CIO50 Australia 2024: Miles Ashton, Export Finance Australia

Name: Miles Ashton
Title: Chief Technology Officer
Company: Export Finance Australia
Commenced role: September 2021
Reporting line: Chief Financial Officer
Member of the executive team: No
Technology Function: 22 IT staff, with 6 direct reports
 
Export Finance Australia (EFA) is the Commonwealth government’s export credit agency, providing financing to help Australian businesses take on export-related opportunities globally

Over the past two years, chief technology officer (CTO) Miles Ashton has led a comprehensive transformation of the organisation’s front-office systems and processes.
 
This project involved the implementation of modern, cloud-based systems, including a new CRM, along with origination and core banking solutions.
 
Several external data sources and third-party applications were also integrated with these core systems to significantly streamline the origination process and reduce decision-making time.
 
These integrated solutions also enabled automated Know Your Customer (KYC) checks and allowed customers to sign documents electronically.
 
Following extensive testing and trial data migrations, the first major go-live took place in November 2023, supporting the Small to Medium Enterprise customer segment.
 
The second major release, in May 2024, introduced functionality for the Project Structured Finance customer segment. As a result, all new transactions across the business are now being originated and managed using the organisation’s new systems and processes.
 
One of the key outcomes to date has been the successful launch of a customer portal, which has resulted in an increase in loan applications.
 
Additionally, the integration of data sources has enabled the automation of Know Your Customer (KYC) processes, significantly reducing the effort and time required for this essential task.

Furthermore, the decommissioning of legacy, on-premises applications has helped reduce both operational and cyber risk.
 
Sustainable growth
 
This transformation was a major achievement, positioning EFA for sustainable growth.
 
When Ashton joined EFA as CTO in late 2021, the organisation’s systems had been identified as a barrier to its strategic goals.
 
After a three-month discovery phase, Ashton and chief financial officer Sonia Kammel prepared a business case, detailing the benefits, timeline and costs of a proposed technology enabled transformation program.
 
Once approved at the highest levels of leadership, the program was initiated in July 2022.

Ashton led a rigorous procurement process that resulted in the selection of three new software partners and a primary implementation partner.
 
Strong governance processes
 
At the same time, an internal program team was formed, and strong governance processes were put in place. Ashton stressed the importance of having senior resources from key areas of the business dedicated to the program on a full-time basis.
 
“This was not something the organisation had previously undertaken,” he says. “However, we recognised their functional expertise was critical to the success of the Program.”
 
These functional specialists were augmented with external technical experts, particularly in solution architecture and test management.

Ashton established a Business Design Authority (BDA) and Technical Design Authority (TDA) to oversee process change and solution architecture respectively.

While a series of principles to guide decision making were also agreed at the Steering Committee. The principle “Adopt not Adapt” emphasised that as far as possible, out-of-the-box functionality should be adopted rather than adapting, or customising, new systems to support the organisation’s existing processes.
  
“This principle was taken seriously with any customisations following a strict governance process,” he says.

Resilience and persistence

Ashton is described as having the resilience and persistence to overcome numerous system and process challenges.
 
Particularly impressive was his willingness to understand business processes, respectfully challenge, and propose alternate ways to approach problems.
 
He also chose the right time to intervene where areas of the Program were veering off-track, particularly data migration and user acceptance testing.
 
These characteristics were important given the organisation had not previously undertaken a major technology transformation.
 
“Gaining support the Program was a huge achievement,” he says. “A sizeable investment was required, and the organisation was well aware of the risks associated with technology transformations.”
 
Great place to work

While the organisation and IT function was undergoing major change, Ashton achieved exceptional results, over 90 per cent, in the company’s “Great Place To Work” engagement survey.
 
He has consistently supported his team and identified opportunities for them to stretch and grow.
 
“In particular, the internal application development team had no prior experience with the organisation’s new technology solutions,” says Ashton.  The team has built their understanding and capability to the extent that they were able to assume responsibility for support and delivery of enhancements before the program completed and the implementation partner was off-boarded.