
recent interview with Diginomica,
Tatarinov claimed that the 2015
release of Dynamics AX will be
the first end-to-end public cloud
solution.
"Point me at a serious orga-
nization that runs end-to-end
ERP in the cloud. NetSuite is
not at scale; none of these
guys are at scale."
Its a bold statement but it
may be exactly what the cloud
computing market needs for
CIOs to adopt complete cloud
solutions.
Sophia is a Senior
Account Manager with
over 15 years expe-
rience placing DBA/
BI/DWH professionals
across small to large
enterprise clients.
Sophia is part of the
Melbourne team of
our global Enterprise
Applications division.
Visit interpro.com.au to
learn more.
12 interpro.com.au
s search engine algo-
rithms evolve, digital
marketers and content
strategists continue
to fine tune their approach to
craft content for optimal search
placement. Recent updates
to Googles search algorithm
such as Panda, Penguin, and
Hummingbird have left many to
rethink their strategies. While
content may be king, theres
more to the story when it comes
to SEO.
Effective SEO to support
quality content
Sound and appropriate SEO
techniques paired with quality
content are the key to an effec-
tive content marketing strategy.
The former helps drive traffic
through search rankings; guid-
ing readers to the content that
is relevant to them. Whereas
before, techniques such as key-
word stuffing, duplicated con-
tent, and invisible text were
effective ways to increase search
rankingsthese days such prac-
tices will drop a sites posi-
tioning, and in some extreme
cases even result in a site being
banned from search results.
SEO-friendly page
structure
Search algorithms do not
favour sites that are poorly struc-
tured. Steps should be taken to
ensure that web pages on your
site are technically sound from
an indexing perspective. URLs
should be SEO friendly for
example, the URL www.exam-
ple.com/how-to-buy-teakettles
is optimally matched with a
page about buying teakettles.
Images should also be named
according, with an emphasis on
being as descriptive as possible
for example, red-mid-cen-
tury-teakettle.jpg should be
used in place of teakettle.jpg.
Furthermore, properly utilise
image ALT tags to follow suit. In
the previous example, a proper
ALT tag would be ALT=Red
mid-century teakettle.
Internal linking
Internal linking is important
to improving a sites SEO, as it
Why theres more to SEO
than just content
A
Chris Wilson, Digital Consultant
Social, Search, & Content
interpro.com.au 13
builds internal page credibility.
For internal links links that con-
nect pages in your site togeth-
er try to use the destination
pages keyword phrase in the
linked text to the greatest extent
possible. For example, if a link is
targeting a destination page that
discusses ways to improve SEO,
the linked text should read How
to improve SEO.
External linking
External or outbound linking is
important, as Google also ranks
a web pages reputation based
on the credible sources it links
to (and links to it). By provid-
ing quality external links, when
appropriate, your content not
only provides source citation, but
also gives viewers a mechanism
to find out more information via
external sources. Search index-
ing emulates this user behaviour
by crawling each page and
following outbound links to pro-
duce better search results. Its a
bit like the old mantra: You are
the company you keep. For
this reason, outbound links on
sites are one of the many factors
that are analysed to derive their
position in search engine results.
Its important to note that prop-
er editorial balance must still be
exercised when using external
links, as an overabundance of
external links does not help rank-
ing in and of itself. A pages
SEO can be improved through
external/outbound links only if
they are high-quality, credible,
and work to expand on or pro-
vide additional, relevant infor-
mation.
Keywords still matter
In the current state of the web,
keywords are still important, but
require a different approach to
be used effectively. It makes sense
to use the tools that Google pro-
vides in this endeavour name-
ly, Google AdWords Keyword
Planner, to identify issues, topics,
and questions that are import-
ant to readers. This will help in
generating content ideas around
keywords, as well as give esti-
mates regarding how much traf-
fic can be generated via these
keywords. When possible, key-
word phrases should be used
in place of single keywords; by
using phrases, you increase your
odds of ranking. Once the rele-
vant keywords have been iden-
tified, they can be used to build
useful and engaging content.
Long-tail keywords
Consider using long-tail key-
words, or keywords that are
less common but more specif-
ic for example, how to buy
a teakettle versus teakettle.
The former is ideal because it
uses less common keywords,
and therefore has less competi-
tion in ranking when compared
with the latter. Once the desired
long-tail keywords have been
identified, new content can be
created or existing content can
be optimised around them. Keep
in mind that the purpose of using
keywords to generate content is
to provide your target audience
with information they lack and/
or to solve important problems
for them.
