View from the top: Interview with new PLAUT CEO Mark Alder
With over 24 years experience in consulting, systems integration, outsourcing and support services to his credit, new PLAUT CEO Mark Alder is a veteran within the IT industry. This week will mark his first Fifty Days on the job and to find out what's brewing in the mind of the man at the top, Tracy van Rensburg poses some pertinent questions.
PLAUT IT Australia and Sweetlets join forces to put a smile on Australian portals!
With a focus on user-centric SAP applications, PLAUT IT Australia and the Munich based software company Pentland Firth Software GmbH are partnering to promote the Sweetlets product suite of applications for the SAP Enterprise Portal in Australia and New Zealand.
Sweetlets offer small, helpful, people- centric SAP Enterprise Portal applications that make a difference in daily business and with their flagship product Click Stream organizations, can gain valuable insight into how people use their SAP Enterprise Portal. Sweetlets products and PLAUT’s deep knowledge and experience with the SAP Enterprise Portal are a winning combination.
The first phase of the Revenue Receipting project has been a significant success for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC). As a result they were awarded a 2010 Australia Day Secretary’s Citation for Innovation in advancing DIAC’s strategic themes. The award was presented for outstanding achievement and innovation in streamlining revenue receipting across business areas.
"This project was strategically important for the Department to ensure that all public monies received both domestically and internationally were treated in a manner consistent with Financial and Accounting standards and that appropriate management and controls were provided. A key and integral contributor to the success of this project was our Partner PLAUT IT Australia. They provided the SAP and integration experience and expertise, as well as significant Public Sector business process knowledge. In particular, they were the only ones who could provide the SAP PS-CD skill set. PLAUT worked tirelessly to ensure the project was delivered on time and budget and were very flexible in the way they managed and provided resources to the team." – Alex El Debel, Assistant Secretary, Border and Corporate Systems
Newcrest Mining Ltd is a global top 10 gold mining company with major operations in both Australia and Indonesia. Newcrest began an IT project in late 2008, whereby their existing (multiple) legacy Finance, Supply, HR, Payroll and Plant Maintenance systems would be replaced with SAP, with staggered implementation dates ranging from October 2009 to July 2010.
The project has been divided into two separate streams, the MPR (Managing People and Remuneration) stream, or HR stream and the CORE stream which includes the areas of Finance, Supply and Plant Maintenance. Plaut IT and EPI-Use have provided resources to Newcrest in key roles as part of the overall delivery team.
2009 saw the implementation of SAP Human Resources across Newcrest (Australia and Indonesia) as well as the implementation of Payroll, Employee Self Service (ESS) and Manager Self Service (MSS) for Newcrest’s Australian Operations.
Congratulations to the many teams who worked closely together to ensure a successful Go-Live!
Plaut IT Australia Chairman, David Prior, declared the start of a new era for Plaut Australia, its Customers and Employees. Commenting on the appointment of former Senior Cisco and EDS executive Mark Alder, as Plaut’s new CEO, David said that; “Plaut has performed strongly over the last years building a strong team and establishing a great track record with our customers based on our Integrity and Delivery. But now it is time to take our business to the next level and expand our business, our capabilities and provide greater opportunities for our team and Customers”.
Plaut Australia has acquired MillenniumIT effective 1st of October 2009. MillenniumIT is Australia’s leading implementer of the SAP Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence (MII) solution and has extensive experience in manufacturing process and system consulting.
“The acquisition of MillenniumIT is a logical extension to Plaut’s solution offerings to customers in the Manufacturing, Mining, Fast Moving Consumer Goods and Utilities industry. MillenniumIT’s Overall Equipment Efficiency reporting capability will also compliment the Business Intelligence products and solutions offered by Plaut”, said David Prior, Chairman of Plaut Australia.
PLAUT Develops Federal Government Budget Accelerator using SAP’s Business Planning and Consolidation
At PLAUT, Business Intelligence is a strategic solution set enabling a series of analytical business processes. To maintain this market leading position, PLAUT has invested in a number of areas, the first doing a pilot project with a leading Australian Manufacturer of the predecessor to BPC, Outlooksoft.
PLAUT has undertaken a major partner training program with a number of our consultants to develop skills in both BPC 5.1 (Microsoft SQL version) and BPC7.0 (Netweaver version). This has provided an excellent insight into the products functionality, capability, integration with Netweaver and the future roadmap.
Robert joined PLAUT in September 2009 and will focus
on business development and sales in NSW and QLD. Robert's early career in IT
into began as an avionics specialist in the RAAF and has since developed an
extensive track record as a senior sales and marketing executive in the IT
industry. He has worked both in Australia
and UK
with companies including HDS, SAS and SAP covering a number of industry
verticals such as banking and manufacturing. He is known as a 'sales hunter'
and always searching for opportunities by building relationships and
understanding customers' businesses and their needs.
On weekends Robert enjoys quality time with a young
family and is keen on swimming and jogging.
Simon Kemp
User Productivity Lead
Simon joined PLAUT in August and his role will be to
build the User Productivity Practice. His focus will be on SAP in the areas of
Portals, Knowledge Management & Collaboration, Mobile, Search and User Interface
technologies with a emphasis on user centric usability and design.
Simon is a Netweaver Portal Architect and JAVA
programmer with over 10 years experience in SAP technologies. He has worked
with all versions of the portal and been involved with many large and complex
SAP Implementations for customers in Europe, the US,
Asia and Australia.
“Combining innovation from both inside and outside of
the SAP world to solve business problems is what I like to do - just because
it's enterprise software doesn't mean it's boring! I enjoy working for
companies willing to embrace new technology to enable their business to
succeed”
With a focus on user-centric SAP applications, PLAUT IT Australia and the Munich based software company Pentland Firth Software GmbH are partnering to promote the Sweetlets product suite of applications for the SAP Enterprise Portal in Australia and New Zealand. 
The first phase of the Revenue Receipting project has been a significant success for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC). As a result they were awarded a 2010 Australia Day Secretary’s Citation for Innovation in advancing DIAC’s strategic themes. The award was presented for outstanding achievement and innovation in streamlining revenue receipting across business areas. 
Newcrest Mining Ltd is a global top 10 gold mining company with major operations in both Australia and Indonesia. Newcrest began an IT project in late 2008, whereby their existing (multiple) legacy Finance, Supply, HR, Payroll and Plant Maintenance systems would be replaced with SAP, with staggered implementation dates ranging from October 2009 to July 2010.
