Growth and Success in Enterprise Digital Services for Oakton Leads to New Division & Senior Appointments

Leading Australian consulting and technology firm, Oakton [ASX:OKN] has seen a sharp increase in demand for its digital services by enterprise clients in the past twelve months with a raft of new wins, including clients from the telecommunications,  transport and government sectors, as well as some of Australia’s leading retailers.

As a result of this success in the digital sector, Oakton has stepped up its business focus on digital with senior appointments to its new Digital Services division.

Les Bognar and Jan Esman have both been appointed as  Digital Director in their respective states of Victoria and New South Wales, with both having significant experience in conceiving and implementing innovative digital solutions with leading customers in key industry sectors. They will both lead Digital Services go-to-market and delivery initiatives for Oakton’s existing and new clients.

Les Bognar has been with Oakton for seven years and has held a number of key roles including leading the Online and Integration Services business and Client and Vendor Management. His previous experience in managing delivery engagements provides a solid foundation for these early lifecycle strategic engagements to be real and deliverable. 

“We have taken our customers on the journey from concept to reality using contemporary approaches to defining digital solutions. We have a complete capability to develop and implement organisational strategies that leverage the entire opportunity afforded from a digital footprint, enabling the enterprise to effectively interact with customers, employees and partners,” said Les Bognar, Digital Director, Victoria, Oakton.

After eight years with Oakton, Jan Esman is leading Oakton’s development of digital solutions in the ACT actively with clients to drive digital change. Jan has extensive experience in the formulation of mobile, social and cloud platform strategies with their underlying solution and information architectures, delivery methodologies and the hands on project team leadership needed to deliver business results and maintain alignment between business and IT. His industry experience spans utilities, telecommunications, government, retail and logistics.

Oakton believes that the need for most companies to have a digital capability is approaching a state of universal acceptance, but too many approaches to digital are based on only automating current practices or even just mimicking what competitors are doing.

Neil Wilson, CEO, Oakton said: “Organisations are seeking advice and support from a partner who can bring together multifaceted digital solutions into an executable roadmap. Well-designed digital strategies have a positive and measurable impact on user experience and operational performance.”

“Great solutions align to industry drivers and customer trends that impact that industry. However, the digital channel will rise to a new level of effectiveness when the solution addresses the personas of its users and how each industry operates,” Les Bognar said.

According to Oakton, the financial services industry has experienced a seismic impact from the adoption of basic services on mobile platforms. However, opportunities to improve customer experiences though greater levels of self-service capabilities still abound. The removal of mundane tasks from customer service representatives empowers them with the opportunity to engage customers in discussions for signing up new financial services.

The government sector has started the step change toward digital engagement with citizens and our experience with government sector customers has directly contributed to more efficient and effective delivery of services and a more engaging experience for all stakeholders.

Les Bognar states that the potential value of organisational data is also a focus for the Oakton digital team: “In most industries, the value of data is locked up. Every organisation can get to know their customers better by profiling their history and recent interactions with the company,” said Les Bognar. 

“The debate on the sustainable and cost effective operational model is often forgotten, while they obsess about designing the visual aspects for a great user experience,” concluded Jan Esman.

An aligned force to digital is how systems will be operated. The digital platform may be complex and it must be full-proof. Oakton is helping its clients manage this complexity through service integration, by combining a range of technologies across the solution stack (software, platform, infrastructure) into an integrated solution or service. 

“Increasingly, components of digital solutions are being sourced from or deployed into the cloud as new deployment options continue to gain acceptance. It enables Oakton to offer our clients choice based on a range of cost, risk and commercial considerations,” concluded Neil Wilson.

About Oakton

Oakton is one of Australia’s leading technology and business consulting services companies and is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange [ASX: OKN]. Oakton helps some of Australia’s largest organisations across a range of industry sectors meet their technology and business needs through its flexible, cost-effective and results-driven approach to service delivery.  With over 1,100 employees, Oakton has offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, Perth and Hyderabad (India). To learn more about Oakton please visit www.oakton.com.au.