Our Work

OUR WORK

Modernisation work that didn’t break the business.

A selection of recent engagements. Names are used where clients have approved, anonymised where commercial agreements require it. Outcomes are not.

Every engagement below was delivered by DG Systems as Program Director, with senior contractors placed personally by Brandon from a curated global network. Written progress against agreed plans. The business continuing to operate throughout. Where we’ve anonymised a client, the redaction is at their request.

Case Study – Legacy System Modernisation (LSM) Programme

Industry: Explosives and industrial materials manufacturing (ASX-listed)
Client: Dyno Nobel Limited (DNL)
Engagement type: Multi-workstream legacy modernisation programme — Program Director
Year: 2024–2025

Delivered a complex four-workstream legacy modernisation programme for Dyno Nobel, successfully migrating approximately 500 application components, SQL databases, server infrastructure, and the organisation’s core Azure Landing Zone across 77 manufacturing sites in Australia and Indonesia. Executed six migration waves over an 11-month period with minimal business disruption.

Situation

Dyno Nobel Limited was carrying material technical debt across its Australian and APAC IT estate. Server infrastructure running on end-of-life operating systems. Business-critical applications on hardware overdue for retirement. No established cloud landing zone from which further modernisation could be launched. And, running in parallel: DNL’s demerger from Incitec Pivot Fertilisers required a full separation of systems, databases and applications before Legal Day 1 of the demerger — an immovable regulatory deadline.

The programme had to run at scale, across multiple vendor workstreams, without disrupting the business that depended on the systems being modernised.

Action

DG Systems was engaged as Program Director for the Legacy System Modernisation (LSM) programme, coordinating four parallel workstreams:

  • WP1 — Server Uplift: on-premises infrastructure remediation
  • WP2 — Application Remediation: re-platforming and re-hosting of application portfolio
  • WP3 — Cloud Establishment: Azure Landing Zone build to modern standards
  • WP4 — Remote Network / Voice (APAC): connectivity and unified comms modernisation

DG Systems led the programme end to end — programme structure, PMO, technical solution leadership, dependency management, and vendor coordination across Fujitsu (primary delivery partner for server uplift, application remediation, and cloud build), Logicalis (network and voice), and Kiandra (specialist development). Delivery ran through 2025 in six sequenced migration waves, with server uplift, cloud landing zone build, and application/database moves running in parallel throughout.

Outcome

  • Core Azure Landing Zone built to modern security and operational standards, live at end February 2025.
  • Six migration waves delivered across 2025, each with production cutover, hypercare and exit.
  • ~500 application components re-hosted (mix of on-prem uplift and Azure Landing Zone target).
  • SQL databases migrated to modern platforms.
  • Legacy application retirements completed on schedule.
  • 77 manufacturing sites in Australia and Indonesia.
  • Zero critical business disruption across the delivery window.

DNL exited the programme with a modernised operational IT estate and an established cloud landing zone from which further modernisation work (Project AIR) could be launched.

Measurable Results: Four workstreams. Six waves. ~500 application components + SQL databases migrated. Core Azure Landing Zone delivered. 77 remote sites network infrastructure upgraded. Zero critical business disruption. On time, on plan.

Case Study 2 — DNL AIR

Industry: Explosives and industrial materials manufacturing (ASX-listed)
Client: Dyno Nobel Limited (DNL)
Engagement type: Enterprise application and infrastructure remediation — Program Director
Year: 2025–2026 (in delivery; execution phase completes September 2026)
Programme value: AU$3.54M

Delivering a nine-vendor, ~$5M application remediation programme — retiring end-of-life infrastructure, decommissioning ~80 legacy databases, and re-platforming eight applications to modern cloud platforms across seven months of execution.

Situation

Following DNL’s demerger from Incitec Pivot Fertilisers (IPF) — with IPF’s sale to Ridley completing on Legal Day 1 in October 2025 — 154 applications required assessment for future-state alignment with DNL’s IT strategy. Twelve applications and 80 Lotus Notes databases required active treatment.

The pressure was not only structural. Applications were hosted on unsupported Windows Server operating systems (2003, 2008, 2012), no longer receiving security updates. Formal risk quantification carried a technology risk rating of 28 (Financial), with exposure of up to AU$20M annually from potential cyber incidents and up to AU$5M annually from operational failure. DNL’s IT strategy required a material reduction in on-premise footprint and alignment to cloud-first, SaaS-first delivery.

Action

DG Systems was engaged as Program Director for Project AIR — the Application & Infrastructure Remediation programme. Total programme forecast: ~AU$5M, approved by capital panel for the execution phase (February to September 2026).

DG Systems coordinated a nine-vendor delivery, retaining Fujitsu and Ernst & Young as continuing partners from the LSM programme, and adding seven specialist vendors for the individual commercial-off-the-shelf applications in scope.