Proper SEO techniques will
continue to help sites generate
relevant traffic by supporting
useful, engaging content. As
search engines evolve in their
ability to return accurate search
results to users, content market-
ers can employ the above tactics
to reach the appropriate audi-
ences and ultimately, meet their
business objectives be it lead
generation or ad revenue.
Chris has a genuine
passion for the digital
industry, specialising in
SEO, content and so-
cial media recruitment.
Based in Sydney, he is
part of our growing In-
terpro Digital team.
Discover more at
interprodigital.com.au
14 interpro.com.au
ustralia is poised
to surpass Qatar in
2020 as the worlds
largest liquefied nat-
ural gas (LNG) exporter, up
from the number five spot
it currently occupies, by tri-
pling the amount of LNG
exported annually. There are
high stakes for the country;
this major expansion of LNG
exports will transform the
economy of Australia and the
lives of its citizens.
Challenges
This unprecedented growth
is being driven certainly by the
large natural gas reserves in
Australia, but also by Australian
law and a great demand for
fuel in Asia. Australia allows
unrestricted exports and full
international oil company
access. With this unrestricted
access and close geographical
location, it has further fuelled
the building frenzy and major
expansion of the LNG industry
in Australia.
Managing the Australian LNG
skill shortage
A
Colin Chappelow, Divisional Manager
Oil and Gas at Interpro Energy
interpro.com.au 15
Currently, Australia has
approximately AU$250 bil-
lion worth of projects in the
LNG sector underway and
three plants, two in Western
Australia and one in Northern
Territory, which are in produc-
tion. Further, another seven
plants are in various stages of
construction involving global
firms like Chevron, Inpex and
Royal Dutch Shell; a great
number of employees are
needed to both complete the
construction of these projects
and to operate the plants. A
disconnect exists because of
skills capability differences;
there are needs for labour,
from blue collar workers up
to the management level, with
technical specialists in oil and
gas processing, safety and
maintenance in particularly
high demand, as are drillers,
chemical, petroleum and gas
plant operators.
In December 2013, the
Australian Workforce and
Productivity Agency (AWPA)
published a report that states
oil and gas jobs in the country
will jump from under 39,000 to
61,000 by 2018, an increase
of 63 percent. With an already
low (below six percent in most
areas) unemployment rate in
Australia, the industry is scram-
bling to ensure they have enough
skilled workers to satisfy needs.
Solutions
In the short term, companies
have been solving immediate
issues by throwing money at
the worker shortage problem;
poaching employees from
other companies and offering
inflated salaries. Additionally,
recruitment agencies have
been working hard to find
A recent downturn in
the Australia mining
industry has been
turned into a positive,
as many of the skilled
workers in that sector
are now freed up to
work in the Oil and
Gas Industry
qualified talent and fill cru-
cial roles. Obviously, these
are self-limiting solutions; the
qualified employee pool is
too small. Luckily, some more
long-term solutions are in the
works, and being implemented
to some degree.
Enticing Australian citizens
to return home is one tactic;
businesses are actively reach-
ing out to those workers in
the oil and gas sector that are
natives of Australia or that
were educated in Australia to
gauge their interest in return-
ing home. Companies are
also using very targeted immi-
gration to fill critical needs
with highly skilled workers to a
much smaller extent.
The above solutions involve
stretching the already thin qual-
ified workforce in the industry
worldwide; more proactive
solutions are needed for the
long haul.
Partnerships between the
LNG industry and educational
institutions in Australia aim to
train workers for careers in the
sector.
A recent downturn in the
Australia mining industry has
been turned into a positive, as
many of the skilled workers in
that sector are now freed up
to work in the Oil and Gas
Industry, alleviating some of
the demand over the short term
as well.
Solving the LNG employee
shortages in Australia is cru-
cial to growing it into a global
powerhouse; combining edu-
cation and hands-on training,
highly targeted immigration and
great retention initiatives should
resolve the issues if the indus-
try, government and educational
institutions remain committed.
Colin manages the
Oil and Gas business
at Interpro Energy.
With over 8 years con-
struction and resources
recruitment experience,
Colin is relied upon by
clients and candidates
as the go-to person
when looking for great
talent or making the
next move.
Learn more about our
Oil and Gas division at
interproenergy.com
16 interpro.com.au
s the number of active
mobile devices con-
tinues to grow, rul-
ing the enterprise
app experience is decisive for
the major enterprise software
giants. Salesforce may current-
ly be the best solution, with the
Salesforce1 platform, but SAP
and Microsoft are snapping
at its heels with their mobile
strategies.
