Fletcher Building partners with Google Cloud

Building materials supplier Fletcher Building has partnered with Google Cloud and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to build a flexible enterprise platform.

With operations in New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific, Fletcher Building has more than 25 different businesses across manufacturing, distribution, retail, home building and major infrastructure projects. With numerous different ERP systems, a myriad of business processes and the growing need for a comprehensive view of its customers, Fletcher Building launched the Digital@Fletchers program to drive technology-led change and growth in the business.

The organisation has partnered with Google Cloud and TCS to implement enterprise-grade cloud capability to run its mission-critical enterprise workloads to enable greater uptime and flexibility, develop its customer data strategy to create an end-to-end understanding of customer needs and behaviours, and to respond quickly to market changes and opportunities.

TCS will use its multi-horizon cloud transformation framework and extensive cloud experience to help Fletcher Building build a new future-ready digital core using Google Cloud. This foundation will simplify the infrastructure landscape, reduce technology debt, host mission-critical workloads, provide a unified view of its customers and enable future innovation.

“We see digital as a key driver of transformation, growth and innovation at Fletcher Building,” said Daniel Beecham, Chief Information Officer, Fletcher Building.

“As we continue to ramp up our e-commerce, digitisation, automation and data analytics functions, we need a stable and secure technology platform that can cater to our needs today — and support us into the future. Google Cloud’s powerful data and analytics capabilities and its co-innovation agenda with SAP, combined with TCS’s domain industry knowledge and cloud engineering expertise, made it the logical choice to underpin Digital@Fletchers.”

Building cloud skills from the ground up

Google Cloud will support Fletcher Building’s employees with the skills required to implement and maintain these technologies. Last year, Google Cloud announced a commitment to equip more than 40 million people with Google Cloud skills.

Through Google Cloud Skills Boost, Fletcher Building employees are now taking advantage of more than 700 hands-on labs, role-based courses, skill badges and certification resources, including 16 new learning paths — all of which are available on demand globally.

Partnering on sustainability

By migrating workloads to the carbon neutral infrastructure of Google Cloud, TCS will help Fletcher Building reduce the carbon footprint associated with those workloads, contributing to its sustainability goals. Fletcher Building will also implement Google Cloud’s recently launched Carbon Footprint reporting tool to measure, track and report on the carbon footprint associated with its cloud usage.

The company aspires to be an Australasian leader in sustainable building materials, construction and distribution. It was recognised among the Asia–Pacific region’s most sustainable companies in the 2020 Dow Jones Sustainability Asia Pacific Index.

“The building and construction industry is at a critical tipping point; the entire sector needs to shift the way it designs, builds and sources materials for a more sustainable future,” Beecham said.

“As we transform our business, sustainability remains a paramount part of our strategy, and this extends to the partners we go on this journey with. As the cleanest cloud in the industry, Google Cloud shares our vision of creating a sustainable future by reducing carbon emissions and overall environmental impact.”

Image credit: stock.adobe.com/au/Production Perig