Intergen's magazine, Smarts, now available for online reading. In this issue: - After being talked about for many years, the concept of the modern enterprise is becoming a reality for many forward-thinking organisations. - Responsive website design - Silver Fern Farms adopts a solution fit for the field - A day in the life of Intergen's Seattle Office - Tips and tricks for migrating to the cloud - Microsoft's vision for Microsoft Dynamics and the Modern Enterprise Intergen provides information technology solutions across Australia, New Zealand and the world based exclusively on Microsoft’s tools and technologies.

1. THE INTELLIGENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE | ISSUE 32 | 2013
IN THIS ISSUE...
Intergenite photos
2
Introduction 3
Responsive Web Design
4
Case study
5
A day in the life of the Seattle office
6
microsoft Dynamics Q&A
8
Cloud tips and tricks
9
Case study
11
Becoming a modern enterprise
After being talked about for many years, the concept of the modern enterprise
is becoming a reality for many forward-thinking organisations.
Gartner has long-talked about the “nexus of
forces,” the confluence of the cloud, mobility,
social and big data and how – separately and
in combination – these trends are disrupting
how organisations operate and how people
work. At the Microsoft Worldwide Partner
Conference in July, Microsoft talked up the
so-called “four pillars,” outlining how these
same four trends influence Microsoft’s own
offerings – and its evolution towards being a
company focused on devices and services.
Analysts, media and the blogosphere are often
guilty of promoting these trends years before
they are ready for mainstream adoption, usually
waiting for costs to come down and any risks to
be mitigated, believing that any differentiators
that may be created are offset by the risks
involved in implementing them. In the case of
the cloud, mobility, the social enterprise and big
data, momentum has been building for some
time, and an increasing number of organisations
are embracing them.
How does this relate to the notion of a
modern enterprise? What do these solutions
provide organisations that allow them to
become “modern”?
Becoming a modern enterprise is more than
being an organisation that adopts any or all
of these solutions; the organisation also must
understand the impact these solutions can have
on how it works – and how these changes can
create improvements. How can the cloud and
mobile devices improve productivity or reduce
costs? How can the social enterprise work in
your organisation to facilitate communication
and improve collaboration? Are you ready
to take advantage of big data and the
opportunities it may afford? And, singly and
collectively, how could the implementation of
these services create long-term differentiation?
Commoditisation is also a characteristic of
many of these offerings, with a desire to offer
solutions that can be easily purchased and
consumed. Their “packaged” nature means that
organisations can often get up and running
quickly and cost effectively. And despite the
perceived attribute that “one size fits all,”
organisations still have the ability to tailor
solutions to meet their needs and – when used
in combination – the opportunities to mix and
match solutions and deployment methods,
together with packaged and custom solutions,
differentiation can be realised.
Taking advantage of these technological shifts
requires careful consideration and successful
adoption requires more than simply adopting
the technology. How it gets incorporated into
your organisation, and the way it works, is
critical. While some solutions, such as cloudbased email, have minimal impact on the
behaviour of an organisation; other solutions are
more disruptive and can create a step-change
in value – when their value is understood by
everyone.
The Microsoft platform often allows an iterative
approach to adopting any of these solutions:
a “big bang” approach isn’t usually required,
but a more considered approach to adoption
is possible, regardless of whether solutions are
deployed on premise, in the cloud or through a
hybrid solution. How you and your organisation
translate the impact of these solutions into how
you work doesn’t have to be answered on day
one; it can be an evolution that, once started,
can benefit your entire organisation.

2. ALUMNI
Intergenite Alumni
get-togethers London (left)
and San Francisco (right).
The Intergen BHAG
On display in Sydney.
Perth opening
Celebrating the opening of
Intergen's new Perth office in
William Street
Dynamics Day 2013
Intergen's fifth annual
Dynamics Day, held
in Sydney for the first
time this year.
Many hands make
light work
A Sydney office
working bee.
TechEd
Austrailia 2013
Intergen waterbottles
hydrated the masses at
this year's TechEd.
© Copyright 2013 Intergen Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the permission of Intergen Limited.
