NBN Co has a new acting CIO and new tech transformation

NBN Co is under new IT leadership and has a second technology transformation program underway that builds on an earlier $200 million overhaul.

The company’s annual report [pdf], released Tuesday, details a previously-unpublished “critical transformation program” called ‘Enterprise Simplicity 2025’.

‘Enterprise Simplicity 2025’ is said to “build on” the company’s systems digital roadmap, a $200 million program revealed in late 2020 that, at the time, was the “largest IT transformation” that NBN Co had ever undertaken.

Where the roadmap “was designed to streamline legacy IT systems and processes”, the 2025 initiative is intended to simplify every aspect of NBN Co’s operations.

“As part of our commitment to continuous improvement and reducing complexity, we are focused on partner simplicity, data simplicity, network assurance simplicity, operational simplicity and technology simplicity,” NBN Co said.

“This is aimed at reducing complexity as we meet the needs of our people, while also helping us work better with retail service providers.”

There are few public references to ‘Enterprise Simplicity 2025’ outside of the annual report; one of the few references, however, points to the program coming under the gaze of Crispin Blackall, a long-time Telstra executive who joined NBN Co in April 2021 as its executive general manager of technology transformation.

Blackall, however, is now listed as the company’s acting chief information officer (CIO) on NBN Co’s website.

His biography states he “established the ‘Enterprise Simplicity 2025’ program to move the company to simpler, user-friendly, future-fit, and cost-efficient technology.”

Blackall’s LinkedIn profile shows he became acting CIO at NBN Co in July.

NBN Co’s previous CIO was Debbie Taylor; her LinkedIn shows she held the role for three-and-a-half years, before departing in July.

An NBN Co spokesperson told iTnews that Taylor resigned "earlier this year" after a total of eight years with the company.

"An executive search has commenced to identify a future CIO," the spokesperson said.

"In the meantime, Crispin Blackall ... has stepped into the role of acting CIO.”

Taylor has since relocated to the United States where she has been appointed CIO of DirecTV, which spun out of AT&T in 2021.