IT/IQ creates opportunities for IT professionals to empower business. We are always excited to see what “empowering business” looks like. For some it’s a series of small initiatives, and for others it can be transformational initiatives that change the face of their business. One client we’ve partnered with on many large-scale initiatives is Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers (RBA). RBA is the world’s largest industrial auctioneer, headquartered in Burnaby, BC, with over 40 auction sites in 12 countries around the globe and a heavy online presence.
From 2012 until present day, IT/IQ has placed over 100 IT professionals at RBA, enabling them to execute on many strategic IT initiatives. One of those IT professionals is Geoff Affleck.
One of the mission-critical initiatives Geoff is involved in is the Multichannel Administration and Reporting System (MARS) project. The project involves re-platforming auction-related software systems from multiple legacy desktop applications to a single online application. This solution will centralize all business operations from all the Ritchie Bros. channels and dramatically simplify the IT landscape. It will help the customer-facing teams be much more efficient and organized by streamlining workflows and processes used at auction sites and online marketplaces. This multi-year initiative will consolidate and replace roughly 20 legacy applications.
Opportunity
With the acquisition of IronPlanet, Ritchie Bros. saw the opportunity to centralize all its auction systems to enable increased efficiency and collaboration between teams. One centralized system, also serves as an opportunity for staff to support and enable all the different channels Ritchie Bros. manages; such as IronPlanet, GovPlanet, Mascus and Marketplace E.
IT/IQ Involvement
IT/IQ has played an ongoing part in Ritchie Bros.’ past and present initiatives. Geoff, as well as many of his colleagues working on the MARS project, were initially recruited and placed at Ritchie Bros. by IT/IQ. IT/IQ supplies Ritchie Bros.’ technical teams with Developers, QA, Automation QA, DevOps, Security Analysts, among many other roles.
Outcome
The MARS project is well underway. Currently, the MARS project team is getting the first two major components of the MARS system ready for their upcoming major sales. The two major components are the Bidder Registration System and the Title Management system. They are currently in the final stages of the Title Management release. To test the system, they conducted a successful pilot in December at the RBA auction site in Fort Worth, Texas.
As RBA continues to expand, having everything flow through a single system will enable it to move much more quickly with strategic initiatives. It will be able to offer its customers different asset disposition options, different ways of buying and selling with ease, and to make its teams much more efficient. All of which contributes to the elevation of IT, within Ritchie Bros.
Whether it’s a cloud migration project, a new ERP implementation, or any number of different IT initiatives, IT/IQ Tech Recruiters are experts in finding the right people for the job.
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