CeBIT Wrap Up

Thank You For A Great CeBIT

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CeBIT Australia 2012 has closed as of 5pm on Thursday 24th May. Thank you for a great CeBIT.

We have had high attendance, good feedback, and much has been learnt by attendees of the 7 CeBIT conferences as well as creating great business outcomes for visitors and exhibitors.

Read our event wrap-up, see official photos on Flickr and register early for CeBIT Australia 2013 (28 – 30 May, 2013) to stay up-to-date with the latest in business technology.

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell at CeBIT Opening Plenary

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell at CeBIT Opening Plenary

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DELL Initiatives Supporting Women In IT

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Over the last few years, CeBIT exhibitor Dell (stand C30) has launched several internal and external initiatives designed to accelerate the increasingly powerful role women play in technology and driving economic growth.

Deborah Harrigan, Executive Director - Australia & NZ Consumer, Small and Medium Business at Dell

Deborah Harrigan, Executive Director - Australia & NZ Consumer, Small and Medium Business at Dell

Dell says they are proud that some of that work resulted in awards and recognition by various women’s and government organisations (in Australia Dell has been recognised in 2008, 2009 and 2010 by the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workforce Agency (EOWA) winning “Outstanding Initiative/Result for the Advancement of Women”, awarded a finalist in the “Leading CEO for the Advancement of Women” EOWA Business Achievement Awards and a finalist in the “Leading Organisation for the Advancement of Women” categories respectively).

Their spokesperson told us that empowering women and their businesses is something close to their hearts and is the motivation behind their Women Powering Business initiative and DWEN (Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network), a network and annual conference that helps bring female founders, CEOs and innovative leaders together, to share best practices and open up new business opportunities around the world.

In Australia Dell has a growing community of DWEN members being built through local events. At this year’s annual conference in New Dehli, India, over 14 Australian female entrepreneurs and CEOs will attend the 175 person invitation-only event.

The Dell WITEM (Women in IT Executive Mentoring) program, founded and launched by Dell in 2005, has impacted over 140 mentor-mentee pairs from Australia’s leading government departments, commercial companies, IT vendors and educational institutions. It’s aim is to create greater gender balance and accelerate the development of leadership skills of women within the IT industry and IT profession. In 2012 the WITEM Coaching Circles were launched with AGIMO with over 60 female IT execs from within the Australian government participating in a 12 month facilitated program.

Deborah Harrigan, Executive Director – Australia & NZ Consumer, Small and Medium Business at Dell told us that:

“We firmly believe if an organisation under-represents women at senior levels, they are at a disadvantage. To put simply, they lose a certain point of view that is beneficial to business – any business – regardless of industry.”

“The most recent industry data (a 2009 DEEWR report) reveals only around 18 per cent of ICT workers in Australia are women, that means less than one in five people working in IT is female.”

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Huawei Enterprise Coming Up On 1 Year Anniversary

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Huawei is demonstrating a range of its latest Enterprise technologies at CeBIT Australia 2012 Stand D25. With Huawei’s Enterprise Business Group coming up to its one-year anniversary since launching in mid-2011, the company has already forged a number of local partnerships and is working across a list of industry verticals.

Huawei Enterprise stand - Hon Sachin Pilot, Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology, Government of India

Huawei Enterprise stand - Hon Sachin Pilot, Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology, Government of India

Huawei’s CeBIT stand has been designed around Huawei’s target industries: e-Health, e-Education, Smartgrids, Transportation, Mining, Railway, Aviation, Energy, Oil & Gas, e-Government, and small-medium business solutions.

“Even though Huawei’s Australian Enterprise Business is less than a year old, we’ve already built a number of strong partnerships across a wide range of industries,” said Huawei spokesman, Enterprise Director Daniel Lin.

“In healthcare, Huawei has partnered with Australian e-health technology provider Telehealthnetworks, in transport we’re deploying mobile communications technology for Australian railways, in education we’re delivering Telepresence technology for Australia’s Academic and Research Network, AARNet. At CeBIT, we’re showing off our next generation of Enterprise technology in the hope of building even more local partnerships as we enter our second year in the market.”

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invoxia AudiOffice/NVX610 Revolutionises Office Phones

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At first glance the invoxia AudiOffice/NVX610 looks like many other Apple accessories, however underneath the white gleaming exterior lie features that led to it winning the 2012 Red Dot design award and the Best of Innovations award at CES 2012.

