Intrax reveals the inner workings of how they deliver greater value

We decided to interview our National Operations Manager, Nigel Guo in order to reveal the unique mechanism on how Intrax delivers great value.

Nigel, what is one of the most important factors in the relationship of Intrax with its clients?

It starts with understanding the client’s expectations and aligning our efforts to satisfy them. Since we are part of the Value Chain of the end product (the house), without us understanding our client’s needs we wouldn’t be able to align our goals with the ones of the Builder, which is to maximise homeowner satisfaction and product usability.

For example, most homeowners want to reduce the waiting time before moving into their new home. One way we help minimise the construction time is by providing end to end solutions.  We have become experts on executing and coordinating all related jobs and documentation (from soil investigationsurveying, to engineering design and construction services) so construction can start and move faster. Constructability is also important. For example, when you are able to design with timber framing instead of steel, you are minimising the construction time as you already have carpenters on-site compared to having to wait for the steel manufacturers to deliver.

Our job as consultants is also to ensure that the end users live in a home with a low maintenance cost, so we design based on probable scenarios. For example, we design slabs to cater for any potential tree growth, and we provision for future landscaping by providing a drainage solution so the homeowner doesn’t have to spend more money in the future. This attention to details could save homeowners thousands of dollars.

The end goal of Intrax is to provide the right customer service and to provide solutions that our clients need in order to be successful. The delivery of our service as a product is essential and since Intrax Engineers are the ones delivering the service, their understanding of client expectations is crucial.

How has the Intrax end-to-end offering historically helped boost efficiency and cut costs for its clients?

Imagine having to call a geotechnical engineer to perform a soil test, hire a lab to analyse the soil sample, hire a structural engineer to design the frames, a civil engineer to design the drainage, hire a Registered Building Practitioner to inspect your slab, and then having to coordinate them with risks of time delay, miscommunication and discrepancy in requirements. Something as simple as designing a drainage system has to be coordinated with the structural team in order to ensure there won’t be any issues on site.

By us providing an end to end solution we save our clients’ money, time and also avoid them future problems.

That’s definitely of great benefit for the customers if they choose that pathway, but how about competitors who provide more than one service?

Before I answer that question, we need to know what our clients are looking for.  If it is a Volume housing builder, are they looking for speed? Or Cost of construction? For every dollar they save in the construction of a house, if they build 1000 houses, they save a $1000 dollars, so that can translate into some serious money.

So when Volume builders come to us, they can expect to receive faster turnarounds in comparison with the market, but more importantly, a guarantee that every design will be cost optimised, none of our competitors can match and deliver on this promise as well as we can.

How can Intrax achieve that high delivery rate when the standard in the industry is much lower due to all the variables and unexpected events that happen?

The first step is to ensure that everything is aligned and ready for the system to work, I am talking about the culturethe people, the technology, the processes, the goals just to mention a few.

We focus on our process, which includes not only how we design the house but how we carry out our resources planning which is based on information from the sales, operations and accounts teams. We always aim for an accurate forecast in order to plan our staff, our machinery, our software to ensure we allow for sufficient resources and competency to achieve our targets.

Transparency is key for both our internal team as well as our customers. Understanding how we are performing,  in terms of KPI’s like on-time delivery, or how many design issues we had last month, gives us clarity for actions. Our staff understand and live up to that goal assuring the quality of work is never compromised and when necessary we pull resources from another team to fulfill our promise. Our capability and flexibility allow us to adapt rapidly to the changing conditions of our industry.

And finally, through the use of technology, we are able to deliver quality services.  We collect thousands of data points that deliver real-time insights for all our jobs so we don’t only estimate results,  we can check all our quality points, at any moment, for any job, in any stage from anywhere in real time. Technology allows us to deliver our jobs more efficiently and effectively.

As Intrax is constantly innovating its offering, what are some adjustments you’re looking to make in the near future to ensure you’re helping your volume housing clients reach their goals?

One of our major initiatives is to keep developing our Geographical Information System (GIS), called Maps, which will deliver automated calculations for soil classifications based on our extensive geotechnical database.  With it, our clients can create faster and more accurate cost estimations to provide their clients with risk-free estimates and quotes. We believe that this will definitely help our clients to increase their win/loss ratio with no extra effort.

For the last few years, Intrax has used Account Managers, what value the clients are receiving with this approach?

Having account managers is a vital element of us providing our clients with a seamless, multi-disciplined end to end service. The account managers provide our Customers with a single point of contact and if they have any feedback, we get that information straight away and work on it. We get valuable information that helps us plan resources or adjust our process to deliver on our promise. Having an account manager gives our customers confidence and comfort that there is one person whose sole purpose is to facilitate the relationship, provide a vehicle for feedback, and who is going to fix any problems and help them focus on growing their business instead of coordinating and keeping up with suppliers. It also works the other way around, sometimes as professionals in the industry we need to give feedback to our customers,  on how to optimise an overall process, it is a win-win.

Thank you Nigel, if you could summarise everything into one last statement, what would you say?

At Intrax, we align our goals, develop our people, leverage off latest technologies, understand customers’ requirements and keep learning, in order to keep lifting our services levels and positioning ourselves as a vital member in the value chain. Every time there is an issue, we turn it into an opportunity for us to learn and become a better partner to our clients. As an organisation we have big dreams, and understand the steps we need to take with our clients to achieve these goals.”