Mobile first, consumer
grade
This concept, which was
adopted by SAP in early 2012
in response to the changing
dynamics of the enterprise CRM
market, has been the driving
force behind most of the compa-
nys efforts in the last few years.
Underlying this concept was the
recognition that mobile growth
would continue at an acceler-
ated pace among enterprise
customers, and hence, the need
to create mobile-first app experi-
ences with consumer grade UX
and design. Indeed, in a 2012
VentureBeat interview, then SAP
mobile chief, Sanjay Poonen
himself said that mobility is
going to become increasingly
mainstream in the enterprise.
To bring this concept to fru-
ition, SAP has spent the last
few years building a platform
for creating and distribut-
ing mobile business applica-
tions (quite like Salesforces
Salesforce1 platform). SAPs
plans have been rather ambi-
tious; the company famously
declared that it wants to get
more than 1 billion people
using its apps by 2015. To
give you an idea of how out-
rageous this sounds, consid-
er that Apple sold its 700
millionth iOS device only in
September 2013.
At the core of this strategy is
the idea of building an Apple-
like app store for business
users (or, as Poonen put it, we
seek to be the Apple of enter-
prise mobility). Developers
can leverage SAPs platforms,
such as the HANA cloud, to
build interconnected as well as
standalone apps.
Going further, it is not unfore-
seeable to imagine develop-
ers leveraging SAP solutions
to create consumer-orient-
ed apps which the custom-
er, not the enterprise, will
pay for. For instance, SAP
recently launched a consumer
focused fashion app called
My Runway that helps users
organise their wardrobes, fol-
low brands and get style rec-
ommendations.
This is all part of the growing
race to dominate the enter-
prise app space. The launch
of Salesforce1 is recognition
of the changing realities of
the way business is done.
Built from the ground-up to be
mobile first, Salesforce1 rein-
forces Salesforces current lead
in the mobility space. Building
on a customer support and
marketing service, Salesforce
has the potential to target a
far broader audience than its
major competitors.
SAPs mobile strategy, while
ambitious, has suffered from
poor communication and slow
developer uptake. According
to one survey, 57% of users felt
SAPs road map for its mobile
strategy was unclear.
Microsofts mobile strategy
for its Dynamics CRM, on the
other hand, has been affect-
ed by the Redmond compa-
The battle for the enterprise
mobility throne
A
Germaine Symons, Senior Consultant
Salesforce Recruitment & Team
Lead of Specialist IT Verticals
Germaine is a Senior
Consultant specialising in
Salesforce recruitment. He
has a proven track record
in placing Salesforce and
Microsoft Dynamics pro-
fessionals across various
industries.
Learn more about our
Salesforce opportunities
and our Enterprise Appli-
cations division by visiting
i nt erpro.com.au/ent er-
prise-apps
interpro.com.au 17
nys focus on the Windows
Phone/RT platforms, which has
come at the cost of develop-
ment on the more established
iOS and Android platforms.
Although Microsoft vowed that
it would have multi-platform,
multi-device mobile support
way back in 2012, it wasnt
until late 2013 that the com-
pany released Dynamics CRM
apps for Android and iOS. In
the meantime, third-party devel-
opers providing subscription
services, like Resco, have cor-
nered the market with robust
clients for Dynamics CRM.
However, over the last six
months, Microsoft has shown a
stronger inclination to support
non-Windows mobile platforms.
The recent launch of Office
for iOS (which was originally
green lit by Ballmer) is a step in
that direction. While Microsoft
has insisted that it wants to
support all platforms, the Office
for iOS release shows that it is
finally ready to put its money
where its mouth is.
This is good news for
Dynamics customers. Enterprise
customers have been hamstrung
by the lack of a dedicated,
MS-backed Dynamics mobile
client, as well as the glaring
absence of Office on Android
and iOS. Given the changes
in Microsofts mobile strategy
under Nadella, there should be
greater support for Dynamics
CRM on both Android and iOS
in the future.
Indeed, Microsoft has
shown far greater propensi-
ty to undertake radical shifts
under Nadella. For example,
MS recently announced that
it would make Windows free
for all devices under 9 in
screen-size an audacious
change for a company that
has traditionally licensed its
software to device manufactur-
ers. Microsoft is increasingly
taking on the hues of a compa-
ny that provides services, not
just software. This means good
news to enterprise customers
as Microsoft would now more
likely to provide better experi-
ences across devices and plat-
forms rather than prop up its
own operating systems.
