DELIVERING IN DIGITAL Mary Murphy, chief digital officer, First State Super. Cover story

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1 12 DELIVERING IN DIGITAL Mary Murphy, chief digital officer, First State Super First State Super recently created the senior executive position of chief digital officer. It marks a significant moment for the $53 billion not-for-profit fund and the superannuation industry at large. Taking up this critical role is First State Super s former chief marketing officer Mary Murphy. The recent MAX Marketer of the Year for Superannuation is on a new journey, and one she accepts will be no walk in the park. associate editor Darren Snyder recently talked to Mary about her extensive industry experience, spanning almost 30 years, and how it will help deliver First State Super s upcoming digital transformation.

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3 14 The quote It s a whole of organisation transformation, not just an external transformation. First State Super chief digital officer Mary Murphy is more than qualified to lead the super fund s latest digital transformation. Joining the fund in 2011, Murphy took on the chief marketing role a year later where she led a rebranding exercise following the merger with Health Super. Coinciding with the rebrand, Murphy was then integral in leading First State Super s MySuper launch in July Murphy is about to release First State Super s latest brand positioning to market. The digital roadmap Before any trustee board gives its support for a new direction, especially in the constantly evolving digital space, it must be totally convinced the proposal will deliver. The appointment of Mary Murphy as chief digital officer is only the beginning of a digital transformation strategy that has been in the pipeline for the past year. The $53 billion not-for-profit fund will announce a head of digital and continue to build a team around the transformation. Murphy says the organisation has been on a journey since July 2014 to develop the strategy. She is entering this major task well prepared and ready to go. Our digital strategy will deliver an intuitive, personalised, relevant offering. [It will] engage, empower and educate members, employers and our employees. It s a whole of organisation transformation, not just an external transformation. And my role is to take the organisation through this change, she says. For Murphy strategy is critical. It is her belief that to drive an organisation it must be strategy led. This is why earlier this year she went in search of a partner and she uses that word purposely to help define what the digital roadmap would look like. We spent close to five months building the strategy and we worked with Deloitte Digital to do that. I wanted a strategy partner. I wanted someone who could leave product outside the door and be product agnostic, she says. The strategy was broken down into sizeable chunks and presented to First State Super s board of directors to gain approval on budgeting and resourcing. Part of that proposition was to appoint me as chief digital officer to lead the transformation. It s a positioning and decision that s been supported by the highest level in this organisation and that is critical for the success of this transformation. A transformation can not succeed unless it s supported from the chair down. Murphy describes the strategy building as an exciting ride yet no walk in the park. She says if the presentation was just a big thing with no pathway to get there, I think you re doomed to fail. A key belief in this transformation is staying true to the roadmap. Murphy says the strategy will need refining from time to time but that s exactly her role, to make the necessary tweaks. The digital playground By any admission the digital space moves fast and having control over what enters or exits needs an element of agility. Again Murphy appears well prepared. She admits First State Super is not heavily in social media channels right now, but they will be. Murphy says it s about making the right moves at the right time in the digital space to give members what they expect and at the same time ensure the fund is resourced to deliver it. Social (media) will become another important channel for us but it s more than running competitions. It s about opening a dialogue, it s about empowering, it s about educating, it s about enabling members to have a voice in this channel, Murphy says. It s about having a space where they [members] can access us. I call them playgrounds - there will be tools and things people can do that will empower them [in the transformation]. Then there is the data juggernaut. First State Super has always

4 The quote It s about opening a dialogue, it s about empowering, it s about educating.

5 16 service centres were opened in Parramatta and Newcastle. There are 50 face-to-face planners who are offering either intra-fund advice or comprehensive advice all-day every day across these centres. Members can gain advice over the phone as well. As of April last year First State Super insourced its phone-based service centre. The decision was made for several reasons according to Murphy. It wasn t that our outsourced provider was doing the wrong thing - it s just that we thought it was time in our relationship with our members that we need to get closer, she says. And we control that channel now. That s probably got close to 80 people on the phones taking about 10,000 phone calls a week. undertaken data-driven marketing but 12 months ago the fund introduced data analytics in to the trustee office in an effort to generate more accessible and meaningful insights from the information they collect. Data is driving and informing the digital strategy too. A cog in any superannuation fund includes offering advice. Murphy says First State Super firmly believes in the importance of advice in any members life. This doesn t mean members need fullblown comprehensive advice every step of the way and Murphy has considered this as part of the digital transformation. She says allowing members the flexibility to drop in and out of the advice cycle as they need it is an important part of the fund s offering. This is Murphy s digital transformation takes on a whole different meaning. First State Super delivers financial planning services across NSW, Victoria, the ACT and Western Australia. This year member The quote Our members are using digital services in every aspect of their life and their expectations are driven by that. The members As part of First State Super s digital transformation Murphy knows it is vital that members have a connection with the brand and understand why they are with the fund. It involves looking at members needs through a digital lens. Murphy explains the fund has a belief that members should be able to access First State Super s services in any channel. From that point of view, Murphy says, digital simply becomes another channel. It s another part of the strategy. Enabling members to access us online; to self-serve; to educate; to set goals - really important things in terms of engaging with their superannuation and their future, she says. We have a strong, secure offering for what members can do online. Our website has won the MAX Award for website of the year and it provides our members with much of the information they need. Our aim is to make that experience more intuitive, personalised and relevant to assist them in building their retirement income. It [the website] is our largest channel in fact. Phones are behind our web channel. Whether or not the vocational member base differs First State Super from its competitors is unknown but Murphy says the fund has used member interaction to develop the digital strategy. We ve undertaken workshops with them [members] - now we re creating two communities, one in Melbourne and one in Sydney, to work with us in the design phase. We re asking what do you like or not like, what do you expect a superannuation online service to offer you, she says. She says engagement is about what satisfies the member, not how the industry measures it. The super industry can get trapped by this engagement world. Engagement is about what satisfies me as a consumer, according to Murphy. First State Super members are not typical 9 to 5 workers. For example, nurses form a significant part of the membership and as shift workers they can t phone a service centre between 8am and 6pm. Murphy says the super fund has to create the ability for members to interact in another way and online services are the key. Our members need support and whether that be on the phone, face-to-face, or online it s about offering a relevant, personalised service that suits our members needs, she says. Our members are using digital services in every aspect of their life and their expectations are driven by that. What our members do in banking or what they do in shopping is what they expect their superannuation fund to offer - and that s what we re intending to deliver. fs