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2

3. INTERGEN
Defining – and celebrating –
the modern enterprise
As technology partners we’re in a privileged
position. We get to be a part of – and help
define – an organisation’s “modernisation”
through their use of IT. We are exposed to
the things that really matter to organisations
– things like harnessing, understanding and
making best use of their data, empowering
their staff, better connecting with their
customers and streamlining systems and
processes to enable greater productivity. It’s
our role to design and deliver the systems
that help make all these things a reality.
In our line of work, the greatest reward comes
from seeing how these technology innovations
make a real difference. In this issue of Smarts
we look at a number of examples of modern
technology solutions and explore several of
the key themes underpinning them. We look
at what it means to take a device agnostic,
“responsive” approach to web design, and
share tips and tricks we have learned in helping
organisations make the move to the cloud.
A fantastic example of an organisation using
technology in a truly “modern” way is Silver
Fern Farms with their “Pasture” system (see
page 5) – bringing integrated technology to the
field, where Silver Fern Farms’ most important
transactions take place.
Our Seattle team works closely with Microsoft
Corporation helping to build future technology.
The nature of the work they do is such that
they work to an intense schedule and can’t talk
publicly about a lot of this work. In this issue
the Seattle team shares with us a typical day in
the life of our work with Microsoft Corporation
– a real insight into the engine room where
the modern enterprise is defined and the sorts
of technology solutions we’ll see becoming
commonplace in the near future.
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We were delighted to bring Intergen’s
Dynamics Day to Sydney this year for the first
time, and were extremely pleased with the
levels of interest and the strong attendance
from existing and prospective Dynamics users.
This year’s keynote speaker was Microsoft’s
Kees Hertogh, who took some time (see page
9) to answer our questions about Microsoft’s
vision for Microsoft Dynamics.
We are also undertaking some modernisation
of our own. We have instigated a programme
we call Intergen.NEXT and we are working
on projects that will redefine Intergen’s
next phase of growth. We are reviewing and
redefining our go to market strategy, updating
or replacing all of our internal systems and
optimising our processes. We have also
undertaken a significant reorganisation to
align ourselves with the things we do rather
than where we do things. All these changes
are designed to make us easier to do
business with and to help us deliver better
quality solutions that deliver more value for
our clients
This is the final issue of Smarts for the year.
On behalf of all of Intergen, we wish you
all the best for the holiday period and the
new year ahead. Here’s to a prosperous and
successful 2014.
Michael Morgan is Managing Director
Australia. Contact Michael at:
In brief
»» Trifecta for Intergen’s new
Australian offices
It has been a big year for office
moves and openings for Intergen
Australia in 2013, with our
teams moving to bigger, better
and brighter dwellings in Martin
Place in Sydney and William
Street in Perth, and with a new
office opened in Melbourne on
Southbank Boulevard.
»» Intergen joins “companies
to watch” list in 2013
TIN100 Report
2013 saw Intergen up nine
places – to 32nd – in this year’s
list of top 100 New Zealand ICT
companies, based on revenue
figures, and number six on the
“top 10 companies to watch” list.
This result was attributed in large
part to growth from Intergen’s
Australian and United States
operations.
»» Dynamics Day on demand
For those of you who didn’t
make it along to Intergen’s
Dynamics Day, held for the first
time in Sydney this year, you can
watch the sessions on demand
here: www.intergen.com.au/
dynamicsday.
michael.morgan@intergen.com.au
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3

4. WEB & DIGITAL STRATEGY
Do I need a responsive website?
What is
responsive design?
Responsive web design fluidly
adapts and resizes elements on
the page to suit the size of the
screen they are being viewed
on. As a result, it generally
means designing for a range of
devices in parallel, rather than
designing a complete solution
for desktop then moving on to
mobiles and tablets.
The short answer: It depends
Questions to ask
Alternatives to responsive design
The long answer: To ask whether you need
a responsive website is to try to decide on
tactics before you’ve come up with an overall
strategy. Responsive design is a technique
– a way of getting a job done – with certain
characteristics that make it more suited to
some scenarios than others.
At that point, a series of other questions come
into play, and these can determine whether
you should side with responsive design or some
other tactic:
So what are the alternatives? There are a
myriad. The common ones include adaptive
design (easier to retrofit but requires wellstructured content), managing a separately
maintained m. Site (easy to implement
but painful to maintain), or building a
downloadable application (great for frequent
users - especially for transactional sites like
internet banking or travel - but not so good
for causal visitors).