At present, though, Salesforce
appears to be leading the fray
in the mobile space. Salesforce1
is a powerful, flexible platform,
and the companys head start in
the cloud space should give it a
serious advantage over compet-
itors in the short term.
18 interpro.com.au
learly stated require-
ments are one of the
top reasons a proj-
ect is successful. This
places Business Analysts in the
spotlight to successfully deliver
a project.
The Business Analysis pro-
fession is growing. There is
increasing industry recogni-
tion of the importance of good
Business Analysis and the
necessity to attract more people
into the profession.
As the Business Analysis pro-
fession evolves many organisa-
tions are still trying to establish
standards and competencies
required of a Business Analyst
(BA). Though organisations
recognise the need for good
requirements, the impact of poor
requirements has not been incor-
porated into business strategies
enough to change behaviour. It
is important for both BAs and
businesses to continue improve
the requirements elicitation pro-
cess and the business analysis
methodology.
Recent surveys have shown
that 50 to 70 percent of proj-
ect failure is associated with
poor requirements definition.
Unsurprisingly, having clearly
stated requirements is generally
recognised as one of the top
reasons a project is successful.
This is why skilled BAs are rec-
ognised as being fundamental
to a successful project delivery.
From a BA perspective, hav-
ing solid business analysis
fundamentals is not only the
foundations of a skilled BA
but essential to writing good
requirements.
Having coaching or mentor-
ing is important for any BA to
build the competency required
to write SMARTER requirements:
Specific
Measureable
Achievable
Relevant
Traceable
Evaluate
Review
I, for one, would like to see
BAs receive more recognition
and financial reward for the
important role they play in the
success of a project. This will
only happen if BAs invest in
developing their business anal-
ysis fundamentals to make the
grade from an average BA to
a truly skilled BA.
The ability to write and recog-
nise a good requirement can-
not be overstated when you
consider the consequences of
poorly stated requirements. We
cant expect anyone to know
what a business needs if the
requirements arent defined in
clear, unambiguous and tangi-
ble terms.
Why projects need good
requirements
C
Ken Shome, Business
Analysis Intelligence
The impact of poor
requirements has
not been incorpo-
rated into business
strategies enough to
change behaviour.
Ken Shome (CBAP) is a lead Business Analyst who recently
led a workshop on writing good business requirements with
Interpro. The article is an abridged version of his presenta-
tion to a selection of Interpros clients and candidates.
Learn more about our BA recruitment experience and Tech-
nology division by visiting interpro.com.au/technology
20 interpro.com.au
he housing market in
Hong Kong is currently
geared towards lower
and middle-class, first-
time homebuyers. Property
developers are targeting this
group for good reason, and
that is economic incentive.
The Hong Kong government is
encouraging new home own-
ership by exempting first-time
homebuyers from government
cooling measures. Land pricing
may have seen a decrease
but new property develop-
ments, such as Lohas Park, will
open up opportunities for the
lower and middle class groups.
Property developers are also
doing their part by dropping
their profit margins in order to
offer homes at affordable rates,
which are currently averaging
HK$6 million.
The problem is that it is get-
ting more and more difficult for
property developers to keep
housing affordable. With ris-
ing material costs and labour
shortages the situation is not
expected to get better over the
next few years. There is, how-
ever, one unexpected advan-
tage to homeowners caused
by the increasing construction
costs, and that is an over sat-
urated market. Because there
are so many homes on the
market right now, buyers can
pass on one home, knowing
there are plenty of other homes
to make offers on. This one
benefit is not likely to last
long. However, as the US and
British economy are recover-
ing, the property values across
Hong Kong are facing an over-
stretched market.
Property developers cannot
be expected to take a loss, and
with their already small profit
margin, combined with increas-
ing construction costs and inter-
est rates, housing prices will
inevitably rise over the next
few years out of sheer busi-
ness necessity. To get a better
understanding of what the next
few years holds for the Hong
Kong housing market, we must
take a look at what is going on
with material costs and labour
availability.
Material costs
Construction growth around
the world, including places like
Hong Kong, China and New
York have created a shortage
in material costs, which has
in turn increased the prices of
materials. Take steel for exam-
Hong Kong housing and
constructing forecast will
see labour shortage
T
Virginia Ho, Practice Head
Property & Construction
ple. Over the next few years,
steel prices are expected to
increase 2.2 percent. Steel is
used in construction to make
machinery, fencing, nails and
other tools and equipment.