Household Technology Stand at CeBIT

Household Technology Stand at CeBIT

CeBIT exhibitor Household Technologies (Stand S54) distributes the invoxia AudiOffice/NVX610 in Australia.

invoxia is a French firm which designs, develops, produces and markets innovative telecommunications products with enhanced user experience, great interface and cutting edge engineering. The invoxia AudiOffice/NVX610 supports the iPhone and iPad through a 30 pin interface and Bluetooth, as well as many other mobile devices and tablets through Bluetooth.

Reacting to news they had won the CES Award Serge Renouard, co-founder of invoxia said:

“We are particularly proud of this prestigious award from CES which demonstrates how this evolution for business telephony is progressing. With invoxia, we wanted to put intelligence into the phone to create an ultra-intuitive device, with an efficiency and sound quality unparalleled by any other device. With this communicating and evolving object, with its dual-core ARM processor, invoxia invents the first Smart Office Phone and offers a new freedom to the SOHO (Small Office Home Office) in terms of IP telephony.”

With this smart and communicating phone, invoxia revolutionizes the office phone by providing the first ever device which is set to have the same impact on the landline telephone as what the iPhone has done to the mobile telephone.

This Smart Office Phone replaces multiple devices at the same time, such as: the conference phone, the IP office phone and a home audio system for IOS devices in one single and complete easy to use high quality device. Thanks to its 8 speakers, its 8 microphones and it’s in Vivo Acoustic technology, it revolutionizes the sound quality of conference calls which so it is just like listening to music.

Furthermore, by using the interface of IOS devices, invoxia drastically simplifies the office phone by making it more user-friendly and converging it with the mobile phone which has never been done before. By recognizing invoxia with this award, CES (Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas) celebrates how invoxia is revolutionizing professional telephones and is setting a new international benchmark for office phones.

So far VOIP has been seen as a way in which to lower costs and it is possible to integrate this into both the home and the office. However, VOIP is also a possibility to drastically improve the audio quality of conversations by taking advantage of internet resources and new infinite calculation and storage capacities. By exploiting these new possibilities, invoxia completely disrupts preconceptions of the conventional office phone by combining a new high level of sound quality with a user-friendly design.

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Tata Consultancy Services Offers IT & Business Solutions

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World class IT Services, Business Solutions and Outsourcing company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is exhibiting at CeBIT booth M30.

TCS offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio. Delivered through its unique Global Network Delivery Model, recognised as a leader in excellent software development. A part of the Tata group, India’s largest industrial conglomerate, TCS has over 238,583 of the world’s best-trained consultants in over 42 countries.

“TCS is delighted to participate in the CeBIT Australia event. It is great to see our team connecting with a number of key customers and prospects. I would like to congratulate the CeBIT team, NSW Government, Partner Country, India as well as a vast range of IT savvy speakers and vendors for producing an outstanding business and technology event. A great team effort.” Commented Deborah Hadwen, Chief Executive Officer, Tata Consultancy Services – Australia and New Zealand.

TCS focuses on a range of key verticals, such as Banking and Finance, Insurance and Superannuation, Mining, Energy and Utilities, Telecommunications and Retail. TCS is also ramping up activity in key areas such as Assurance, Infrastructure, Enterprise Solutions, Mobility and Connected Marketing.

Readers may not know that TCS has been operating in Australia and New Zealand for over 30 years.

TCS has over 6,000 staff servicing over 30 clients in the region. These blue-chip clients include the likes of Spotless, Commonwealth Bank, AGL, Woolworths, ING Direct, Superpartners, New Zealand Stock Exchange and CUA.

TCS say that their advantage of other firms is fourfold:

Customer-Centric Engagement Model
A deep-set commitment to their customers defines how they do business, and years of experience working across industries underpin the vast array of services they offer. They build teams around your domain and technology requirements, offering specialized services and solutions that meet the distinct needs of your business.

Global Network Delivery Model (GNDM)
The TCS unique global engagement model allows you to choose the sourcing strategy best suited to your business needs. They take a follow-the-sun approach, meaning that no matter where your business is located, they help you keep it running 24/7, while providing a seamless experience across all operations.

Full Services Portfolio
The full services TCS portfolio combines traditional IT and Remote Infrastructure services with knowledge-based services such as Consulting and Business Process Outsourcing. This enables them to provide integrated solutions that help you recognize value quickly by reducing costs and improving business agility.