Before you can decide on whether Responsive
Design is the right tactic, you need to build your
strategy, and you need to know that there is
a right time and a not-so-right time for “going
responsive”.
Strategy
Your strategy is your overall vision – it comes
from your objectives or goals – and describes
the sort of techniques you want to employ
to achieve those goals. In warfare or sports
there are defensive and offensive strategies. In
business, there are online and digital strategies
that describe how you will engage with your
customers, increase sales and save money,
and ultimately take business up a notch. No
two strategies are the same; they’re tailored to
individual business needs, especially in this era
of a mass of niche markets.
Responsive design describes a method for
getting web content onto mobile (and other)
devices. So hopefully you've arrived at the
responsive design question because you've
made a strategic decision to embrace mobile/
multiple device platforms as a communication
or operational channel. The question around
responsive design, then, can only be asked after
the question “shall we embrace mobile?” has
been answered in the affirmative.
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»» Are we about to build a new website/
application from scratch?
»» Have we assessed that all or most of our
content is equally valuable to users who are
on a mobile as those who are on a desktop
or laptop?
»» Is our website largely about consuming
content rather than making transactions?
If the answers to the above are yes, then
responsive design could be a goer. The ideal
time to factor in responsive design is during the
initial design of a website; it can be expensive to
’retrofit’ an existing design to make it responsive.
Responsive design means you will largely serve
up the same content to users regardless of
device, so it has to be equally as important to
have all this content to hand whether the user
is on a laptop, out and about, or even using
their phone in bed. However if your website
is predominantly transactional – i.e. it's really
an application – then a native application
downloadable from an app store may be the
better approach for mobility. Consumable
content on the other hand – text, images, audio
and video, can work well in a responsive design.
Responsive design though is great when
you are starting fresh with a blank canvas
for design. It requires up-front planning
and iterative, collaborative design and
development, but is beautifully scalable
across almost all modern web browsing
devices and platforms, from the smallest
smartphone to the largest smart TV.
I tend to pick on ’responsive’ because it’s a
bit of a buzzword at the moment, but like any
of the other digital design tactics out there,
it has strengths and weaknesses and when
utilised well, it's fantastic. So yes, chances are
you need a mobile friendly website, and you
could probably do really well using responsive
design techniques.
For more information about
resposive web design, contact:
mark.delaney@intergen.co.nz
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4

5. modern applications
Silver Fern Farms a leading-edge
solution fit for the field
Greener pastures with ‘Pasture’
THE SITUATION
For leading global food company and red
meat expert Silver Fern Farms, innovation
is a critical element in achieving the
insights and business advantage in a highly
competitive market. With the organisation’s
most fundamental transactions – between
its Livestock Representatives and its farmer
partners – taking place in the field, Silver Fern
Farms needed to create a portable technology
solution that would allow vital information
to be captured, and made available to the
organisation in near real-time, around a
farmer’s kitchen table or in a paddock.
From paper to tablet
With a Plate to Pasture strategy that focuses
on consumers’ needs first and works back
from there to deliver to them, Silver Fern
Farms’ relationship with its farmer partners
is all-important. Silver Fern Farms’ field-based
Livestock Representatives are the key point of
connection in this relationship, taking farmers’
stock booking orders and helping them to define
their stock strategy.
“In the past our approach to capturing
information from farmers was very ad hoc,
manual and paper-based,” says Andy Perry, Silver
Fern Farms’ Regional Livestock Manager. “The
main issue we had was that this information
was stored in the Livestock Reps’ “top two
inches” or in their own paper diaries. We had a
complete lack of visibility and, dependent on the
farmer sending the contract back in the post,
which could take up to a week.”
Silver Fern Farms needed to move from paper
to tablet, creating an electronic diary and
stock booking system for its 85 Livestock
Representatives in their interactions with Silver
Fern Farms’ 20,000 farmer partners, capturing
vital information and providing it back to the
business in near real-time.
a solution fit for the field
The gain
Adoption by the sales force – Silver Fern Farms’
Livestock Representatives – was essential to the
success of Pasture. With an average age of 56,
varying degrees of computer literacy, willingness
and “well-worn livestock hands” navigating a
touch-based interface, the solution needed to be
user friendly, and the approach to designing it
needed to be extremely user focused.
