StrategiQ AI has launched to help MSPs combat multiple services opportunities with AI.

The outfit was founded by chief strategy officer Regan McKay, CTO Leigh Stillard along with Kerrie-Anne Purchase as chief product officer and Randall Hughson as head of security.

Across the team, StrategiQ AI has deep expertise in AI, cloud computing, cyber security, software and API development. 

McKay himself has spent many years building businesses such as Merchant IT, Backup247, Network2Share and SmartEncrypt. The opportunity to jump into the AI space and to help MSPs capitalise on it drew McKay into actioning a business plan. 

“I realised that businesses will first dip their feet into AI with Copilot, which is a game changer,” he said. “It very quickly dawned on me that partners needed help to get the best out of Copilot and further opening up for other AI work.

StrategiQ AI focuses on providing a range of services including AI strategy and roadmap development; AI solution design and implementation; AI project management and delivery; AI training and enablement for customers; Microsoft Copilot customer workflow and automation implementation and ongoing support and optimisation.

Stillard added AI will bring a lot of value and transformation to businesses. 

“There is a huge amount of potential in helping this market move really quickly,” he said. 

“Our focus is to help grease the wheels of AI adoption in the channel so we’re not coming in to compete with MSPs, we’re here to help them.

“We’re there to tap into their team and give them a lot of backbone and confidence to tackle large AI projects.” 

One of StrategiQ AI’s offerings is helping MSPs build an AI business in 90 days.

“We work with the MSP to understand their most engaged clients and where we know AI may be useful, help build approaches and marketing plans to help those customers see the value in Copilot and other AI projects,” Stillard said. 

“We want to help MSPs engage a lot faster and see not only the value from their customers, but also know how to navigate Microsoft’s incentives.”

McKay pointed out that MSPs were sometimes challenged with understanding the value of AI and aren’t able to demonstrate and really sell it effectively. 

“The automation and agents is really where a lot of the value is. Having something like a ChatGPT with your own data is really impressive and really beneficial to make decisions based on your data and insights,” McKay said. “Automation has been around for a long time, but now with AI, it has become context aware.

“We think there’s a lot of potential in this market and we’re going to see some quite rapid growth.”

Following Day 1 sessions at EDGE 2024, attendees were treated to a three course meal at the White Dinner, sponsored by WatchGuard. A surprise fireworks show really kicked the conference off with a bang!

Microsoft Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ) small- to medium-sized business (SMB) channel lead Brad Clarke has left “after 17 rewarding years”.

In a LinkedIn post, Clarke wrote he “made the decision to part ways with Microsoft” and was grateful for the “invaluable lessons, trust and friendships nurtured during this journey”.

Clarke stated that it “been an honor to contribute to the remarkable A/NZ and global IT channel community”.

In his position at Microsoft Clarke focused on its channel partner community, which included indirect/distribution, licensing, services and telco.

In the post, he didn’t reveal his next move after Microsoft, teasing a future announcement instead by saying “stay tuned for updates on my next chapter”.

Clarke began his career at Microsoft in 2007, starting as a vendor manager for tele sales. He then went on to work in several various channel roles with the software giant before being named as A/NZ MSB channel lead in 2023. Prior to this, he worked for over seven years at Optus from 2000 to 2007.

In July this year, Clarke was a guest speaker at ARN and Reseller News’ EDGE 2024 conference.

During the conference, he brought a unique perspective on how partners can leverage artificial intelligence to empower businesses to achieve their full potential.

At the time Clarke wrote on LinkedIn that the conference “was exceptional! The breakout format and networking opportunities made it one of the best yet”.

Both Microsoft and Clarke have been contacted for comment at the time of publishing.

Microsoft has worked with ANZ to embark on a program to expand its use of AI across its operations.

After trialing Copilot for Microsoft 365 with a subset of employees as part of an early access program, ANZ has now expanded its use of the technology with an additional 3,000 licences.

Deploying the generative AI service has changed how its employees work, driving productivity and enhancing their ability to connect meaningfully with colleagues.

At ANZ, Copilot for Microsoft 365 is becoming an essential tool for executives, helping them manage their day-to-day responsibilities with greater efficiency and focus.

This includes the deployment of GitHub Copilot to 3,000 software developers and engineers.

The banking group has also identified Copilot for Microsoft 365 as a key tool for enabling its employees to explore generative AI.

By leveraging AI, leaders are finding that they can streamline routine tasks, freeing up valuable time to concentrate on more strategic and human-centric activities.

Jo Hayes, CIO of group services, technology at ANZ, describes Copilot for Microsoft 365 as a “daily boost”.

