History - 1997-2001

Since its inception in 1988, QTC’s role had matured, with its strategic direction shifting from a sole focus on its funding task to focusing also on the needs of its clients and the Queensland Government as a whole.

Recognising its ongoing success and viability relied on its ability to add real value to clients’ businesses, QTC set about developing a comprehensive understanding of clients, their businesses, challenges and future directions. In turn, QTC recognised its own financial knowledge could be extended to its client partners, to create additional value for their organisations and develop stronger and more collaborative partnerships.

In 1998, QTC developed and ran its first-ever Central Treasury Management (CTM) course and simulation game. An interactive course, the CTM focused on the role of a corporate treasury, to assist clients’ understanding of the concepts, financial instruments and practices involved in managing debt portfolios and interest rate risk and gain a more in-depth understanding of one of QTC’s core responsibilities. Apart from improving participants’ financial management knowledge, the course enabled a greater understanding of the processes behind QTC’s management of its day-to-day business of providing appropriate liquidity at the lowest possible cost of funds. This course was adopted as part of the post-graduate degree programs for major Queensland universities, including the University of Queensland and the Queensland University of Technology, and was run as part of the Finance and Treasury Association (Australia and New Zealand) annual conference.

Extending this, QTC drew upon its employees’ range of expertise and knowledge to tailor courses for its clients in relevant and specific areas of financial management. For example, in 1999, QTC delivered a financial management seminar to local governments in 11 regional locations. In the same year, QTC designed a specialist Cost of Capital Workshop, in partnership with senior lecturers from the Queensland University of Technology.

Today, QTC views providing education and training programs as complementary to delivering value-adding solutions to its client base. We offer a range of industry and client-specific training courses, including programs that cover cost of capital, project evaluation, investment and liquidity management and treasury management, to staff and clients alike. In addition to providing a worthwhile learning experience, QTC’s training programs provide us with valuable insight into our clients and their businesses, strengthening our relationships with them and creating valuable partnerships.

As a consequence of the opportunities created by globalisation and e-business, knowledge management became a key internal focus for QTC as it continued its program to develop information technology systems and best-practice methodologies.

Launched in 1999, QTC’s tailored electronic information management model stored all of QTC’s internal, incoming and outgoing information, enriching it through an online categorisation and retrieval process. This allowed all staff to have real-time access to information necessary to carry out their services and provided an important strategic tool to build loyalty with QTC’s clients by capturing information relevant to them in a central store.

Beyond this, the information system also allowed each employee to share their knowledge and experiences with the rest of QTC’s current and future employees, encouraging teamwork and information flows to build capacity across the organisation.

Knowledge management remains a fundamental advantage to QTC’s ability to work closely with its clients and deliver optimal outcomes for them and the State of Queensland as a whole. By equipping its employees with the information and resources necessary to deliver effective value to their clients, QTC works to deliver best practice solutions across a range of complex financial and risk management services.

QTC’s efforts to expand its economies of scope led to the implementation of the whole-of-Government leasing facility in the 1998-99 financial year. This facility was established to reduce the cost of operating leasing in Queensland’s public sector, and gave public sector entities greater flexibility in structuring their leasing and financing requirements. In its first seven months alone, this initiative reduced the cost of operating leasing in Queensland’s public sector and provided standard documentation with equitable terms.

In the 2001-02 financial year, QTC’s whole-of-Government leasing facility was redesigned and relaunched to offer improved leasing outcomes for departments and agencies, with the aim of making the overall cost of leasing more favourable. This was achieved through the access to our low-cost funding and maintaining constant contact regarding a client’s intentions at the end of the lease. In this way, QTC continued to provide the best value-for-money service, delivering savings for the benefit of its clients and the State.