With Pasture fully rolled out to “overwhelmingly
positive” feedback, the business has one
source of the truth. A “step change” for the
organisation, Pasture gives Silver Fern Farms
full visibility and accuracy of information, vastly
improved forecasting and reporting capabilities
and the ability to understand its business
with far greater certainty, making informed
decisions and reducing risk. As well as delivering
significant time savings in the contract process
– reducing the process from up to a week to
almost immediate access to information –
Pasture allows Silver Fern Farms to understand
its farmers better than ever, thus strengthening
the relationship with them, enabling more
insightful and engaged customer service.
“We worked closely with Intergen’s user
experience designers to create a system that
would work in the field,” says Elliot, Silver
Fern Farms’ Project Manager for Pasture. “The
outcome was a solution that is really intuitive.”
“The results from the field are
speaking for themselves. In
fact one of the Livestock Reps
said to me the other day: ‘I
went up the drive of a chap,
created him as a supplier,
signed him up with a special
programme, did his booking
and had the truck there to pick
up his animals the next day.’ It
doesn’t get better than that.”
matt tulloch
Process Improvement Manager,
silver fern farm
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To watch the Pasture video visit:
http://intrgn.co/SilverFernFarmsPasture
5

6. Intergen
A day in the life of
Intergen’s Seattle Office...
Beyond our morning coffee or Red Bull, the
excitement of what we do for Microsoft drives
us to work harder, do more and accept the
over-the-top, last minute and challenging
project scopes. It means that our projects are
often high profile and a bit more stress than
we are comfortable with, but the outcomes
are amazing.
I got a call today saying that our team at
Microsoft would like to expand the scope
of our CRM project. They want our CRM
implementation to not only cover the existing
product, but to be able to cover a number of
similar systems at Microsoft. The scope? Huge.
The opportunity? Exciting! The deadline? As
soon as we can do it.
This is typical of our days on the Microsoft
“campus”. Our clients trust us with big projects
that often have long lasting impacts. At the
moment we are working with one of the product
teams, putting together a competitive analysis.
Our objective is to look at their competitors and
help them determine a typical SWOT analysis:
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats. The outcome of the project is to help the
engineering teams to determine how best to fill
market gaps and meet their customers’ needs in
the next version of the product.
From helping to understand opportunities in the
market, we also help them to be able to reach
that market. For another client we are creating
sales tools to show off the endless potential
of their product to their customers. We’re
designing demos to help envision the future and
Seattle team at Intergen Social Hour (from left to right): Chris Auld, Amber Williams, Kate Smith,
Zac Smith, Liz Larsen, Hamish Hill, Jay Templeton
demonstrate how this technology can be used
across devices to ease the flow of information
and improve customer experience. We’ve created
scenarios where we show how information can
flow through Windows 8 apps, phone apps,
point of sale devices, medical devices and
informational kiosks. These tools will influence
the future of how consumers interact with
technology.
Another client asked us to create a way for
customers to try out the product online, without
having to install anything, enter their email
address or make any commitments. They didn’t
want there to be a single barrier to getting a
rich experience with the product. The result was
an interactive website that allowed the customer
to step through the product while exploring the
The future of retail on display at the National Retail Federation’s
Annual Retail Show and Expo in New York.
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features and functionality of the product with an
opportunity at the end to install a trial version
and explore it further. We realised we had met our
mark when the competitor went out and created
exactly the same tool for their product! As always,
imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
One of the ways that we get the highest profile
work is demonstrations for conferences. We work
for almost every conference putting together
cool demonstrations of the technology that can
be shown on stage to an audience of thousands.
Often we’re creating examples of functionality that
doesn’t yet exist and is only a vision of the future.
The goal is to inspire the audience with what can
be created with Microsoft technology and to go
out and create that future with Microsoft.
Jay and Hamish at the CRM Load Fest at the Western
USA SMS&P Summit.
6

7. The Microsoft
Immersion Booth.
Being at Microsoft, we have a wide range
of projects. Some days we work intimately
with SharePoint and are currently planning
out a complex SharePoint site for an online
community. Many days we work with Modern
Applications – a wide definition that includes
the cross section between applications
for mobile devices and tablets along with
interactive web applications. But almost every
day we work with innovative new technology
that is inspiring.