“I use Copilot to summarise my actions from the previous day, review meeting notes in a Copilot summary (which may sit across multiple pieces of content) and quickly identify my focus areas for the day,” she said.

The technology has also been instrumental for ANZ’s integration of 3,000 Suncorp Bank employees and its 1.2 million customers to the group following its acquisition of the bank in July 2024.

By using generative AI tools like Copilot, the banking group is making this process faster, while driving greater consistency and accuracy.

“We’re finding we can become 80 per cent more efficient by using generative AI on this process, which is saving us a huge amount of person-hours and increasing our consistency significantly,” said Hayes.

ANZ has also partnered with Microsoft to launch an AI Immersion Centre at its Melbourne headquarters – a first for the banking sector in Australia and New Zealand.

The centre is designed to accelerate the adoption of generative AI at scale by providing ANZ employees with hands-on learning experiences.

Initially, the focus will be on building AI literacy among senior leaders, so they can spearhead AI adoption throughout the organisation.

Cloudflare has recognised its top-performing partners from Asia Pacific at its Partner Awards for Asia Pacific (APAC).

Awarded at its inaugural Partner Summit on 7 August, 11 awards were handed out by the internet and application security solutions vendor to partners across the region.

“[Our partners’] dedication to excellence and customer-centric approach has not only driven remarkable growth but also enhanced the core tenants of Cloudflare’s connectivity cloud: the security, performance, and reliability of the Internet for businesses and users across the region,” said Wendy Komadina, VP of partner sales for APAC.

Out of the award winners, The Missing Link Security secured the Rising Star Award, while NTT Australia won Growth Partner of the Year.

Meanwhile, Dicker Data scored Distributor of the Year.

Across the Tasman, David Woon at Kordia was awarded Partner SE Champion of the Year.

Other winners from across the APAC region included:

• New Partner of the Year
  • Techdirect Pte Ltd (Singapore)
• Most Valuable Partner of the Year
  • Omni Intelligent Services, Inc. (Taiwan)
• Partner of the Year
  • Centcloud Technologies Limited (China)
• Customer Win of the Year
  • Megazone Cloud Corporation (Korea)
• Technical Excellence Award (Pre-Sales)
  • Airowire Networks Pvt Ltd (India)
• Services Delivery Partner of the Year
  • Master Concept (Hong Kong) Ltd. (HK)
• Marketing Champion of the Year
  • Softdebut Co., Ltd (Thailand)

Australian software vendor Bravura Solutions has returned to profitability during the 2024 financial year, bringing in gross revenue of $250.4 million.

In a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), Bravura said during the 12 months to 30 June, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased to $25.8 million compared to FY23’s $250.4 million.

This is according to the vendor’s financial report for FY24, which also said its operating expenses were also reduced from $257.7 million to $231 million due to a significant reduction in headcount as part of cost-cutting measures, reorganisation of occupancy requirements and reduction in external costs.

Additionally, Bravura posted an adjusted net profit after tax (NPAT) of $8.8 million, which is up $31.9 million compared to FY23.

The vendor stated to the ASX it will also continue with cost reduction initiatives in FY25.

“Given the scale and pace of our transformation, the overall business has returned to profitability in FY24, with a cash EBITDA of $10 million, up $37.8 million on FY23, and a growing cash EBITDA margin heading into FY25,” Bravura group CEO and managing director Andrew Russell said.

It also reported a positive cash EBITDA of $10 million for FY24, up $37.8 million from FY23, while there was a net cash inflow of $14.2 million during FY24.

With the vendor “now stable, well-capitalised and profitable”, it is now shifting the focus from transformation to growth, with a proposed capital return of up to $75.3 million.

Bravura is expecting for FY25 the targeted cash EBITDA to growth from $28 million to $32 million. However, due to the removal of one-off license fees and reduced project revenue, it is also expecting FY25 revenue to be down compared to FY24.

After the Australian contingent arrived at the RACV Royal Pines Resort for EDGE 2024, the conference kicked off with a series of sessions tailor fit for the Australian and New Zealand (A/NZ) channel.

Day 1’s conferencing started with the official EDGE 2024 Welcome by Foundry’s editorial director for A/NZ, Cathy O’Sullivan. Stela Solar, director of the National AI Centre, presented on the opportunities for Australia in the AI era and the importance of safe and responsible AI. O’Sullivan was then joined by CSO Group chief strategist Hank Clark, KPMG New Zealand consulting partner and cyber lead Matthew Evetts, Amaru founder, CEO and CISO Ray Dussán and Accenture security director for A/NZ Jacqui Kernot to talk about building and monetising a cyber security practice. Ingram Micro SVP and country chief executive for A/NZ Tim Ament discussed navigating the IT industry speed of change and complexity to drive business success. The day concluded with a compelling session by David Shein, who shared valuable lessons from his experience growing and selling Com Tech Communications, Australia’s first tech unicorn.