Nigel Guo

National Operations Manager

Phillip Campbell

Chairman of the Board – Non-Executive Director and member of the risk committee

Phillip Campbell is the Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of the Intrax Consulting Group.

Phillip is an experienced company director with a demonstrated history of successful transformations of public and private organisations by focusing on the intrinsic value of the business, working behind the scenes to improve the effectiveness of management and building strong foundations for growth.

Graduating from Queensland University with a Bachelors’ degree in Electrical Engineering, Phillip has been CEO/MD of a number of public and private companies in the manufacturing and engineering services sectors.

He is a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Phillip has an abiding belief that a stable and safe family home environment is critical for children to achieve a sound education and establish the foundations of a productive life. This is one of the reasons he joined Anchor Inc and is currently its Chairman.

Danny Borzillo

Executive Director

Danny Borzillo is an Executive Director.

Danny has a broad range of experience gained over 30 years of working in the construction and engineering consultancy industries.

Danny is the co-Founder of Intrax Consulting Engineers and was instrumental in the establishment of the Business in 2003. The early success of Intrax was mainly attributed to Danny’s innovation in the volume housing market and positioning Intrax to off its unique end to end service.

Danny Borzillo held the position of Managing Director of Intrax and then joint Managing Director together with Robert Borzillo until March 2011 when Barry Borzillo was appointed.

Prior to establishing and working at Intrax, Danny was involved in several small to mid-sized engineering consultancy businesses. His roles in these companies included Business Owner, Director and Senior Manager, providing consultancy design and construction advice and design services to the building industry.

Danny holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) from Victoria University, is a Chartered Member of the Australian Institute of Engineers and is a Member of several industry technical bodies.

Barry Borzillo

CEO/MD

Barry Borzillo is the CEO/MD of the Intrax Consulting Group

Barry has a broad range of experience in the construction, telecommunications, professional services and government outsourcing industries.

Prior to his appointment in March 2011 as CEO/MD of Intrax, Barry held CEO roles for the ESH group, Tenix Solutions and Ericsson Australia/NZ. He spent nearly four years in the USA in senior roles with Ericsson Inc.

Barry began his career at Ericsson in 1987 as part of the Graduate program. He holds a Masters of Business Administration (Executive) from the Australian Graduate School of Management, a Bachelors’ degree with Distinction in Electrical/Electronic Engineering from Victoria University, is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Engineers and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Barry is passionate about improving educational outcomes in disadvantaged communities which is one of the reasons he joined the Ardoch Youth Foundation Board for ten years, the last five of which he was also the Chairperson.

Andrew Taylor

CFO & Company Secretary

Andrew has more than 30 years of diverse and progressive senior financial experience in professional services, manufacturing and government industries. He is a trusted and proactive business partner, has developed and led high-performance teams, been a member of executive teams and Boards, and driven organisation change with profitability, working capital and structure.

Prior to his appointment in April 2018 at Intrax, Andrew was regional CFO – Australia and NZ region at Aurecon. He spent 17 years at Aurecon leading the finance team, corporatising the business and driving operations across ANZ and Asia.

Andrew is CPA qualified and holds a Bachelor of Business – Accounting.

Andrew’s career highlights include: aligning and integrating 2 major businesses; the initiation, design and implementation of reporting and budgeting software globally; and development and leadership of a new Finance function for a growing company. Andrew enjoys team leadership, developing and mentoring others to reach their potential, and is passionate about maturing, evolving and improving companies and businesses.

Nigel Guo

Executive Director and CTO

Nigel is the Chief Technology Officer of Intrax.

Nigel joined Intrax in 2007 and rapidly rose through ranks with the business. Nigel completed a Bachelor of Structural and Civil engineer from University of Melbourne, and also earned a  Master of Business Administration from Melbourne Business School.

Nigel has had many roles at Intrax, from engineer, to running the residential engineering and quality departments before being promoted into general management roles.

He has played a key role in continuing process and system improvement at Intrax, developing most of the processes and procedures used in the housing departments today that have enabled Intrax to scale with quality, while consistently delivering to clients..

In his spare time Nigel likes sketching, playing bass guitar and soccer.

Robert Borzillo

Non-Executive Director, member of the risk committee

Robert Borzillo is a Non-Executive Director of the Intrax Consulting Group. Robert has over 40 years’ experience working as an engineer in various capacities within the Australian building Industry.

Robert was a co-founder of Intrax Consulting in 2003 with a vision to establish a dynamic end to end values driven engineering consultancy delivering services into the residential housing and building construction industries in Australia

Prior to the establishment of Intrax Consulting Robert was General Manager of Porta Moulding working within the Australian timber industry; in forestry, manufacture and distribution of timber products for the residential building and construction industries.

In his earlier days, Robert also worked as an engineer for Humes Concrete. Involved in the design, manufacture, supply, and installation of precast concrete components for large scale civil and building infrastructure. Robert spent time working in Sydney NSW, and Far North Queensland on many projects. Prior to that Robert spent time with the Country Roads Board in road design and planning of Victorian road infrastructure.

Robert earned a bachelor’s degree from Victoria University, BE Civil is a Certified Practicing Engineer CPE, is on the National Engineers Register. NER, and an accredited practicing engineer in most Australian states. Robert is also a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. GAICD.

Robert’s passion outside of work is travel and snow skiing. He has had the privilege to combine these passions traveling extensively and skiing in Australia, New Zealand, USA, Japan, Italy, and Switzerland.