Our five project managers, Operations Manager,
CRM developer and Regional Manager are
based in Seattle itself. The rest of our team is
physically located in Auckland and Wellington,
but we also draw on Intergenites from all our
offices in New Zealand and Australia to help us
with our projects.
As our clients are located in any one of
Microsoft’s 100+ buildings in the Puget Sound,
we have a wide range to cover. We often work
from home in the morning, before the rest of
Intergen is awake. During the Seattle winter,
Intergen's New Zealand offices don't come
online until 11am and we have a bit of time to
do emails, create proposals for new work and try
and get our normal work done. As there are only
five hours of overlap during the business day,
and only four overlap days in the week, we have
to work hard to fit our communications into 20
hours in the week.
Working with our team remotely has both
advantages and disadvantages. We appreciate
the fact that when our day has ended, they
are still working until 8 pm at night to get
work done. And it’s great to come into work
on our Monday morning knowing our team
has had a full day of work on their Monday
(the day before) to get caught up on the week
ahead. But in order to spend more time with
our development teams, it often means later
evenings to chat once our day is done.
As our team spends less time in the office
together, we try and spend more time out of the
office together. Each quarter we host a social hour
with our clients. It’s an opportunity to show off
the new stuff we’ve been working on, buy them
a drink and get a chance to bring our extended
team together. We also plan team events as we
simply enjoy hanging out together.
Our work in the Seattle office may be challenging,
but it’s always inspiring. Getting to go to a
conference and see your demo on the big
screen. Developing new tools that help envision
the future. Helping to influence the future of
Microsoft products. It’s all in a days’ work.
Jay Templeton
My wife and I moved from Wellington to
Seattle in 2010 as she was transferred to
Microsoft’s corporate offices. I was looking
forward to settling into the role as an “expat
husband”, learning golf and building out
my man cave. It rains too much to play golf
consistently and my man cave plans were
such that my wife decided that I needed
to get a job.
I had done some consulting work for Intergen
before I left, so we already had a strong working
relationship and I knew the work Intergen
was doing up here were my type of exciting
projects. I contacted Chris Auld with a short
note to let him know I was interested in working
for Intergen a few hours a week. Chris was
surprised I lived in Seattle now and could see
the opportunity for me to add value to the work
they were doing here with Microsoft.
Right from that moment I had a vision of
creating another regional office and becoming
the Regional Manager. Intergen had been
working with Microsoft Corporation since
2003 and the growth of work with Microsoft
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already working on a significant amount
of SharePoint and Office projects, and we
expanded the business to involve new areas
like Dynamics, and Server and Tools (Azure,
SQL, Windows Server and System Center).
had become challenging to manage remotely.
Intergen had established a great reputation
and adding a local BDM with contacts from my
nine plus years at Microsoft New Zealand could
really help the business grow. I knew Microsoft
and the US market would love the initiative and
value Intergen brings.
And I was right. Even though I really only
wanted a few hours of work a week, the first
month was busy and then subsequent months
became overwhelmingly active. We were
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It no longer became an effort to gain new
business, but rather the challenge was to
survive the growth to accommodate all the
new business we had. Before I knew it, I was
consistently working many hours, straddling
two time zones and needed additional local
people to support the opportunities we had
in front of us. By importing Hamish Hill from
Intergen New Zealand, our Seattle team
started to formally grow, and 18 months later
our team has grown to 10+ people located in
Seattle, Auckland, Wellington and Melbourne.
So much for being the house husband!
My move to Seattle definitely wasn’t what I
had expected, but at least it’s not boring!
Jay is Intergen USA’s Regional Manager:
jay.templeton@intergenusa.com
7

8. Microsoft’s vision for Microsoft
Dynamics and the Modern Enterprise
Q: How do you think Microsoft’s “Services
and Devices” approach will affect the
Dynamics ecosystem?
At this year’s Dynamics Day, held in
Auckland and Sydney in October, we had
the privilege of the company of Microsoft’s
Kees Hertogh as our international keynote
speaker. Kees is a director for product
marketing at Microsoft, and a longstanding
member of the Microsoft Business Solutions
group. We took the chance to ask Kees
about Microsoft’s vision and direction,
both for Microsoft Dynamics and the
modern enterprise.
Q: What excites you the most about what’s
happening in Microsoft Dynamics
during the next 12 months?
A: First of all, there is new product
innovation that we’ll bring to market.