NextDC has officially opened its data centre facility in Darwin, named D1, which was developed in close partnership with Vocus and the Northern Territory government.

The opening has been three years in the making for NextDC after it successfully won the NT government’s data centre expression of interest process in October 2021.

At the time, NextDC would further expand its digital infrastructure platform with the development of D1 and mission-critical operations centre in the Darwin CBD.

The facility will also host high-speed and secure networking infrastructure to connect the NT and the broader APAC region.

The official opening of D1 “will play a pivotal role in accelerated computing and represents the next step towards achieving national digital equity for the NT,” said NextDC CEO Craig Scroggie.

D1 has a target capacity of 7 megawatts and will support the rapid emergence of technology innovation driven by artificial intelligence (AI).

“This facility will enable organisations operating in the Northern Territory to embrace digital innovation and compete in new and dynamic growth markets across the APAC region,” said Scroggie.

The data centre is located close to Darwin’s central business district and also provides direct access to major subsea cable infrastructure, enabling real-time responsiveness to operational and mission-critical requirements across several sectors, including government, mining, resources and defence.

For NextDC’s partner Vocus, integrating its Terabit Territory fibre network within the data centre will help connect the high-capacity, low-latency networking required for highly resilient digital infrastructure and mission-critical operational centres in Darwin. 

Ellie Sweeney, CEO at Vocus, said, “this will also allow it to connect to its Darwin-Jakarta-Singapore Cable submarine system” and claimed it will “unlock Darwin as a major new digital hub for the Asia Pacific, delivering unparalleled redundancy and reliability to the region”.

Several organisations were also involved as foundational partners in the Digital Development Program at D1 Darwin, including Aussie Broadband, GSL Networks and NetVault.

“Northern Territory business and government will be able to significantly boost the capability of their current digital footprint, actively supporting our Digital Territory Action Plan to enable all Territorians to reach their potential and thrive in a digital economy,” added Northern Territory Chief Minister Eva Lawler.

The opening of D1 comes months after NextDC initiated a $1.3 billion capital raising effort as it significantly ramped up the development and fit-out work across its Sydney and Melbourne data centres. 

Telstra has achieved its third consecutive year of underlying growth in its results for the 2024 financial year despite recording a hit to its reported net profit after tax (NPAT) of 12.8 per cent.

Over the 12-month period to 30 June, the telco recorded a 1 per cent increase in revenue, rising to just below $23 billion. Total reported income also rose by 1 per cent, to $23.5 billion, up from FY23’s $23.2 billion.

Underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was up 3.7 per cent to $8.2 billion, but reported EBITDA was down 4.2 per cent to $7.5 billion.

Additionally, while underlying NPAT was up by 7.5 per cent to $2.3 billion, the reported NPAT decline of 12.8 per cent fell to $1.8 billion.

Despite this, Telstra CEO Vicki Brady declared in a statement published to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) that a “consistent and disciplined execution of our strategy” led to the underlying growth.

Out of its various market segments, Brady said Telstra’s mobiles business “has continued to perform very strongly”, which recorded EBITDA growth of over $400 million and an increase of product income of 4.5 per cent to $10.7 billion.

“This growth was driven by more people choosing our network, with more than 560,000 net new handheld customers, along with ARPU growth. Mobile services revenue grew by 5.6 per cent and our mobile business underpinned our overall underlying earnings growth,” she said.

The telco’s infrastructure business also grew, with InfraCo Fixed recording a 7.4 per cent increase in product income to $2.7 billion and Amplitel rising 13 per cent to $453 million. EBITA for these two arms grew by $150 million in aggregate.

Meanwhile, Telstra’s Fixed C&SB, Enterprise and Active Wholesale branches recorded losses in product income, falling 2.3 per cent to $4.4 billion, 2.7 per cent to $3.5 billion and 9.2 per cent to $366 million, respectively. In terms of underlying EBITDA, Fixed C&SB rose by 88.1 per cent to $254 million, while Fixed Enterprise was down 66.9 per cent to $136 million and Fixed Active Wholesale slipped 19.7 per cent to $94 million.

“While most parts of our business performed strongly, Fixed Enterprise is clearly a long way from where we need it to be,” Brady said. “We commenced action during the year to address challenges in our Enterprise business and took additional action on cost overall.

