b'With three offices, portfolios and administrativeWe desperately needed a new drive, but the Adelaide staff, John set to work on centralising systems andstore didnt have one. They said theres one in Sydney. processes. One policy that was very important atThe shop in Sydney was going broke and they wanted the time, and even now, is to always keep servicespayment upfront in cash. I drove to Sydney, met this centralised, he notes. Brian and Allan were happy little guy there, and gave him 15-grand cash. I got for John to take on this task, allowing them to back, plugged it in, and we were up and runningcontinue building their portfolios.again on Monday morning.I remember telling John, Well make the money, Alongside the investment in hardware, John also you spend it, recalls Brian. Because somebody hadexplored ways to create a network between theto be doing the back-office stuff, getting the computerthree offices, a forerunner to the extensive network system going, systems up and running. And that wasthe company now runs. The push was for a centralised John. He was very good at that. system in the Trinity Gardens head office, with branch offices all connected. Pre-internet and email, this was John observed that the major insurers were an audacious undertaking for a small business, utilising moving towards more computerised processes standard phone lines to connect computers betweento crunch numbers faster and more accurately, and all three offices. Clare was first on the network, to provide services more efficiently. He knew GMAfollowed by Glynde. could not do anything on that scale, but he wanted 29his business to lead the way among competitors.John says centralisation has been key to thecompanys success. Weve always kept control of In the early 1980s, he procured three Apple II computerseverything centrally. In those days, this cost a fortune paired with a 20MB Corvus hard disk drive, and soon boughtto implement, but it was worth it because it eliminated another Corvus. He also employed software developer Stevethe need for admin people in the branch offices. You Hall to write a basic insurance broking program. While thecould centralise absolutely everything and we knew program was rudimentary, it did what it had to do. It alsowhat was happening in each office.demonstrated to John that a small business could utilise technology to give clients better service. As was often the case in the early days of computers,The push was for a centralised not everything ran reliably. John remembers a Fridaysystem in the Trinity Gardens afternoon when one of the Corvus hard drives diedin front of his eyes, plunging the office into panic head office, with branch and sending him on a weekend round trip to Sydney. offices all connected. Pre-internet and email, this was an audacious undertaking for a small business.'