ABOUT
Brett Alan Cowan is the Founder/CEO of Payroll Experts Australia and AgileXperts; a niche consultancy specialising in payroll project implementation which offers the value add of culture optimisation. Brett has worked in and around payroll projects for over a decade, and has seen the worst and best of payroll. Most importantly he has seen a LOT of payroll implementations. It is this variety that is the strength of his knowledge, and he has combined this with Agile ways of working to create a unique, modern approach to payroll projects and payroll processes.
He has over 25 years’ experience in Process Optimisation and People Management, with the last 10 years focused on starting and running successful businesses.
His career began as an Engineer and diversified into Information Technology and finally into Business Transformation.
He has consulted in Manufacturing, Banking, Insurance, Government, Health, Utilities, Transport, Airlines, Mining, Hospitality and Retail industries.
As a Manufacturing Systems Engineer, Brett built factories and designed processes across the globe. He then branched into Information Technology and Business Transformation.
He has provided Expert Witness opinions in significant legal cases across Australia.
He has deep experience in the discipline of Change Management and Cultural shifts, and more recently applied the Engineering process focus to modernising compliance within Australian businesses.
Working with the world’s largest reinsurance company and multi-national corporations, Brett has led large departments and directly managed complex projects delivering design and transformation of teams, strategies and culture.
He has also created three successful start-ups in Software Development and Management Consulting over the past 10 years.
He is passionate about the role that risk plays in hindering innovation within organisations, and the opportunities that are lost through sub-optimal understanding and management of risk at a board level.
INDUSTRIES
Health
Insurance
Government
Mining
Banking
B2B Integrations
Retail
Manufacturing
Aviation
Professional Services
Food
Utilities
Defence & Simulation Technology
Legal
BRETT COWAN
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Phone:
1300 287 213
Email:
Address:
Building 1, Level 2, Kings Row
52 McDougall Street
MILTON QLD 4064
Company:
www.payrollexpertsaustralia.com.au
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Photography: Rebecca Taylor Photography
KEY ACHIEVEMENTS
Founder/CEO and Principal Consultant
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Brett founded Creature Consulting Pty Ltd in 2009 to support organisations and their teams to uplift to modern ways of working.
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In April 2019 Brett re-branded his consultancy firm to align with rapid industry growth.
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Brett's passion is payroll projects, and he has moulded his business into a vehicle which combines all facets of modern and traditional project management to ensure payroll implementations are a success. Agility is a key component of the success of payroll project delivery.
Expert Witness
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Brett's valuable involvement with large multinational cases, inclusive of report writing and court cross-examination, has provided analysis and plain English clarity to Solicitors and Barristers in highly complex technology cases
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Brett is a full Member of the Academy of Experts in London.
Expert Results
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Successfully delivered an 18-month payroll project to configure a new Enterprise Agreement into a new interpretation engine, and to integrate it into the 45 instances of 5 different payroll systems across 750 stores.
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Brett started and oversaw the Brisbane office of Planit Test Management where he created a business with a turnover of $8M per annum within 12 months, with clients including the Brisbane City Council, CUA, the National Heavy Vehicles Regulator and Aurizon.
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Established the Brisbane and Australian offices of two organisations, achieving over $6M per annum turnover within 12 months for both businesses.
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Transformed teams which had been struggling for two years to deliver value to have successfully created a minimal viable product within 6 months for one of Australia's largest companies.
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Led the increase in revenue of a product company in Singapore from $480K p.a. to $4.8M p.a. in the space of 18 months.
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Responsible for the design and build of Australia's first DVD factory in Sydney in 1996 (project ~$20M)
Expert Leadership
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Brett has been responsible for the design and transformation of teams, strategies and processes in 6 major global corporations.
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Experience working with Boards, CEO's and Senior Executives to budget, resource and manage significant IT and organisational transformation projects.
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Brett is a change agent, leading innovation and cultural change through large and small organisations.
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Mentored Senior Management through adoption of modern working practices.
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Worked with Boards to promote understanding of complex and innovative technologies to ensure ongoing funding of change initiatives.
SKILLS
TECHNOLOGIES / METHODOLOGIES / FRAMEWORKS
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Project Management
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Agile Scrum & SAFe
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LeanIT
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Data/ETL
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Containerisation
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Continuous Integration (CI)
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Continuous Deployment (CD)
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Test Automation
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Artificial Intelligence
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SAP (HR/PY/PRC/FIN/AWM)
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Cerner Millennium
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Outsource/Vendor Management
SYSTEMS
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Payroll
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HR
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Systems Integration
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Real-time Trading
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Portfolio Management
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Finance
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Mine Management
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Internet Portals
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Online Retail
TOOL PROFICIENCIES
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MS DevOps
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Jenkins
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Bamboo
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Selenium
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Puppet
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Ansible
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Artifactory
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Kubernetes
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JIRA
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Confluence
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Octopus Deploy
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RedHat Openshift
QUALIFICATIONS
Bachelor of Engineering (Manufacturing Systems)
QUT, Brisbane Australia
Bachelor of Business (Management)
QUT, Brisbane Australia
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EXPERTISE
Project Management
Agile Ways of Working
Payroll
DevOps Experience
Test Management
People Management
Leadership & Vision
Communication
Technical Background
TESTIMONIALS
"Brett made it possible through his insight into organisational culture and technical experience to enable us to understand modern ways of working and their value to our business innovation."
Praanesh Prasad | Managing Director
WORKPAC GROUP
"We recently brought Brett in to provide strategic advice on a priority statewide IT investment. Brett defined and supported us in the maturity uplift approach in automation, tooling and test management. Setting us up to achieve the benefits of the investment in a complex highly integrated environment."
Aaron Thompson | Program Delivery Lead
QUEENSLAND HEALTH
"I would personally like to thank you for the enormous amount of hard work that you put in to what was a very complex and labour-intensive case. Your hard work, good humour and professionalism made it a pleasure to work with you."
John Howard | Partner
THOMSON GEER LAWYERS