“These necessary choices and decisions in Enterprise, together with our additional action on cost, mean we are confident in achieving our $350 million cost reduction ambition by the end of FY25.

“Our reported earnings reflect these decisions and, combined with other adjustments, result in significant one-off net costs totalling $715 million.”

Looking ahead, Brady said Telstra’s T25 strategy is on track, which includes its ambitions in underlying EBITDA, earnings per share (EPS) and return on invested capital (ROIC).

The telco also laid out its guidance for FY25, aiming for underlying EBITDA of $8.5 billion to $8.7 billion, business-as-usual capital expenditure of $3.2 billion to $3.4 billion and strategic investment of $0.3 billion to $0.5 billion.

“In FY25, we must remain focussed on lifting customer experience; continue delivering financial growth and value from our world-leading mobile network and high-quality infrastructure; continue the reset of our Enterprise business; and keep delivering on our commitment to simplify our operations and improve our productivity,” Brady said.

“These actions are essential to support our sustainable growth and to put us in a position to deliver for customers now and in the long run.”

She added that Telstra is optimistic about opportunities in the future.

“Telstra’s digital infrastructure and network will be increasingly central to how Australians live and work and we are focussed on investing sustainably to deliver for our customers and our shareholders,” Brady said.

Telstra’s full-year results for FY24 come one day after it announced in a joint statement with rival telco Optus that it was pushing back its 3G network shutdown to October.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has commenced proceedings in the Federal Court against the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) for allegedly making misleading statements related to the registry system known as CHESS.

Statements made in ASX announcements on 10 February 2022 that the project remained “on-track for go-live” in April 2023 and was “progressing well” were misleading, alleged ASIC.

The regulator alleged these statements implied the project was tracking to ASX’s announced project plan and was on track to meet future milestones, including “go-live” in April 2023.

ASIC alleged in a statement that this representation is misleading and deceptive.

At the time of the announcements, the regular claimed the “project was not tracking to plan, and ASX did not have any reasonable basis to imply the project was on track to meet future milestones”.

The regulator said that companies expect the ASX to be a place to list and invest with confidence.

“ASX’s statements go to the heart of trust in the integrity of our markets,” said ASIC Chair Joe Longo. “We believe this was a collective failure by the ASX Board and senior executives at the time.”

According to Longo, CHESS’ “critical importance was all the more reason ASX needed to ensure it told the Australian public the truth about how the project was tracking and whether it would be completed on time”.

“We allege that the true state of affairs as at 10 February 2022 was that the project was not ‘progressing well’, contrary to ASX’s announcement,” he said.

“The delay and subsequent pause of the project in November 2022 caused significant cost to ASX and market participants who relied on assurances as to the progress of the project and scheduled go-live date.

“The CHESS replacement project must be managed effectively and transparently. Failure to do so can lead to a lack of confidence in Australia as a market to attract investment.”

ASIC is yet to determine the penalty it will seek for ASX’s alleged contraventions.

However, in March this year, the regulator announced that the ASX had paid a penalty of $1,050,000 following an ASIC investigation into its compliance with the market integrity rules.

Longo said that companies and market participants rely on the ASX’s statements about its operations to make their own decisions and investments.

The CHESS replacement is a technology project of fundamental significance. It will replace critical national infrastructure crucial to the operation of the Australian economy.

In November 2022, ARN reported that significant technology, governance, and delivery challenges were some of the key findings revealed in Accenture’s report into ASX’s $250 million CHESS project failure.

As a result, the ASX returned to the drawing board and scrapped its original intentions to use distributed ledger technology at its core. 

“The independent report, coupled with our own assessment work, confirms a number of significant challenges associated with aspects of the CHESS replacement project,” ASX managing director and CEO Helen Lofthouse said at the time. “These findings provide valuable inputs to helping us determine a revised solution. We have some work to do before updating and consulting with stakeholders more deeply.”

In June 2023, ARN reported that the ASX was planning to plough on another decade with its 30-year-old registry systems following a botched attempt to replace it. 

A then report by ASIC claimed CHESS would not be sufficient to meet the scalability and flexibility features available from more modern architecture and design.  

5G Networks has announced to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) that its chairman, Joe Gangi, has resigned from the company for “personal reasons”. This is ahead of its planned windup in 2025.

While 5G Networks independent director Natalie Mactier has assumed the role of chair, his position will not be replaced in the long term.

This is due to the company planning to sell its main undertaking and operating businesses to entities associated with the business’ managing director, Joe Demase, sometime next year, as it previously announced on the ASX in June.

