Services & Skills

Building Business Value

Every product and project should make a quantifiable contribution to the overall value of the business. Always with an eye on the end outcome, I identify that value, determine how it will be measured, and ensure it is delivered, on time and on budget.

Program Management

Projects and products are part of an overall business system. I take complex programs and break down the projects within them to establish how they relate to each other, focus on the value they provide, and make them visible and manageable within the organisation.

Mentoring & Team Building

High performing teams deliver products quickly, and those products are well matched to customer expectations. In any role I undertake, I build strong teams and work with colleagues, executives and direct reports to improve our performance.

Companies & Clients

Work Portfolio

• 
  deep blue company
  

Lifted project commercial competence across the business

Deep Blue Company (DBC) has rapidly expanded since 2012 to offer digital technologies and services covering the entire property sale-to-settlement journey in Australia. With more than 400 employees in Australia and the Philippines, DBC facilitated $9B in property transactions in the last financial year.
The assignment involved improving the project delivery performance across the Technology Group.

• 
  Led the technical team that selected the cyber security services partner for DBC
  
• 
  Developed a new approach to project approval minimising corporate risk
  
• 
  Developed and launched an internal Program Office site
  

• 
  Society of Automotive Engineers – Australasia
  

Led the project to lift employment opportunities for Australian engineers

This engagement involved advising the SAE-A Board, and managing the delivery of its unique Emergency Vehicle Project involving many diverse participating organisations and forward-focused technology.

• 
  Developed the project strategy and implementation plan – accepted by SAE-A Board
  
• 
  Managed more than 130 individuals and 90 organisation participants in the project
  
• 
  Developed and released an app to participants, used as a communication platform
  

• 
  REA Group
  

Set up and managed the REA Group Program Management Office

Established and managed the REA Group Product Council – the equivalent of an REA Program Management Office.
Across all REA business units, this meant

• 
  Projects were prioritised against business strategy
  
• 
  Resources were allocated to projects for maximum impact and efficiency
  
• 
  Communicated progress across all projects with Executive Leadership Team
  
• 
  Recommendations developed & implemented for projects to ensure on-time delivery
  

• 
  Vicinity Centres
  

A production-ready CRM in 10 weeks​

Led a two-person team that delivered a production-ready CRM in 10 weeks, built on the Salesforce platform, covering all past & current Vicinity Centres customers across its entire portfolio. The CRM held data on

• 
  19,209 companies
  
• 
  8,168 contacts
  
• 
  23,987 assets
  

Compared to original estimates

• 
  Yearly license costs were reduced by 66%
  
• 
  Number of licenses was increased by 280%
  

• 
  REA Group
  

Integration of a major acquisition

Led the integration of an acquired company (AUD $25M purchase price) into REA Group including the product delivery team, back-end infrastructure and merging 2 customer databases totalling 1.2M users and customers.

• 
  The product delivery team
  
• 
  Back-end infrastructure
  
• 
  Merging and cleaning two customer databases totalling 1.2M users
  

 This enabled the redeployment of one development team onto other projects and delivered immediate infrastructure savings of $10k/month.

• 
  YourLocal.ie
  

Co-founded, built and sold local search business in Europe

In 12 weeks, installed all the operational infrastructure for the Irish start-up business, including the call centre, office and IT infrastructure, and back-end for the websites, CRM and call centre systems. This facilitated rapid entry into the market.

Once launched, YourLocal was Ireland’s fastest growing directory and No. 2 in the market within four months of launch, achieving sales of more than €1.1m and 2,000 customers in 10 months during the global financial crisis.

YourLocal was acquired by the global media group, Independent News & Media.

• 
  Australian Local Search
  

Co-founded Australian Local Search to become True Local

With co-founder, secured Yahoo! as launch partner for the Australian start-up. This positioned Yahoo! as the first search engine in Australia to have its own Australian online business directory complete with 1.4 million Australian business listings (100% of TAM).

Negotiated and secured a data deal for the Australian start-up business with Google Australia – the first of its type by Google in Australia – providing the business with an unassailable value proposition to customers.

ALS was acquired by News Corp Australia and rebranded TrueLocal. TrueLocal is currently owned and operated by Sensis.

• 
  Strategic Industry Research Foundation
  

Transforming an idea into driveable reality

As Project Director for the Australian Concept Car, I took the brief to build a car that would showcase Australian automotive technologies and turned that idea into a fully drivable advanced concept car. The car was shown in Australia and around the world to secure overseas orders for Australian automotive component manufacturers.

Financial commitments totalled $23 million from 143 component manufacturers, government agencies and automotive associations. That was negotiated at Ministerial level for $9 million in government funding, and at corporate CEO level for in-kind contributions of $14 million.

After project managing the car’s creation on time and under budget, the vehicle went on an overseas demonstration tour which generated $1.25 billion of export orders within the first two years for the project participants.

What Others Say

I have worked with Murray on and off for almost 20 years, as co-founder of two start-ups and in three larger / corporate environments as a peer and where he reported to me. In all cases, Murray proved himself time and again as a highly capable operator who earns respect from the teams, peers, management and external stakeholders he works with. He combines his abilities in program management of business and technology projects, commercial realities and common sense with his highly developed people skills. He has been sought out as a mentor numerous times and provides leadership with a steady hand during crises. I would highly recommend Murray.
Andrew WIlkinson
Product & Technology Leader
Murray is a business leader for a high-tech age – a proven engineer, entrepreneur and project leader with a true affinity for digital technology. He can talk to software developers and online technocrats in their own language, and translate it for the rest of us. Combine this with his natural leadership and clear focus on end goals, and you have someone uniquely valuable for a modern business. I would gladly join Murray in any venture, whether working with him or for him, or engaging him as a consultant. I have enjoyed all these working relationships in diverse business sectors, and have never failed to be impressed with Murray’s abilities.
Greg Shoemark
Senior Vice President SAE-A
I, along with the rest of the team, really enjoyed our time working with Murray in engagements at Vicinity Centres. His pragmatic and transparent approach led to good outcomes and we appreciate the support he provided throughout our projects. Looking forward to more opportunities to work with Murray in the future!
Richard Enojas
Salesforce Global Platform Advisory Board Member

Murray is a world class digital entrepreneur whose achievements are very much understated. He’s founded a very successful competitor to the Yellow pages and has done many start ups I can only dream about. He has very positive outlook and is extremely good to work with. I think Murray’s experience will add tremendous value to any organisation that engages his service.
Alan Kwon
Program Delivery Executive

Murray has managed our new website from creation through to launch. The website covers our activities across 142 international and regional offices, and is in three languages. His sincere integrity and very personable nature enabled him to manage those involved smoothly. His continually updated, detailed project plan was just one reflection of his ability to turn attention to detail as well as manage the big picture of a project. I would highly recommend Murray as an asset to his organisation and clients.
Jenny Stewart
Operations Director

I worked with Murray at One Local Search where he was co-founder and commercial director. Murray has a solid business mind and a finely-honed ability to drive consensus across multiple divergent stakeholders. He is a real do-er, fully at ease with the strategic and theoretical side, extremely effective on execution. I witnessed Murray building superb value at OLS, leading to a successful sale and subsequent integration of the business to a major media corporation. I like and respect Murray and would not hesitate to work with him again.
Jonny Crowe
CEO & CDO

Contact Me

If you feel we’d be a good fit working together, drop me a line or let’s talk.

Phone

+61 421 747 258

email

murray@murraylonge.co

LinkedIn

linkedin.com/in/murraylonge/