Sunwater’s HR team knew their org charts needed an upgrade. The existing process was manual, time-consuming and didn’t provide the visibility their teams needed. As the organisation grew and workforce planning became more complex, they looked for a solution that could support both day-to-day needs and longer-term planning. Here’s how they made that shift and the results so far.
About Sunwater
Sunwater is a Queensland Government-owned corporation that delivers nearly 40% of the commercial water used across Queensland, supplying over 5,000 irrigation and industry customers. With 19 dams and close to 2,000 kms of pipelines, Sunwater plays a critical role in supporting agriculture, urban centres and industry. With 800 employees and a strong culture built on valuing people, collaboration and accountability, Sunwater’s HR and IT teams take a joint, strategic approach to improving organisational efficiency and the employee experience.
The challenge: A need for better visibility and workforce planning
Sunwater began their org chart journey with static PDFs. Key challenges included:
- Time consuming to produce and quickly out of date
- No search functionality
- Missing key employee information such as contact details and photos
- Difficult to share or print
It was clear HR needed an automated solution with functionality to easily model proposed structure changes as the need to deliver restructures increased.
Working with Navigo and implementing org.manager allowed Sunwater to overcome these hurdles, bringing dynamic visualisation, detailed scenario planning and broader workforce engagement.
The turning point
Two key moments drove the decision to upgrade:
- Cross-functional teams using org charts on a daily basis and seeking more information
- During workforce modelling, HR needed a better way to show potential changes and their impact.
Without a tool like org.manager, Sunwater faced rising administrative load and greater reliance on HR to deliver basic structural information across teams.
The decision
Sunwater has partnered with Navigo for many years and values their trusted, collaborative approach. Navigo supported a smooth implementation, achieving tangible outcomes.
Ryan Croukamp
Implementation & adoption
org.manager averages 5,500 logins a month, a remarkable engagement for a team under 1,000 people. It’s become the go-to source for:
- Onboarding support – facilities and IT use it to get key employee information
- Workforce planning – visualising structures and comparing scenarios
- Everyday visibility – helping people understand “who’s who”
Ryan Croukamp
Feature favourites
- Searchability – instantly find anyone, see their role and where they fit
- Custom Views – HR view includes extra employee details without logging into an HRIS
- Structure Visualisation – essential for planning and communicating change
The impact
org.manager has transformed how Sunwater approaches workforce planning. It’s reduced time spent sourcing basic information and gives teams a clearer picture of organisational structure and potential changes.
Ryan Croukamp
What’s next?
While Sunwater is already seeing strong engagement across the organisation, there’s more to come.
They’re now exploring features like sunburst charts to support enhanced strategic planning. These visual tools shift org.manager from an operational tool to a strategic resource, making it easier to access insights and informed decisions without needing a degree in analytics or a data scientist.
To learn more about how Navigo’s org design and workforce visualisation software org.manager can help your organisation, book a free demo to see it in action.