“I would like to thank Joe for support, guidance, and friendship on this incredible journey,” Demase said.

“He has served 5GN shareholders as an independent board member since the original 5GN IPO in 2017 and serving as chairman since 2020. He has assisted in a number of the acquisitions and mergers we have completed. I wish him all the best in the future.”

Demase has been involved with 5G Networks for some time, having been the managing director of the previous iteration of 5G Networks, which was a telecommunications carrier.

Under his leadership, 5G Networks acquired Webcentral Group in 2020, which was previously known as Arq Group.  The two businesses then merged together in 2021, with 5G Networks becoming a subsidiary.

Over three years later in October 2023, Webcentral then sold off its web and emailing hosting business and changed its name to 5G Networks.

CrowdStrike’s Australia and New Zealand vice president and managing director, Brett Raphael, has resigned after eight years with the vendor.

In a LinkedIn post, Raphael stated that his “time at CrowdStrike has concluded”.

“Despite having several months to think about what I would say, it’s difficult putting into words just how much this once-in-a-generation company means to me,” he said.

Raphael also referred to the CrowdStrike global incident, saying that “when you’re faced with adversity [your] true colours shine [and] the recent outage proved just that”. 

However he made clear “this outage was in no way related” to his “decision to leave CrowdStrike, it was actually a reason to stay longer”.

In a statement to ARN on his departure, a CrowdStrike spokesperson said “Brett eloquently talked about his decision in his LinkedIn post.

“We wish him all the best and thank Brett for his contributions to CrowdStrike,” the spokesperson added.

CrowdStrike suffered a major global disaster back in July when a new content update that resolves the previously erroneous update and subsequent host issues impacting major global organisations and banks.

Raphael began his career with the cyber security vendor in June 2016. In his LinkedIn post, he also wrote that as “first boots on the ground for CrowdStrike APJ”, he was “afforded the privilege of building the business in the region from scratch”.

“From humble beginnings hustling for quiet tables in coffee shops to hold meetings, to sharing hosting duties in our homes [and] eventually establishing our office, we built something special [and] took it to the moon,” he said.

“I’m incredibly proud of the way our customers, partners [and] our people rallied around each other [and] worked around the clock to get their organisations back online at breakneck speed.

“Our cyber community in this country is world-class. Thank you also to some of our competitors who showed humility at this time, most notably when they showed their support when rogue reporters approached what they thought was my home.” 

He went on to thank the “phenomenal” A/NZ team that he led, as well as customers and partners who “put their faith [and] trust in CrowdStrike [and] its people”.

“I can’t thank you enough for all the support [and] advocacy you’ve shown us over the years, especially those customers that followed me here,” he wrote.

He added that he would “forever grateful to the CrowdStrikers that believed in me [and] joined this “start-up”.

“Your support, dedication [and] commitment enabled this extraordinary journey, which can be best described as legendary,” he said.

InfoMedix, JourneyOne, DNX Solutions, Blue Crystal Solutions and Learnosity were highlighted as top performing partners by AWS at its Public Sector Partner Accolades awards held at its Public Sector Summit on 6 August in Canberra.

The awards recognised partners who helped organisations undergo “significant digital transformations, leveraging cloud technologies to drive innovation and efficiency.”

Simon Elisha, chief technologist for the public sector for AWS in Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ), congratulated each of the award recipients.

“Each of these partners have helped deliver industry leading outcomes across healthcare, education, connected communities and digital transformation,” he said.

“We are continuously inspired by how our Australia and New Zealand partners are embracing agile approaches and delivering innovations in the public sector. We want to again congratulate InfoMedix, JourneyOne, DNX Solutions and Learnosity on the well-earned recognition.” 

AWS awarded DNX Solutions for modernising the Men’s Online Support Hub (MOSH) technology infrastructure in the Connected Communities category.

According to Andrew Winter, head of channel and alliances, A/NZ public sector at AWS, DNX helped MOSH to migrate and modernise MOSH’s cloud platform, transitioning from Heroku to AWS and enhancing performance, security, and scalability using critical AWS services.

“The outcome was a solution that helped Mosh modernise their technology infrastructure, enabling them to reduce costs by 25 per cent and improve operational efficiency by 30 per cent,” he said. “The scalable and highly available cloud infrastructure now underpins MOSH’s operations.”

In the category of Digital Transformation Visionary, JourneyOne took the award for its work with Incite Energy. The energy company’s mission was to “accelerate to a lower emissions future”, with one key focus, “transforming how electricity is consumed”.

“Incite Energy needed to enable automated and timely responses to dynamic pricing signals, thereby empowering consumers to control their devices in response to the needs of the Norfolk Island electricity grid,” said Winter.