Innovation Labs And Co-Innovation Network (COIN)
They will help you achieve and maintain a competitive advantage through the TCS Innovation Labs and Co-innovation Network, offering research-based solutions in advanced technologies that help support your business objectives.

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Wollongong Pitching Itself As Regional IT Hub

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President of ICT Illawarra, Tony de Liseo has told ABC News that the region is promoting itself as a place to invest and a region where Australian operations can be based. Advantage Wollongong has a CeBIT stand at J30.

Advantage Wollongong Stand

Advantage Wollongong Stand at CeBIT 2012

NSW Trade & Investment, the University of Wollongong, Port Kembla Port Corporation and Wollongong City Council say they are very serious about attracting new business to the city, offering facilitation services to businesses relocating or establishing a new operation in Wollongong including assistance with key local introductions, site selection, decision support material and advice on government regulations, policies and incentives.

Wollongong Advantage say that some of the key developments in their region are:

  • The University of Wollongong’s $500 millon Innovation Campus
  • Establishment of the $30 million Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute
  • Expansion of trade and logistics facilities at Port Kembla harbour
  • A planned $350 million upgrade of the city’s main shopping precinct by Wollongong Central owners the GPT Group.
  • The $350 million TRUenergy Gas-fired Power Station at Tallawarra, on the shores of Lake Illawarra. The development includes Tallawarra Business Park, a 100-hectare greenfields site being developed by TRUenergy for light industrial, general industrial and enterprise industries
  • The SMART Infrastucture Facility, a $60 million research and training centre at the University of Wollongong.
  • The development of key growth sectors in trade and logistics, ICT, business and financial services, manufacturing and Mining & Technology Services is also driving economic activity.

Mr Liseo said that “as a business you could either move everybody or you could just move sections of your team,” he said.

“We could look to create a centre for excellence in Wollongong – be it someone specialising in development or support, or even just shared services with your accounts people. Wollongong can give businesses the infrastructure they need. More importantly, we can give businesses smart people that can run a business,” he said.

“There are various businesses in attendance such as equipment manufacturers that are producing some very large routing and networking infrastructure products that are used by telecommunication companies and potentially broadband,” he said.

“Also in attendance are the major software players and the main consulting companies.”

Mr de Liseo said that Illawarra businesses are global players and that many people don’t realise that the region is competitive in the international marketplace.

“The people we compete with are global players as well, but what they don’t realise is that Wollongong is going toe-to-toe with them,” he said.

“We in Wollongong forget just how much of Australia is touched by us – over 60% of the people I have spoken to at CeBIT said they knew Wollongong. Liveability and lifestyle is a really big thing when we are looking at talented people – talented people bring good revenue into the area and that leads onto other flow-on jobs.”

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New Range Showcases the Future of Samsung IT

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Samsung Electronics Australia (Stand D30) announced the local availability of its new range of IT products at CeBIT Australia, including the 14″ Series 5 ULTRA Book and the thin 23″ Series 7 All-In-One PC.

“We are proud to announce the local availability of Samsung’s latest IT range, highlighting our technology in the areas of portable and integrated computing, gaming and business office solutions,” said Tony Ignatavicius, IT Director, Samsung Electronics Australia.

“According to the latest Samsung Better Tomorrow Research, one in four Australians believe that the latest technological advances and designs are important to them, illustrating the importance of providing state-of-the art products that suit a cross section of people and their home or office environment.”

Samsung’s Series 5 ULTRA Book range aims to provide Australian businessses access to a large portable work space with the 14″ screen Ultrabook or the freedom and flexibility to work while travelling with an alternative lightweight 13.3″ model, featuring a powerful Intel Core i5 processor.

Offering the thin All-In-One PC at 16mm, Samsung’s Series 7 All-In-One PC features an interactive 23″ touch screen display and powerful Intel Core i5 computer processor, seamlessly integrated into one handcrafted PC. The Series 7′s 90 degree tilting design allows business users to create and share content in a way that is comfortable for them, whether virtually flat or in a collaborative meeting room.

Ergonomically designed to help support the professional needs of graphic designers and multimedia content creators, the new range of Samsung Series 8 Business Monitors provides users with an exceptional colour experience. Combining multi-viewing technology with outstanding picture graphics, the Series 8 Business monitor allows for cross-device multitasking between two compatible PCs.