Scope treated across the programme:

  • Oracle Hyperion re-hosted to DNL Azure cloud
  • OrgPublisher re-hosted to DNL Azure cloud
  • Blue Prism upgraded to v7.0 and re-hosted to Azure
  • Secure Pro (SAP Password Reset) re-platformed to SaaS
  • Primavera re-platformed to SaaS
  • Outsystems platform upgraded from v11.18 to v11.37
  • Lotus Notes replaced with SharePoint + ServiceNow under Class 1 Change Management
  • ~80 Lotus Notes databases archived and decommissioned
  • Legacy Windows Server infrastructure retired as applications transitioned off

Outcome

Programme executing on plan against the capital panel commitments. Technology risk rating on track to move from 28 to target 12. In-scope applications transitioning to supported, modern platforms aligned to DNL’s cloud-first strategy. Full execution phase completes September 2026.

Measurable result: AU$3.5M multi-vendor programme delivered across seven months. Nine vendors coordinated. Twelve applications treated across eight modernisation workstreams. ~80 Lotus Notes databases decommissioned. Technology risk rating reduced from 28 to 12. Up to AU$20M annual cyber exposure retired.

Case Study 3 — Orica

Industry: Explosives and mining services (ASX-listed, global)
Client: Orica
Engagement type: Global digital transformation — Global Programme Lead
Year: 2017–2020 (3.5 years)

Led a global digital transformation programme across Orica’s international operations: sunsetting legacy platforms, consolidating global data centres, retiring end-of-life infrastructure and migrating the organisation to modern Microsoft cloud services.

Situation

Orica is one of the world’s largest explosives and mining services companies, operating across the globe. As of 2017, its global IT footprint reflected two decades of accumulated technical debt: multiple regional data centres, Windows Server 2003 estates still running in production, disparate collaboration tooling, and remote-site infrastructure varying significantly in age, standard and support cost.

Orica’s IT leadership needed a global transformation programme that could sunset legacy platforms, consolidate the physical estate, and shift the workforce onto modern Microsoft cloud services — all without disrupting critical operations across countries and time zones.

Action

DG Systems’ principal, Brandon Dodds, was engaged as Global Programme Lead for Orica’s digital transformation, contracted for 3.5 years. The programme ran multiple concurrent workstreams, each internationally in scope:

  • Legacy platform sunsetting across global business units
  • Windows Server 2003 removal enterprise-wide — retiring end-of-life infrastructure carrying material security and compliance exposure
  • Global data centre consolidation — reducing physical footprint and standardising the target estate
  • Microsoft cloud migration — setting up and migrating data and users to OneDrive and SharePoint at global scale
  • Corporate memory framework — establishing the information architecture behind the SharePoint programme
  • Remote-site hardware re-platforming — bringing site infrastructure to a consistent, supported standard globally
  • Operational process improvement — lifting the day-to-day IT experience for end users

Delivery required close coordination with regional IT leadership, business function leads across multiple countries, and multiple vendor partners.

Outcome

Global legacy platforms sunset. Windows 2003 estate retired. Global data centre footprint materially consolidated. Enterprise migration to OneDrive and SharePoint completed. Remote-site hardware standardised. Improved operational process delivered against internal IT experience metrics.

Measurable result: 3.5-year global programme. Legacy platforms sunset, Windows 2003 retired, data centres consolidated, and OneDrive/SharePoint deployed enterprise-wide across a 100+ country footprint.

Case Study 4 — Application Portfolio Assessment (national not-for-profit)

Industry: Not-for-profit — national Australian social-sector organisation
Client: Anonymised at client request
Engagement type: Consulting — application portfolio assessment and SaaS management advisory
Year: 2023 (4-month engagement)

Conducted an application portfolio assessment across a national not-for-profit’s SaaS estate — identifying duplications, mapping usage by business unit, and recommending a more efficient SaaS management model.

Situation

The client is a national Australian not-for-profit body operating in the social sector. Like many mid-sized not-for-profits, its application estate had grown organically over time — SaaS tools adopted by individual business units, some overlapping in function, some no longer actively used, with no consolidated view of what was in use where, or where duplicated spend and effort could be released.

The organisation needed a clear, evidence-based view of its application portfolio to inform decisions on consolidation, sunsetting and future SaaS procurement.

Action

DG Systems was engaged for a focused four-month advisory engagement:

  • Collaborated with cross-functional teams across the organisation to interpret existing technical documentation and understand actual usage patterns
  • Developed a comprehensive application inventory, mapping every SaaS tool in use across business units
  • Identified duplications and overlap — applications performing similar functions across different teams
  • Recommended portfolio improvements and consolidation opportunities, contributing to a more efficient SaaS management model going forward

The engagement was deliberately compact and focused. No multi-vendor programme structure, no large team — a single senior consultant applying an assessment methodology to give the organisation a clear-headed evidence base for its next set of IT investment decisions.

Outcome

The client left the engagement with a documented application inventory, an identified set of consolidation opportunities, and a set of recommendations that fed directly into its ongoing SaaS management strategy.

Measurable result: Four-month focused advisory engagement. Complete application inventory delivered. Consolidation opportunities identified across business units. Refreshed SaaS management model recommended.

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