JourneyOne collaborated with Incite Energy to develop a smart grid solution using AWS services such as API Gateway, Lambda, DynamoDB and SQS.

“Nine months post-go-live, the Norfolk Island Council has reduced diesel consumption for power generation by more than 28 per cent,” said Winter.

In the category of Healthcare Innovations, InfoMedix was awarded the top award for its work with St Vincent’s Hospital on legacy technology.

“A decision was made to migrate and upgrade the scanned medical record system to AWS, moving a significant amount of crucial patient data and marking a significant step forward in St Vincent’s health and their cloud migration strategy,” said Winter.

“The successful migration to AWS has modernised the hospital’s technology infrastructure, improving its ability to securely manage critical healthcare data and applications.”

He said InfoMedix showed “dedication and expertise, turning potential challenges into opportunities for innovation”.

Under the category of Public Sector Modernisation, Blue Crystal Solutions was hailed the winner for its work with the Australian National Botanic Gardens.

The government department needed help preserving and analysing critical species and environmental information.

At the time, its “software was dangerously outdated”, with applications that could stop running at any point, putting extensive scientific data at risk.

According to Winter, Blue Crystal Solutions leveraged AWS services like S3, RDS, EC2 and IAM to develop a secure, highly scalable, and compliant platform for managing sensitive biodiversity data.

“It enabled customers to securely store, assess, and analyse critical environmental data for over 500 species,” he said. “The outcome created better-informed decision-making and policies regarding managing and conserving hundreds of species.”

Independent software vendor Learnosity was also recognised for its work in the education space, in the Education Advancement category.

According to Winter, the AWS partner enabled “content authors to create high-quality educational content more efficiently, saving teachers time and helping students receive high-quality feedback”.

During his speech, Winter said that buyers in the next phase of their digital journey will be more discerning than before.

“Momentum is not guaranteed. The buyers in the next phase are more pragmatic; they’re not early adopters,” said Winter. “We have to think that the rules are different, the buyers are different. I don’t think we’ll get momentum by optimising what we’ve got.”

Lilia Guan travelled to the AWS Public Sector Summit as a guest of AWS.

Telstra and Optus have extended the closure of their 3G networks to 28 October, giving users with devices incompatible with 4G and 5G networks a few more months to switch over.

Previously, Telstra was set to turn off its 3G network on 31 August, while Optus planned to switch its network off on 1 September.

According to a joint statement by Telstra and Optus, the telcos will use the extra months to “execute one last push for mass public awareness of the impending closures”.

This will involve a public safety campaign on the necessary actions to switch over to the new network.

In addition to individuals’ usage of emergency services, the statement said that users involved with connected devices like medical monitors, internet of things (IoT) sensors and EFTPOS conduct the relevant checks to see if these devices rely on 3G network connections.

The goal of closing 3G is to free up spectrum for 4G and 5G networks to provide faster, more secure and more reliable mobile services, the statement continued.

“We have been communicating to customers about the need to prepare and make the move for almost five years. This has included multiple letters, bill messages, SMS, public awareness campaigns, advertising – even door knocking and sending free phones to people in vulnerable circumstances and our support for customers won’t end the day the network closes,” said Telstra CEO Vicki Brady.

Meanwhile, Optus interim CEO Michael Venter added that Optus has “pulled out all the stops” to guide “a small number” of its customers impacted by the network switch-off through the upgrade process.

“Both carriers are confident they’ve exhausted every avenue of customer communication available to them and this additional public awareness campaign will ensure that the upcoming 3G closures are front of mind for all Australians,” the joint statement said.

“From experience, both Telstra and Optus know there will always be customers who are aware of the closures but … won’t take the action they need to before the closures for a range of reasons.

“Sometimes the actual closure is the only motivation that works.”

In 2019, Telstra first announced that the closure of its 3G network would take place in June 2024.

Microsoft Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ) channel sales and partnerships director Matt Bostwick has resigned at the tech giant.

According to a LinkedIn post, Bostwick said one of the things he was most grateful for while working at Microsoft was the “opportunity to have worked for an organisation that so deeply values inclusiveness and learning”.

“Over the past few years at Microsoft, I have been deeply involved in Waka Hourua, the Māori and Pasifika Indigenous employee group at Microsoft New Zealand and I have learned so much from so many,” he said.

Bostwick also thanked the “incredible partner team” and everyone who made his learning “journey at Microsoft so incredible”.

He started at Microsoft as the tertiary education sector manager in NZ back in November 2012. During his time at the tech giant, he held various positions before becoming the channel sales and partnerships director for A/NZ in July 2022.

