RAC WA is undertaking a ground-breaking digital transformation. By moving to the cloud and continuing to invest in new technologies and the digital capability of its people, RAC WA is building agility, enhancing its flexible and hybrid workplace, and ultimately improving the services and experiences it provides to its members in Western Australia.
For more than 115 years, the Royal Automobile Club of Western Australia (RAC WA) has supported the Western Australian community. Today the organisation has a membership of more than 1.1 million people across 60% of Western Australian households and is a powerful advocate for road safety, transport and sustainability.
Guided by the needs of its members and the local community, RAC WA has grown from its origins as a motoring club to a diverse membership organisation providing a range of products and services: including roadside assistance, insurance, travel and tourism, finance, auto services, and home and security services.
RAC WA is undergoing a transformation that will shape its future as an organisation. Last year, it launched a new purpose that, together with its members, it will continue to be a driving force to create a better Western Australia.
The organisation is also focused on modernising systems and processes. RAC has the firm belief that digital transformation will help the organisation respond faster to changing member needs and provide them with the best service possible.
Migrating to the cloud
RAC WA’s digital journey has seen it adopt a suite of Microsoft technologies, including the migration of its insurance systems and integration layer into Microsoft Azure, and the roll out of Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, Office 365 and Power BI to streamline access to information and applications.
The transformation also includes RAC WA enhancing its technical landscape where information was previously managed through many different systems. RAC is also planning to leverage additional modern services to accelerate and enhance member experience.
The adoption of modern and secure cloud-based solutions allows RAC WA to respond faster to changing member or market needs.
In January 2021, RAC WA successfully migrated its core insurance platform into the cloud, benefiting from Azure’s performance, security and scalability as well as its significant cost effectiveness. It is also planning to transition out of a legacy data warehouse and use Azure Synapse Analytics, Databricks and Power BI to construct a modern data lake with limitless analytics capability.
Published August 2021
Supporting a hybrid workforce with digital capabilities
RAC WA is committed to strengthening its digital capability by investing in its people. It is deploying new technologies more broadly across the organisation to support this and helping to establish and enhance a flexible, hybrid workplace for its 1,400 employees.
The mass deployment of laptop and tablet devices across the organisation has supported a modern, flexible and engaged workforce. This ensured that during the COVID-19 related lockdowns in 2020, RAC WA’s people were able to easily transition to working remotely and continue to provide essential services to members without interruption.
The hugely positive response from employees and members to remote working at RAC WA has seen hybrid working - a balance of working from home or in an RAC workplace – continue as physical workspaces re-opened following the lifting of restrictions.
In staff consultations, RAC WA’s employees said that working from home increased productivity, improved their work/life balance and reduced commute times. When surveying their members, 97% said they felt comfortable having their query or claim managed by an RAC WA team member working remotely from home.
By embracing the cloud, RAC WA has created a modern, flexible workplace which has helped it navigate the challenges and risks of remote working, boosting the organisation’s agility and ensuring it continues to deliver exceptional member experiences.
By building the digital capability and skillset of its workforce, RAC WA also signals how much it values its people and recognises the importance of a grassroots-led innovation culture.
Read more about how RAC WA has leveraged Microsoft Azure and other Microsoft technologies in its digital transformation in this Feature Story.