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Motion Computing Tablets Chosen As CeBIT Survey Devices

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CeBIT Australia 2012 exhibitor Motion Computing (stand F50) is a leading global provider of tablet PCs and supporting mobility solutions, combining world-class products with services customized for the unique needs of mobile professionals across vertical markets, such as field service, utilities, construction, retail and healthcare. The company’s enhanced line of rugged tablet PCs as well as mobile point of service solutions and accessories are designed to increase mobile productivity while providing portability, security, power and versatility.

CeBIT Australia organisers were so impressed by the features and functionality of Motion Computing’s Tablet computers that we chose to use them as the primary device used by our staff to conduct surveys of CeBIT visitors in order to gather their feedback and comments about the exhibition.

Motion designs tablet PCs for the way people work. It’s customers experience tangible, measurable advances in productivity, without compromising their work styles to accommodate a machine. Their tablets are used to improve efficiency and effectiveness of workflows in a variety of industries such as:

  • Health and Life Sciences – Ensuring mobile healthcare professionals are connected at all levels of patient care
  • Construction -Faster decision making and real-time information gathering on the job site
  • Hospitality – Motion Tablet PCs elevate guest satisfaction while increasing staff productivity
  • Mobile Sales and Service – Empowering mobile professionals to work from anywhere at anytime
  • Manufacturing – Motion tablets bring a new level of automation to manufacturing and warehousing operations
  • Education – Optimizing the flow of knowledge for students and teachers to improve the learning experience
  • Government – Make field-based government jobs easier and more productive with Motion slate tablets
  • Retail and Distribution – Take technology to the point-of-sale with ultra-mobile Motion tablets
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Intelligent Cities Enabled By Advantech Sensors

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CeBIT exhibitor Advantech at stand S25 has deep expertise in data gathering sensors. Turning an ordinary city into an intelligent city involves aggregation of all the individual systems that make up the real infrastructure under the wireless umbrella of a cloud-based infrastructure.

An important feature of all cloud-based systems are intelligent management functions for equipment and devices. For example signage administrators used to send staff to regularly check digital signage equipment located in public places but now such equipment can be remotely controlled over the network.

Also public institutions could authorise some of their management tasks such as traffic intersection monitoring to system builders and service providers so as to optimise resources and achieve the most efficient oepration.

Public and private cloud systems will empower the digital cities of the future, and industrial clouds are the final piece of the puzzle. They will help enable more diverse smarter functionality, helping us all benefit and prosper in the intelligent city.

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Google’s Mel Silva Gives Insights Into Mobile Revolution

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Mel Silva, Industry Leader, Financial Services, Google Australia & New Zealand opened the CeBIT 2012 Mobile conference with her Keynote Insights Presentation: Keeping Pace in an Evolving Digital World.

Silva told us that mobile has already embedded itself in every aspect of our lives, enhancing and expanding communication possibilities. She proceeded to share the latest data on adoption, mobile innovation and future mobile potential.

We are right at the heart of the mobile revolution, it isn’t happening, it’s already happened. However research shows that only 10% of Google’s advertisers have a mobile site and 1% of Australian ad spend is spent on mobile.

Smartphones have transformed consmer behaviour and they inform our daily life. They are mainstream. 52% penetration as of Q1 2012, up from 37% in Q 2011.

1 billion people will be using mobile data as their primary internet access point in 2012 across the world as the cost of data has dropped enough to be cheaper than internet cafes etc.

App usage is ubiquitous. 27 apps installed on average, 10 apps used in last 30 days, 7 paid apps on average.

Smartphones are used while multi-tasking with other media. 11% read a book, 46% listen to music, 48% watch TV, 29% watch movies, 16% play video games, 18% read newspapers and magazines.

Smartphones help users navigate the world around them. 86% of people have looked for local information on their phone and 88% have taken action such as visiting the business, told others about it or making a purchase.

About 20% of people are changing their mind about buying a product/service while they’re in a store because they found a cheaper place to buy it online. 28% of people have purchased something on their phone.

She then highlighted examples of great mobile executions:

  • Woolworths Virtual Store – Channel 7 news youtube.
  • Commbank property app – augmented reality app
  • Hotels.com extreme booking

Followed by suggesting that attendees visit Ourmobileplanet.com.au and Howtogomo.com.au for more statistics and advice.

