This month, Graham Preston, ERP Senior Technology Manager, reaches a milestone tenure of 20 years with WesCEF.

Graham’s journey with then-called Wesfarmers Energy started from a consultancy point of view, coming on board as a project manager for Oracle Consulting in 2002.

During this time, he implemented the Oracle e-Business Suite for the division and through the delivery of the project realised he wanted to stay with the company. And so, in 2005, Graham took advantage of a permanent opportunity with the IT team, where he has remained.

Bringing his knowledge of Oracle with him, he started in the Oracle Support team leading a team of software engineers and systems specialists to support and enhance Oracle e-Business Suite.

“My role expanded when Wesfarmers Energy merged with CSBP to form WesCEF and I became the IT Development Manager with responsibility for a broader suite of off-the-shelf applications, custom built systems and business intelligence solutions.” Graham said.

Over the years Graham has worked across WesCEF through varying IT related projects and has had opportunities to move to other areas – but in his own words, he is “ultimately a propeller-head”- enjoying applying technology to improve business outcomes.

Currently, Graham is focusing on the ERP Program in the role of ERP Senior Technology Manager, where he leads the technology teams that are responsible for defining the solution architecture, setting up the SAP platform, managing security, building integrations, developing reports, migrating data and testing functionality.

The ERP program has multiple workstreams to manage, including project delivery, defining business processes, designing and building the solution and facilitating change management. As part of his role, Graham has the challenge of ensuring that the system implementers, KPMG, are fully supported and have sufficient direction to deliver the ERP solution aligning with all WesCEF requirements.

No doubt Graham and his team will consider the ERP delivery, a memorable experience, once it arrives – but in hindsight he recalls three stand out projects that he’s proud to have been a part of based on their successful delivery. These include;

• Oracle R12 Upgrade

At Wesfarmers Energy the internal team delivered a major upgrade of Oracle e-Business Suite from R11 to R12. The two versions differed significantly, and it was a very complex and involved upgrade to execute.

“At the time we were one of the first Oracle customers worldwide to successfully complete the upgrade and we did it at significantly less cost and effort than many of our peers.” Graham said.

• Customer Sales System

“Post the merger with CSBP I helped propose and implement a major program of work to replace a number of aging Fertiliser systems with a new Customer Sales System. The new system significantly improved the ability of the business to prepare for the Fertiliser sales season, execute new sales strategies and govern the sales processes. In doing so it also significantly reduced the cost and complexity of maintaining the core business systems.” Graham said.

• Project Lawn / Felix

“When Kleenheat launched the NG&E business I played a lead role in designing and implementing the new online apps and back-office systems to run the business.

The project was very challenging as we didn’t want Alinta to know we were entering the market and had to do much of the design without engaging external parties.

We also wanted to get a marketing boost by launching during the state election campaign which created a very hard deadline to achieve.

At the launch we were particularly concerned the system might crash if the volume of customer sign-ups was excessive. However, in the end it all went off without a hitch and the system still underpins the business to this day.” Graham said.

When asked about his 20-year tenure with WesCEF and has he thought of a job change, Graham says that he sometimes jokes with friends, that he doesn’t need to change jobs because his job is always changing through the nature of project work and the diversity of WesCEF businesses.

“Over the past 20 years I have worked across many different businesses and industries and this variety has always made the job very interesting. I also enjoy that WesCEF is a big business with a relatively small workforce where I feel I can have a voice and make a difference.

The culture at WesCEF is also a key reason I have stayed. Like any organisation we have our disagreements and differences, but we do live our values and genuinely want to work as one team. The friends and colleagues I have the pleasure of working with are a key reason I’m still here.”

As anyone could imagine, working in a technological environment, sometimes you might need to emerge for some fresh air, to clear the mind and re-energise.

Graham finds this refresh in the great outdoors, particularly hiking and as WA doesn’t offer the landscapes of his native Scotland, he does keep relatively contented with hikes along the Cape to Cape in the South West and climbing in the Stirling Ranges in the Great Southern.

He also loves spending time with his family, his wife and two grown children whenever they can and he’s also a keen cyclist, getting out most weekends – but admits the coffee and chats afterwards tends to go for longer than the peddling.