In July 2021, ARN reported that Microsoft had pulled together its A/NZ businesses into a single, combined region. It was stated at the time that Microsoft Australia’s chief partner officer, Rachel Bondi, would work closely with Bostwick, who was at the time the chief partner for Microsoft New Zealand.

In July, Bostwick wrote a blog on the top moments of FY24 for the Microsoft A/NZ channel sales team and listed a range of highlights, including supporting nearly 10,000 individuals to gain new certifications, helping Indigenous-led partners to use technologies within their communities and working with its distributor partners, with Dicker Data and TechClick highlighted in particular.

“Despite being a year of significant change and challenge, the Microsoft A/NZ channel sales team has delivered massive impact for our partners and customers,” he said.

Microsoft and Bostwick were unavailable to comment at the time of press.

Higher education has become a significant focus for JourneyOne, which works with universities on enterprise integration, student experience systems and cyber security programs, according to its chief technology officer, Cristian Southall.

Speaking to ARN at the AWS Public Sector Summit in Canberra on 7 August, Southall said sectors like higher education are catching up quickly with technology innovation.

The sector faces rapid change due to declining international student numbers, necessitating greater agility, he said.

“We’ve been assisting universities in becoming more agile by implementing cloud-native solutions and enterprise integration systems to improve the student experience,” Southall said.

“The shift toward microlearning and continuous career evolution requires universities to be able to pivot quickly, and cloud technology plays a crucial role in enabling this agility.”

In addition to education, the Perth-based company of business and technology consultants has a diverse industry focus.

“About a third of our business is in the public sector, mainly state governments, including a longstanding relationship with WA’s Department of Health,” he said.

Another third is rooted in the resources sector, which includes oil, gas and mining, reflecting its WA origins.

However, each sector presents unique challenges and opportunities, and cloud-native solutions and AI continue to be major drivers of innovation, acknowledged Southall.

“Cloud provides the agility and scalability to adapt to rapid changes, while AI can personalise and optimise operations more deeply,” he said.

The role of AI in various industries

For JourneyOne, AI is set to play a major role across industries, although adoption is still in its early stages.

“We’re investigating how AI can enhance our efficiency and empower our clients,” said Southall. “It’s crucial to distinguish between differentiated and undifferentiated use cases for AI.”

He noted that organisations must have their data well-organised and be prepared for operational challenges, such as machine learning operations and testing.

“However, AI is just one component of a broader solution that includes data management, cybersecurity and user experience,” said Southall.

“To fully benefit from these technologies, organisations must approach them holistically, ensuring seamless integration across all components.”

JounreyOne has been an advanced consulting partner at AWS for about six years.

According to Southall AWS’s broad and deep service offerings, it is a strategic choice for us, especially as clients transition from lift-and-shift cloud migrations to application modernisation.

“We’ve developed “FlyOps,” a knowledge base and set of design patterns that help clients build cloud operating platforms to leverage AWS’s managed services fully,” he said.

Lilia Guan travelled to the AWS Public Sector Summit as a guest of AWS.

Motorola Solutions has been chosen by the Western Australia Police Force to extend its smart mobile application to front-line police officers in a bid to better support victims of family violence.

The application, dubbed PSCore, integrates critical operational information from multiple systems, presenting it through a single interface.

It will be deployed across the WA Police Force’s entire fleet of 6,500 mobile devices, allowing officers to record various incidents from the field.

The application will also automatically alert partner agencies and support services when family violence reports are submitted.

PSCore is believed to have enabled noteworthy improvements in compliance levels and workflows for all family violence reports, as it provides WA Police Force officers with a risk assessment framework and a summary of the family violence history of offences.

Superintendent Dean Snashall, technology portfolio at WA Police Force, said that when police officers respond to an incident, “they need accurate and relevant information to inform their decisions while keeping themselves and community members safe”.

“The addition of a new family violence reporting capability is another way this mobile application helps our officers to respond to different kinds of incident,” he said.

This latest expansion is part of Motorola Solutions’ upgrading of the WA Police Force’s public safety mobile application with Apple CarPlay functionality, which was previously announced in March 2022.

NBN Co’s revenue over the 12 months to 30 June has reached $5.5 billion, up 4 per cent year-on-year, while its statutory net profit after tax (NPAT) loss deepened by 5 per cent to $1.18 billion in the red.

This is according to the National Broadband Network (NBN) builder’s financial report for its 2024 financial year, which attributed the revenue increase to increased activations and business revenue, specifically highlighting its business fibre and enterprise Ethernet services.