For example, we’ll have major releases
coming to market for our customers
like Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3,
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 and
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2012 R2.
Secondly we’ve been making great
process in delivering a set of native device
experiences, utilising all the innovation
Microsoft is bringing on the tablets and
phones, you’ll see us continue making
progress and delivering both new apps
as well as significant updates to existing
apps. Overall, I am excited about our
ability to continue to deliver innovation
to our customers and partners year after
year after year.
A: I think the Services and Devices focus will
impact our ecosystem in several ways. First
of all, a focus on service delivery will both
continue to improve the “out-of-the-box
experience” of the business application,
simplifying deployment and lowering
implementation cost for our customers. In
addition, it will also open up innovation
opportunities for our customers and
partners through new scenarios by meshing
up different cloud services like, for example,
Social Collaboration (Yammer) and big data
feeds to provide deep and more actionable
insights. For our Dynamics partners, this
will mean a continuing evolution of their
skill sets, increasing their focus on helping
customers address real world business
problems and translating opportunities for
business innovation vs. spending time and
effort on IT maintenance.
Q: What impact are the “four pillars” – cloud,
mobility, social enterprise and big data –
having on Microsoft Dynamics?
A: We see these ‘nexus of focus’ (as Gartner
calls them) as “technology vectors” that
will continue to influence the innovation
agenda we’re driving for our ERP and CRM
customers to deliver even greater customer
value. We’ve already made good progress
on this with, for example, the integration
between Yammer and Dynamics CRM,
the recent acquisition of Netbreeze, our
continued investment in Microsoft’s Azure
cloud platform, the increased adoption of
this platform in our Dynamics products
line and the release of mobile Windows 8
tablet applications for Dynamics, to name
a view. You’ll continue to see us delivering
innovation around these “four pillars”.
Q: You’ve been at Microsoft for a number of
years. How has the company changed in
that time, and where do you see Microsoft
heading in the future?
A: I’ve always been energised by the
company’s wide reach in technology
and focus on innovation over the long
haul to bring greater customer value.
Microsoft has a unique ability to continue
to change itself and improve its focus.
For me personally, now is actually a very
interesting time to work for Microsoft to
see the company change into a Services
and Devices company across consumer and
enterprise segments. Implementing this big
change and making bold bets like these is
something that get me even more excited
and motivated to be part of this change
to make even a bigger impact on our
customers’ personal lives and businesses.
The Intergen team at Dynamics Day, Auckland.
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8

9. cloud services
Tips and tricks for
migrating to the cloud
What is Office 365?
Intergenite
Lester Young
What do you do?
I’m an Infrastructure Consultant in
the Infrastructure Consulting team,
based in the Wellington Office. I work
primarily on Microsoft Office 365 and
Microsoft Windows Intune projects as
well as managed desktop solutions.
How do you make a difference?
Office 365 is a suite of Microsoft technologies
delivered on a per-user subscription basis. It
provides organisations with unprecedented
flexibility and the ability to move some or all
of their different workloads to the cloud.
At Office 365’s core is productivity –
comprising the Microsoft Office suite; then
there are the specialty Office products, like
Project and Visio. Then there’s collaboration –
comprising SharePoint. Dynamics CRM Online
is closely associated with Office 365, but not
a part of it – although with the ever-increasing
convergence of technologies it may well be
brought into the fold in the future.
I make a difference by working with
organisations to understand the
technical requirements in their journey
to cloud-based services. Ultimately,
through my experience in Microsoft
infrastructure products I provide
technical advice and support for
organisations migrating to the cloud.
For a number of organisations, Office 365
is the ideal stepping stone for a move to
the cloud. It gives them the opportunity to
consume a service, just like we subscribe
to cable television services or mobile
telecommunication services – it’s a no-brainer
and it just works.
What do you love about your job?
The benefits
My favourite part of the job is working
with the Infrastructure Consulting
team as their skills and abilities
inspire me every day. Working with
the latest technologies delivered by
Microsoft and being challenged on
a daily basis to deliver the best and
most appropriate solutions is a great
part of the job. I enjoy working with
a variety of organisations from small
family businesses to enterprise-scale
organisations as it offers a great
insight into the IT challenges faced by
organisations of all types.
Cost efficiency. By moving to an operational
expenditure model, you know exactly what
you’re getting, what you’re paying for and
when you are paying for it.
