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Employing around 20,000 employees globally and made up of 34 business units, Fletcher Building is Australasia’s largest building materials supplier. As you’d expect from such a sizeable organisation, they have a large internal IT team with diverse capabilities and areas of specialisation.
The Auldhouse Advantage
Keen to upskill the business’s Azure capabilities, Jeremy Wee, Fletcher Building’s Head of Architecture, took Microsoft New Zealand’s recommendation to engage Auldhouse to deliver training to over 50 of Fletcher’s IT professionals.
Over the course of eight months, Auldhouse trained Fletchers’ people both in-person at the Auckland training centre, and through Auldhouse Anywhere, a virtual classroom format.
With Fletcher’s desire to minimise social exposure during these times of COVID and cater to team members in Australia needing training at the same time, Auldhouse Anywhere was an invaluable training offering. “We did have the option to engage a training partner in Australia,” says Wee. “However, using instructor-led Auldhouse Anywhere to consolidate delivery to our people in New Zealand and Australia was such a good option that we had no desire to go elsewhere.
“Our people are all used to online courses now, so there was no push back to have classroom training as a preference. Instead, we have found that our team like being able to learn from the comfort of their own environment and not having to travel.”
Auldhouse delivered training to Fletcher Building ranging from Azure Fundamentals to Azure Administration, Azure Architect, Azure Security, and Developing Azure Solutions.
Goal setting
Wee drew up the list of trainees from Fletchers’ Architecture, Digital Platforms and Development, Core Infrastructure and Service Desk teams. “We put forward a range of people, from a number of departments, with varying levels of Azure knowledge and experience.”
Wee had several goals in mind when organising and committing to a programme of formalised Azure training. “My primary objective was to support the business’s philosophy of investing in people. And my second was to help develop the skill sets we need internally for our next digital transformation project.
“Like everyone else, we’ve been impacted by borders closing, and have been faced with the challenge of trying to find and recruit additional skilled IT resources. So the best option for us has been to leverage our own capabilities to manage and develop our Azure environment.”
Looking back at the training so far, Wee says they have ‘absolutely’ achieved their goals.
Summary
Auldhouse delivered the initial round of Azure training to Fletcher Building between November 2020 and June 2021, and there’s more scheduled in the run-up to 2022.
Wee had never worked with Auldhouse before. But he was delighted with the quality of the training, the trainers, and the working relationship.
“I’ve had nothing but great feedback from our team,” he says, “and I personally found them very accommodating and responsive. Given my positive experience with Auldhouse, I’m very happy to recommend them to other organisations.”