It also said it saw increased revenue from network construction activity for new developments and co-investment projects.

This is up about $300 million, with NBN Co reporting revenue of $5.2 billion during FY23.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was also up, rising 9 per cent to $3.9 billion.

Both revenue and EBITDA were at the higher end of its FY24 guidance, which the network builder previously mentioned during its half yearly results.

“NBN Co has achieved the key performance targets and full year guidance as set out in the Corporate Plan 2024,” said NBN Co interim CEO Philip Knox.

​Dragging down its profits for the financial year however were depreciation and amortisation expenses, which increased by 4 per cent to $3.2 billion.

Also on the rise were finance costs on lease arrangements, net finance costs on borrowings and income tax expenses, which rose by 5 per cent to $942 million, 18 per cent to $888 million and 950 per cent to $105 million, respectively.

Operating expenses however were down 5 per cent, falling to $1.7 billion due to reduced workforce related costs and ;lower required assurance activity on the network.

NBN Co also restated that the residential average revenue per user (ARPU) was stable at $47 while updating the market on having over 8.6 million homes and businesses connected to its network.

Additionally the network builder said it is on target for having over 10 million premises, or up to 90 per cent of its fixed line network, able to access its Home Ultrafast wholesale speed tier by the end of 2025, with the percentage currently sitting at 78 per cent.

NBN Co also said it has rolled out over 70,000 kilometres of new fibre to extend full fibre access to 3.5 million premises served by Fibre to the Node (FTTN) technology, as well as 1.5 million premises served by Fibre to the Curb (FTTC) technology.

During the financial year, more than 2 million premises in Victoria and NSW combined were made eligible for full fibre upgrades, with approximately 375,000 premises nationwide upgrading from FTTN or FTTC to full fibre.

Optus has been chosen by security data analytics company Devo Technology to launch a managed threat monitoring service for enterprise and mid-market customers.

Under this new partnership, the telco’s managed threat monitoring services will leverage Devo’s real-time analytics, AI and intelligent automation to achieve visibility, detection, investigation and response to threats.

Devo’s integrated platform includes data-powered security information and event management, security orchestration, automation and response and user and entity behaviour analytics. AI and intelligent automation are claimed to also help security operations teams make the “right decisions” in real-time.

Danny Price, vice president, enterprise and business at Optus, said partnering with Devo adds to its “already strong security portfolio and supports the team of experts, who work around the clock here in Australia”.

“We know how critical cyber security continues to be and the importance of continuing to invest in new technology, particularly as the threat landscape continues to evolve,” he said. 

Telstra has expanded its strategic partnership with Microsoft, bringing in AI to its intercity fibre network project and investing in 21,000 Copilot for Microsoft 365 licences to help its employees.

The integration of AI within the network, of which Microsoft is an anchor tenant, will see the tech giant extend its AI infrastructure. As a result, Telstra claims this will allow users to “leverage the transformative benefits of Al”.

“This partnership, which involves building high-capacity intercity fibre routes for Microsoft, further enables Microsoft to boost its capacity and achieve end-to-end connectivity across key telecommunications routes in Australia and across the Asia Pacific region,” Telstra CEO Vicki Brady said.

Microsoft has also signed contracts for the first routes on the network and has tapped Telstra InfraCo as part of its strategy to deliver “enhanced connectivity solutions”.

As for the licences, Telstra claimed this will be the largest deployment of the service in Australia and one of the largest for a telecommunications company globally.

By doing so, the telco said this will help its employees “adapt and thrive in an AI-fuelled future”.

Telstra is also planning to conduct a phased roll out of Copilot to its regular Microsoft 365 app users following consultation with employees and unions.

It also comes after a trial of 300 early adopters who used Copilot to summarise meetings, emails and chat threads and generate content drafts. Results from the trial allege that users managed to save one to two hours per week.

“We’re dedicated to equipping our people with the best Al technology and upskilling them to thrive in the workforce of the future,” said Brady. “Giving our team access to Copilot not only gives them the space and time to spend on more meaningful tasks, but also fosters a culture of continuous learning, improvement and innovation as we drive digital and Al transformation through our business.”

The partnership between the two organisations was initially expanded in July 2022 for five years.

As a result of the five-year extension, Telstra launched a dedicated end-to-end Microsoft practice in addition in making Microsoft an anchor tenant on the intercity fibre network.

The practice was said to be based in the telco’s managed services and technology consulting business Telstra Purple and planned to utilise Azure, Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams to build solutions focused on hybrid working and cloud migration across the manufacturing, retail, agriculture, utilities and finance industries.