A bit about yourself…
Born and bred in Wellington and an
alumni of the University of Otago, I
spend most of time away from work
renovating a railway cottage with my
partner, Elissa. If I'm not renovating,
you'll find either find me following
the black line in a swimming pool,
riding my bike, out running or – most
importantly – drinking coffee at one of
my favourite cafés after the event.
S M ART S
T H E IN T E L L IG E N T BUS I NES S MAG A ZI NE
Simplicity. A move to the cloud reduces the
requirement for hardware, simplifies licensing,
and lessens the need for specific dedicated IT
resources to keep systems ticking over. It’s a
service that just works and you simply
subscribe to it.
It frees up your IT resources to do more
valuable things. Rather than focusing on
things like keeping the lights on, upskilling
team members and maintaining hardware, IT
teams can dedicate time and energy to a more
strategic IT focus.
ISSUE 3 2
Currency. Technology is changing constantly,
and cloud services enable your organisation
to stay at the forefront of technology without
having to think about, plan for or make
additional investments in upgrades. With
Office 365 you do get the latest and greatest.
But there is a proviso here: Upgrades need to
be made within a 12-month window, which
can sometimes prove problematic for some
organisations.
Capacity. Consider your traditional onsite mailbox limits, usually around 2-5GB.
With Office 365, each mailbox has a 50GB
allocation.
It just works. Office 365 is a global service
backed by Microsoft, with guaranteed service
levels (and significant financial penalties for
Microsoft if these are not met).
It gets better. With the convergence of
technology and with Microsoft making
constant incremental improvements to its
cloud offerings, the services on offer will get
better, more comprehensive, and represent
even greater value for money.
You get an enterprise grade solution at a
consumer price. Take, for example, the cost
of an organisation setting up its own disaster
recovery capability, which is as good as writing
a blank cheque. With Office 365, it’s all part
of the service.
Accessibility. Because your information is in
the cloud, you can access it from any device,
anywhere.
It’s greener. This is one of the typically hidden
or less frequently measured benefits. Think of
the energy you save by getting rid of servers
and coolers, just for starters.
9

10. Over the past few years we’ve worked with numerous
organisations in helping them make the move to the cloud.
We thought we’d share some of the lessons, tips and tricks
we’ve picked up along the way.
Tips and tricks
If this sounds like it could benefit your
organisation, where should you start? Below
are some tips and tricks about what to do next
and what you should watch out for.
Set up a (free) trial. People ask us how it will
perform. We can give you an idea based on
our own experience, but – like anything – the
best thing is always to see for yourself.
Beware of any potential ‘knock-on’ effects.
An example of this could be in moving from
SharePoint (often dubbed the Swiss army knife
of technology solutions) to SharePoint Online.
If you’re using some of SharePoint’s advanced
features, beware that there could be knock-on
effects, and similarly for any other advanced
functionality you’re looking to move
cloud-wards.
Review your internet connection. Any cloud
service is heavily reliant on your internet
connection. Before you commit to the cloud,
review your internet connection and know
your data caps. Ultimately, to get the best
experience, you need the best internet
connection you can get.
Things take fractionally longer – by
milliseconds. The first time you log in, you
notice those milliseconds. The third time you
log in, it’s the new normal.
If there’s an issue, you can’t
just go and talk to your
boss. The good thing is that,
from our own experience,
the issues are few and far
between.
Be prepared to experience
a new look and feel. If your
organisation is running relatively recent product
versions on premise, you’re not in for many
surprises, as Microsoft’s UI changes between
versions are relatively subtle. If you’ve been used
to older product versions, you may need to set
aside a small amount of time to orient yourself.
Before migrating, get your house in order.
This is a a common sticking point for lots of
organisations. Know your data (where it is, what
it is), and make sure it’s clean. As with anything:
rubbish in, rubbish out. Another incentive for
doing this is that by removing unnecessary
data you’re not paying for what you don’t
actually need.
It’s not all or nothing. Office 365 may suit
some pockets of your organisation, or certain
work tasks but not others. You can keep some
people working on premise, and head others to
the cloud, and likewise for different functions
across your organisation.