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Gabby Leibovich Co-Founder CatchOfTheDay Opens CeBIT Online Retail

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CeBIT Online Retail conference opening speaker Gabby Leibovich began his career in retail selling electrical goods. With a keen marketing eye, he saw the potential of the internet to deliver better value for customers and in early 2006, with his younger brother, founded CatchOfTheDay – an ecommerce business based on a new online retail model offering ‘a deal a day’.

Gabby Leibovich speaking at Online Retail 2012 Conference

Gabby Leibovich speaking at Online Retail 2012 Conference

Leibovich began by asking the audience a rhetorical question: How did we build the Australian No.1 eCommerce Group in less than 6 years? From the garage, during a turbulent economy and with no marketing spend.

He said that what makes CatchOfTheDay special is that their customers are acquired by word of mouth, without paid marketing.

In terms of work culture he said that “We don’t wear suits, we make decisions quickly, pay immediately and work with our suppliers for a positive outcome for all parties”.

With a vision to build Australia’s #1 ecommerce group, operating in a number of niche sectors, Leibovich looks to markets, where he can bring about price competition and deliver better value to shoppers.

The group is currently on track to deliver revenues around $250 million for the 2011/12 financial years and has over 2 million registered members who purchase an item every three seconds, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

With no signs of its phenomenal growth slowing down, the CatchOfTheDay group is known as a disruptive force in the Australian retail sector, challenging traditional views of retailing and harnessing the power of the Internet and social media to build an engaged community of buyers.

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EzeScan Releases Line Item Capture for Invoice Processing

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EzeScan, the most popular production scanning software in Australia, has announced the release of its LINE ITEMS Capture Module for its existing Invoice Data Capture solution at CeBIT Australia 2012.

Mike Kirkby, managing director of Outback Imaging which distributes Ezescan said, “We are proud to release our new LINE ITEMS Capture Module which will further reduce the valuable time and money our customers are spending on manual data entry of invoice data”.

The EzeScan ‘LINE ITEMS’ module along with EzeScan ‘DISCOVERY’ utilises EzeScan’s ‘Smart Template’ technology to automatically search and capture key information on documents such as invoices on the fly.

Output scanned images along with the captured metadata can be automatically uploaded to supported EDRMS/ECM systems. The captured metadata can also be output for upload to finance and other line of business applications.

“EzeScan continues to offer a cost effective invoice data capture solution. With the inclusion of line item capture EzeScan offers a high end solution without the high end price tag.”, Kirkby said.

“We’ll be demonstrating this solution at Cebit 2012. You’ll find our innovative stand at location Q35 in Hall 5 underneath the large EzeScan sky banner.”

Outback Imaging has been providing advanced document batch scanning solutions since 2002. With over 750 customers worldwide, EzeScan solutions range from basic batch scanning with manual data entry to highly automated forms and invoice processing. With its cost effective licencing options and modular design EzeScan has become the product of choice for those responsible for Records, Information and Technology Management.

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Small Business Cloud Accounting Provider Wins CeBIT.AU Awards 2012

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Technology awards attracts record number of high quality entries

An online platform that lets small business owners collaborate more easily with their accountants and book-keeping partners has won the top prize for innovation at the CeBIT.AU Business Technology Awards.

The New Zealand-listed multinational developer Xero won the top prize at the CeBIT.AU ICT Excellence for a software accounting system – also called Xero – that simplifies the book-keeping process for small businesses, letting them focus instead on their core competencies.

The CeBIT.AU Business Technology Awards are held annually at the giant CeBIT Australia event at Darling Harbour. The 2012 edition of the awards attracted a record number of entries.

The winners at the CeBIT.AU Business Technology Awards for 2012 were:

1. CeBIT.AU Business Award for Service Distinction:
AAPT for its Customer Charter service platform. The Customer Charter lets AAPT’s business customers get complete access to the same service and reporting documentation as its own client-services personnel, giving them much greater visibility of their network usage and improving customer relations.

2. CeBIT.AU Business Award for Innovation:
CSIRO for its Patient Admission and Prediction Tool (PAPT). This hospital forecasting platform has been successfully implemented across Australia, and allows Health care administrators to accurately predict service demands in Emergency department services – a life saving optimisation.