There is no viable replacement
for steel when manufacturing
these items, meaning that home
sales prices over the next few
years will reflect these extra
costs.
Labour shortage
The increase in construction in
Hong and China has created a
labour shortage. There amount
of construction projects far out-
weigh the workforce. Demand
for construction labourers, espe-
cially skilled labourers, has
increased by approximately 25
percent since 2011. Because
construction workers are in such
high demand, they are able to
demand a higher price and are
going where the biggest pay-
check is offered. Hong Kong is
particularly suffering from this
increased demand, because
many construction workers are
traveling to China to work on
larger projects that are demand-
ing higher wages. The small
group of construction workers
that remain in Hong Kong are
holding out for jobs with the
highest bid, which is creating a
bidding war between property
developers. In the end, these
increased costs will be trans-
ferred to the home buyer.
The future
Over the next few years, as
interest rates and construction
costs rise, housing prices will
increase and become unafford-
able to many, resulting in a
drop in new home sales. In
response to the drop in home
sales, developers will reduce
the rate of new home construc-
tion. This drop in construction
rates will inevitably make the
market more affordable again,
because with construction
rates decreased, the shortage
of building materials will go
away and the prices will drop.
The same goes for construction
workers. They will no longer be
in such high demand, meaning
they wont be able to ask for
such high wages. The bottom
line is that we must wait for
the market prices to become
too high before construction
will slow, making home prices
affordable once again.
Virginia is our Property &
Construction Practice Head.
Based in Hong Kong, she
has a proven track record
in providing recruitment
solutions to her clients in
the Asia region from mid to
top-level management.
Find out more about our
services in the Asia region
by visiting interproasia.com
22 interpro.com.au
Interpro is using the Net
Promoter Score to measure
the satisfaction and loyalty
of our customer relationships.
Interpros NPS = 6.38
A score above 0 is considered positive, with average results falling between 5 and 10.
Companies with the most effcient growth receive a score above 50. This is where we
would like Interpro to be.
The NPS is a
customer loyalty
metric. Using a 0-10
scale, it is calculated
on the basis of
classifying
customers as
promoters, passives
or detractors.
Interpreting the results


8.51%
3.19%
0.00%
2.13% 2.13%
11.70%
3.19%
9.57%
22.34%
15.96%
21.28%
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
How likely are you to recommend Interpro to a
friend or colleague?
We have expertise in your
marketplace
Were specialist recruiters
and always have been. Each of
our consultants is a specialist in
a particular market niche and
has deep experience recruiting
for the roles within that area of
expertise.
We leverage cutting-edge
technology
As a niche recruiter we rec-
ognisedthe need for the right
tools. We built our own propri-
etary global database which
now integrates with our wider
online social and professional
networks.
But we dont take our
track record for granted
Were a knowledge business,
and its our people that make the
difference. We dont take our
capability for granted: were
constantly looking for new tal-
ent for our own business, and
we set the bar very high.
Weve got excellent talent networks
Over 80% of professionals arent actively
looking. Our networks across the areas we
specialise in means we reach the people other
people cant, particularly the top talent.
Were great at this stuff
Weve placed thousands of people across
Australia, Asia, the UK and Europe. You can
be confdent that weve done this before
and well.
interpro.com.au 23
Interpro is a specialist recruitment consultancy with
offces in Australia, Europe and Asia. We have
a 20-year heritage in technology recruitment and
expanding capability in energy and resources.
Visit our website to discover your next job, read our latest insights and meet our team:
interpro.com.au
Were on:
interpro.com.au
Level 10, 447 Kent Street
Sydney, NSW, 2000
Australia
Email:
sydney@interpro.com.au
Phone:
+61 (2) 9283 3555
Level 22, 600 Bourke Street
Melbourne, VIC, 3000
Australia
Email:
melbourne@interpro.com.au
Phone:
+61 (3) 9600 0059
Level 14, 10 Market Street
Brisbane, QLD, 4000
Australia
Email:
brisbane@interpro.com.au
Phone:
+61 (7) 3220 3693
Level 10, Central Building
1-3 Pedder Street, Central
Hong Kong
Email:
info@interproasia.com
Phone:
+852 2522 0233
34 Lime Street
London, EC3M 7AT
United Kingdom
Email:
profle@interproeurope.com
Phone:
+44 (0) 20 3544 50203
Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Hong Kong London