Don’t compare apples with oranges. With
cloud-based services, you cannot make
comparisons based on price alone. There are
other solutions that look to do a similar thing
at a lower cost. If cost is your main driver, be
realistic about the fact that you are not going to
get the same level of functionality and service.
Be prepared for your migration to take longer
than you think it might. One thing we’ve
learned from the migrations we have done for
organisations is that while we can give you an
estimate, and however much we would like be
absolutely definitive with timeframes, there are
far too many variables (an unforeseen largescale internet-based event anywhere in the
world, for example) that are out of our control
for us to be able to do this.
The devil is in the detail. So check the fine
print. Make sure you know exactly what each
aspect of the service entails.
If you’d like to know more about what a move to
the cloud entails, we’re always more than happy
to talk you through the many options and things
to consider.
Lester is one of Intergen's Infrastructure
consultants. Contact Lester at:
lester.young@intergen.co.nz
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T H E IN T E L L IG E N T BUS I NES S MAG A ZI NE
ISSUE 3 2
10

11. Portals, Content & Collaboration
Turners and Growers –
fresh taste to the world
SharePoint 2013 delivers a fresh outlook to
Turners & Growers’ doorstep.
THE SITUATION
Turners & Growers (T&G) has been New
Zealand’s leading distributor, marketer and
exporter of premium fresh produce for over
a century. No matter where their customers
are in the world, T&G’s goal is to ensure their
produce is as good as the day it is harvested.
Everyone at T&G, from finance, marketing
and sales to wholesalers and retailers, plays a
definitive part in delivering world class produce
to the shop floor. To make this a reality it’s vital
that everyone, no matter where they are in the
supply chain, can communicate and collaborate
with each other, at all levels and layers. T&G
has a strategy in place to maintain and grow an
integrated business that allows them to manage
all elements of the supply chain – and building
an intranet solution that could help eliminate
silos throughout the supply chain was central to
this objective.
It was also important for T&G to consider a
technology solution that could grow with them
into the future – Microsoft SharePoint had the
power to deliver the functionality and flexibility
they needed, all in one mighty compelling, userfriendly platform. With Intergen’s expertise on
board, it was time to get down to business and
bring a fresh new intranet to Turners & Growers.
The pain
T&G’s incumbent intranet was missing key
functionality and usability was poor. Creating an
intranet that could join all the dots across the
business was key.
As Kylie Horomia, Corporate Communications
Manager, T&G confirms: “Our previous
intranet was clunky; everything was stored in
different programmes and there was no central
information source. With multiple data sources,
FOLLOW US
it was hard to get one solid answer,
document or message. Staff needed
to keep up with the latest news,
update their team on progress and
have easy access to other resources
from other departments to help
support decision making. Emails were still a
primary communication tool. Key business
processes weren’t integrated and we were still
performing paper-based tasks. And only a small
number of people could update content.”
The gain
Janet Henderson, T&G’s Application Manager
says: “Intergen was easy to work with; they
listened to our pain points and showed us what
we could do to remove them, went through
options and shared their expertise. This allowed
us to not only implement a new intranet
but also to drill down and really look at our
business processes and develop a solution that
worked for our team.”
T&G now has more than what they initially
set out for: an intranet that not only delivers
one source of the truth but it has functionality
to streamline business processes to create
one living, breathing asset. T&G is now well
equipped with the right tools and resources;
they can throw away paper-based processes and
go about their daily work without encountering
bottlenecks along the way.
“Our new intranet has a
compelling user interface that
allows us to easily update and
maintain information, navigate
through the different teams
and open up silos. SharePoint
and Intergen not only ticked
the boxes but also provided
a solid foundation for future
implementations.”
Kylie Horomia
Corporate Communications Manager,
Turners & Growers
As Kylie confirms: “Our new intranet has a
compelling user interface that allows us to
easily update and maintain information,
navigate through the different teams and
open up silos. SharePoint and Intergen not
only ticked the boxes but also provided a
solid foundation for future implementations.
Choosing SharePoint and the Microsoft
platform meant any new solutions – such as our
financial systems and staff directory – can be
easily integrated with the current system.
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Intergen is a trans-Tasman
information technology
services company that solves
challenging business problems
using the latest Microsoft
solutions. We provide our
customers with a range of
solutions and services, including
financial and relationship
management, portals, content
and collaboration solutions,
custom software development,
and consulting services.
www.intergen.com.au/blog