Melbourne Polytechnic is one of Australia's largest vocational education and training providers. It needs to identify and manage risks, especially given rapid changes in the sector, including to modes of educational delivery in the age of COVID-19. But different systems and lack of visibility for reporting were making this a challenge.
Risk reporting was labor-intensive and data was scattered across various platforms, making it difficult to access and interpret. The education and training provider engaged Protecht to design and implement an enterprise risk management system that included integrated governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) solutions.
The challenge
Melbourne Polytechnic began in 1912 as the Collingwood Technical School with 57 boys attending evening classes in carpentry, plumbing, engineering, sheet ironwork and bricklaying. Today, there are some 50,000 students studying for more than 300 nationally recognised qualifications at seven campuses, with additional specialist training centres located throughout metropolitan Melbourne and in country Victoria.
Across the whole estate, Melbourne Polytechnic’s risks were managed in Microsoft Word and Excel. Reporting was labour intensive and data was scattered across various platforms, making it difficult to access and interpret. The Polytechnic wanted to introduce a single platform for GRC that was easy to report on and searchable.
The system had to provide in-depth insights into the data to create the level of detail required for a control library and audit trail. It had to ensure robust compliance, OS&H and incident reporting mechanisms across all campuses and operations, and monitor internal and external audit findings. Value for money was particularly important to Melbourne Polytechnic as a government agency.
The Polytechnic selected the Protecht ERM system because of its performance, functionality and easy user interface. The Risk in Motion module provides an integrated and real-time picture of the Polytechnic’s risk position which set it apart from its competitors.
How Protecht helped
Protecht implemented a customised software solution to transform the Polytechnic’s previously time and labour-intensive risk management processes into a single integrated platform.
- Modules were provided for risk, obligation, compliance, findings, complaints, incident/breach management and WH&S.
- The Launchpad provides a snapshot and status update of each module.
- The Action Register provides interactivity of the modules, so an action such as a new policy can be applied to multiple modules.
Protecht provided training and support after the system went live to ensure it was successfully embedded across the organization.
The results
Having all the information on one accessible platform has provided Melbourne Polytechnic with greater insights and enabled it to respond rapidly to emerging trends, risks and opportunities.
The Protecht Dashboard reports data in different formats to enable targeted analysis. The Risk in Motion module provides an integrated and real-time picture of the Polytechnic’s risk position.
Information can be sliced and diced to tailor reports for different audiences and reports can be downloaded in PowerPoint, Excel or PDF formats.
The Protecht platform has significantly increased the Polytechnic’s ERM/GRC maturity, transforming raw data into valuable information that will enable it to respond to the risks and opportunities that lie ahead.
About Melbourne Polytechnic
Melbourne Polytechnic is one of the largest training providers in Australia, with campuses in Preston, Fairfield, Epping, Heidelberg, Greensborough, Prahran and Collingwood, and specialist training centres located throughout metropolitan Melbourne and in country Victoria.