In this CIO Edge panel, CIOs from The Lottery Corporation, Westpac, and Defence share how tackling system complexity enables innovation, security, and scale.

Simplification is emerging as the key to speed, resilience, and reduced risk in large-scale organisations, where decades of complexity limit agility.

Loren Somerville, Chief Information Officer at The Lottery Corporation, explained how Australia’s lottery and gaming sector must reduce layers of legacy systems to innovate quickly and meet consumer demand.

With more than 7,000 retail outlets and over half of the Australian population engaging with lotteries and keno, speed to market is essential.

Loren highlighted that by treating technology as the core of the business, rather than a back-office function, The Lottery Corporation can deliver product innovation at pace and reduce the risks and costs that come with decades of layered systems.

Meanwhile, David Walker, Chief Technology Officer at Westpac Group, described how the bank has approached simplification through the Unite programme, one of the largest customer migrations and system transformations globally.

He outlined how translating complexity into metrics executives could understand was critical for board-level buy-in.

For example, David demonstrated that every $1 spent on change cost $1.70 due to complexity across a $3 billion programme.

To provide a clear target state, Westpac introduced the BEAD model—Built for change, Evergreen, Automated, Digital to the core—scoring each application and infrastructure component against these principles.

This created a framework that promoted long-term agility, automation, and digital resilience.

Chris Crozier, Chief Information Officer at the Department of Defence, outlined how Defence is tackling complexity on a national scale.

Historically siloed across Army, Navy, Air Force, Space, and Cyber, Defence is now transforming into a unified, enterprise-level federation capable of integrating data and systems.

Chris emphasised that advanced cloud adoption and secure handling of classified information are critical foundations, but success relies equally on culture.

Building trust, securing leadership buy-in, and fostering collaboration across services are essential to delivering both technological and operational outcomes in a volatile geopolitical environment.

 

Key takeaways:

  • Simplification drives speed and reduces risk: Loren explained how decades-old layered systems in the lottery and gaming sector must be simplified to enable innovation, reduce risk, and position technology as the core of the business.
  • Clear metrics and frameworks enable buy-in: David showed how Westpac quantified complexity and created the BEAD model to help executives and board members understand the value of simplification and support one of the world’s largest migrations.
  • Culture and collaboration are critical in complex environments: Chris highlighted that for Defence, unifying historically siloed services depends not only on cloud and data integration but also on trust, leadership alignment, and collaboration.
Contributors
Loren Somerville Chief Information Officer at The Lottery Corporation
Loren is the Chief Information Officer of The Lottery Corporation, an ASX50 company that ranks as one of the highest-performing lottery operators... More

Loren is the Chief Information Officer of The Lottery Corporation, an ASX50 company that ranks as one of the highest-performing lottery operators in the world. She is accountable for end-to-end lottery platforms, Keno platforms and charitable gaming, as well as infrastructure, cyber security and corporate systems. Loren is a also Director of the 50-50 Foundation Limited and was named in CIO Magazine’s Top 50 CIO list for 2021 and is recognized widely as a collaborative and engaging ICT and digital specialist. A curious and passionate leader, Loren has a strong focus on customer experience, innovation and team culture.  

Prior to joining The Lottery Corporation, Loren’s career spanned multiple industries and geographies, ranging from digital strategy and transformation to IT delivery, operations and advisory services, including holding senior technology leadership positions at Youi, Rio Tinto and Gartner.

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David Walker Group CTO at Westpac
David was appointed General Manager (Chief Technology Officer) with Group Technology at Westpac Group in August 2019. For the last 15 years,... More

David was appointed General Manager (Chief Technology Officer) with Group Technology at Westpac Group in August 2019. For the last 15 years, David has been in large, complex organisations. He worked in ANZ across a number of executive roles, in both Australia and Singapore.

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Chris Crozier CIO at the Department of Defence
Mr Chris Crozier was recently appointed Chief Information Officer, leading the Defence Digital Group at Defence. Prior to joining Defence, Mr Crozier... More

Mr Chris Crozier was recently appointed Chief Information Officer, leading the Defence Digital Group at Defence.

Prior to joining Defence, Mr Crozier was the Group Chief Information Officer for Orica International, the world’s largest manufacturer and supplier of explosives for mining and civil construction.

As the Group Chief Information Officer, Mr Crozier was accountable for global digital technology strategies and operations across a footprint of the organisation spanning 120 countries, covering Business (IT), Customer (IoT) and Manufacturing (OT) systems, including the governance of Orica’s digital ecosystems, architecture, data, and cyber posture.

Prior to this, Mr Crozier held executive roles within Orica as Vice President of AusPac (60% of Orica’s global EBIT), Chief Digital Officer and Global Vice President Supply Chain; and BHP as Global Chief Information Officer and Global Chief Procurement Officer.

As a 35-year veteran of the Mining and Resources Sector, having commenced his professional life with Rio Tinto as a Research Engineer, Mr Crozier has experienced the highs and lows of the commodity cycle.

Mr Crozier has a Chemical Engineering Degree (Honours First Class) and Master of Business Administration.

In his spare time, Mr Crozier enjoys endurance sports, including cycling, running and swimming.

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