3. CeBIT.AU Business Award for Outstanding Project:
The Department of Human Services for its Corporate Processes and System Integration project

4. CeBIT.AU Business Award for Top Business Solution:
Xero for its online small business accounting system.

Having accumulated the most number of points for its winning entry among the CeBIT.AU judging panel, Xero was further awarded the overall prize with the CeBIT.AU ICT Excellence Award for 2012.

Chris Ridd from Xero accepting CeBIT.AU business award

Hannover Fairs Australia managing director Jackie Taranto congratulated all of the award winners and said the record number of entries in the 2012 CeBIT.AU awards demonstrated a new vibrancy in the local technology sector.

“There is a new energy in the technology sector in this country, and we have seen that reflected in the quality of the entries for this year’s CeBIT.AU awards,” Ms Taranto said. “It is encouraging to see the local industry doing so well, and that the products and services being created here are among the best in the world.”

The CeBIT.AU Awards Finalists per category for 2012 are:

The CeBIT.AU Business Award for Service Distinction recognises organisations that have delivered a specific service to customers. The service should be an official service offered to all customers with defined deliverables.

  • BigTinCan – BTC Dashboard
  • Deputy – Deputy.com
  • Impact Management Group – GovReports

The CeBIT.AU Business Award for Top Business Solutions recognises excellence in the provision of a product or solution to customers. The award focuses on Products and/or Solutions with a proven track record of success.

  • LeadMaster Australia – LeadMaster
  • Dell – KACE
  • Rittal – Rittal Data Centre Container (RDCC)
  • Datalicious – SuperTag
  • e-Zest – Lantana

The CeBIT.AU Business Award for Outstanding Project recognises the very best in IT project management that has taken place within either Public or Private sector. The award highlights Project Management that demonstrates an overall superior service offering to competitors.

  • goCatch Project
  • CentreLink – CentreLink Debt
  • Pronto – Pronto Software & Nike, Retail Prodigy Group
  • LeadMaster Australia – Summit Implementations

The CeBIT.AU Business Award for Innovation recognises organisations that have made significant contributions to their industry through the introduction of a new idea, method, technology, process or application resulting in social, environmental and / or economic benefits.

  • Tapit – Tapit
  • DesignCrowd – DesignCrowd
  • Household Technology – Invoxia
  • Parrasync – Parrasync

CeBIT Australia 2012 is the largest business technology event in the region, attracting more than 30,000 business visitors through its doors each May. Now in its 11th year, CeBIT Australia has become an integral part of the Australian technology sector.

The CeBIT.AU Business Awards recognise excellence, innovation and achievement in the information and communication technology industry.

CeBIT Australia – Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour, Sydney – May 22-24

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CeBIT Australia 2012 In The News – Day 2

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Australian media have been covering all aspects of CeBIT Australia Day 2 from social media engagement to eHealth security and more. The following are some of the coverage highlights:

CeBIT Australia 2012 - Business Matching Breakfast

CeBIT Australia 2012 - Business Matching Breakfast

Government News reported that Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner had announced 7 grants for mobile projects at CeBIT:

“Mr Stoner said these projects range from digital services to improve the 21st century experience at cultural institutions; smart camera mobile technology to tackle art and museum exhibit theft; mobile location technology to assist bio-security officers in the field, technology to help streamline trade missions; and a platform to develop new mobile applications for government.”
Read more at CeBIT platforms NSW tech projects

Government News also reported on the importance of government ICT spending:

“AGIMO chief information officer, Ann Steward gave at talk at CeBIT 2012 in Sydney about government expenditure on ICT and its increasing role and importance in every sector of government.”

Read more at AGIMO stresses importance of ICT expenditure

SMH ITPro reports that The Federal Government wants more interaction with the public:

“Ahead of his speech at the eGovernment forum at CeBIT Australia in Sydney on Wednesday, Peter Alexander told IT Pro the government was carefully watching trends in technology convergence, social media and ‘gamification’ in order to figure out ways to improve its policies and its engage better with citizens.”
Read more at ‘e is for engagement’: Treasury

iTNews commented on Denis Tebbutt’s keynote at the eHealth conference:

“Former iSOFT Australia managing director Denis Tebbutt has urged general practitioners to better collaborate with the Government’s lead e-health body to ensure success of the personally controlled electronic health record (PCEHR).”
Read more at GP security vital to e-health success: NEHTA

Computerworld highlighted CHEP’s adoption of Cloud technologies:

“Speaking at CeBIT in Sydney, CHEP Australia senior infrastructure manager, Sidney Wong, told delegates that the hybrid Cloud, which will be fully rolled out by June, was necessary because of a number of challenges the supply chain company, which operates in 49 countries, faced.”
Read more at CeBIT 2012: CHEP deploys Cloud to improve company integration

CIO honed in on the Cancer Council adopting Cloud as well:

“Faced with growing data and outdated infrastructure, the not-for-profit organisation, New South Wales Cancer Council, made the decision to move some of its business functions to a private Cloud in early 2012.”
Read more at CeBIT 2012: NSW Cancer Council begins Cloud journey

AFR reports that the internal corporate use of social media could enable dispersed workforces:

“head of innovation at professional services and accountancy giant Deloitte has predicted that improved use of social media by businesses will revolutionise the way companies plan their office locations, as less people need to be based in city centre head offices”.
Read more at Social media to shrink city offices: Deloitte

PC Authority published a comprehensive 89 photo gallery of the CeBIT Exhibition:
Read more at CeBIT 2012: gadgets and technology from Australia’s biggest IT show

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goCatch Demos World First 3D Taxi Finder at CeBIT 2012

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Australian technology start-up goCatch, has demonstrated a world first at CeBIT 2012. Thousands of real taxis from Australian cities can now be seen driving in real-time through the 3D world of Google Earth.

GPS data comes straight from over 5,500 taxi drivers who have downloaded and registered with goCatch. The demo can be accessed at goCatch’s 3D Taxi page.

goCatch Android App

goCatch Android App


goCatch is a smart-phone application that connects taxi drivers and passengers directly, allowing passengers to catch taxis easily and rate their driver out of 5 stars.

The goCatch project was partially funded by the NSW Dept of Trade and Investment’s Collaborative Solutions program and supported by Google, Microsoft, Nokia, PayPal and Research in Motion.

“The support of the NSW Government has been amazing. It has helped us secure investment funding, hire employees and form strategic partnerships.” Said Andrew Campbell, co-founder of goCatch.

goCatch launched in June 2011 to a controversial reception from the Taxi Council which represents the dominant taxi networks. But goCatch has won the support of taxi drivers and passengers, achieving over 5,500 taxi driver registrations and 50,000 passenger downloads in less than a year.

According to taxi driver Mike Parer “As a taxi driver, goCatch is really easy to use, I get more jobs, better fares and I love it.”

goCatch can be downloaded free from the iTunes App Store, the Android Marketplace and the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace. More details are available at the goCatch website.

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NSW Government Awards 7 Public Service Mobile Grants At CeBIT

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New mobile technology solutions to safeguard against museum theft and help rural veterinarians on their patrols are among innovative projects supported by the NSW Government to improve the effectiveness of government services and support growth in the State’s digital economy.

Deputy NSW Premier and Minister for Trade and Investment Andrew Stoner has announced the 2nd round of the NSW Government’s Collaborative Solutions program Mobile Government at CeBIT Australia 2012, the Asia Pacific’s largest ICT industry exhibition and conference.

The Hon Andrew Stoner, Deputy NSW Premier speaking at the CeBIT Australia Opening Ceremony

The Hon Andrew Stoner, Deputy NSW Premier speaking at the CeBIT Australia Opening Ceremony

The Deputy Premier said that the NSW Government will provide nearly $1 million to help seven consortiums develop new mobile solutions for the public sector under the Mobile Government initiative.

The solutions will be trialled with NSW Trade & Investment, which spans government activities from economic development and primary industries to tourism and arts.

“This program is bringing together technology consortiums to develop innovative mobile solutions that can drive innovation, productivity and transformation in our public sector,” Mr Stoner said.

“It also aims to develop new-to-market technologies that have significant potential to generate commercial success, jobs and exports for our digital economy.

“NSW Trade & Investment received a total of 20 consortium submissions for its Mobile Government program, which will support up to 30 per cent of project costs to a maximum of $200,000″.

“Collectively, the seven successful consortiums announced today expect to invest a total of $4 million in their projects and, over the next three years, create over 200 jobs and $80 million dollars in revenue, including $50 million in exports.

“These seven projects are all led by small-to-medium sized ICT companies but many are supported by multinationals with one supported by the University of Technology, Sydney”.

“These projects will provide a range of technology improvements – digital services to enhance the 21st century visitor experience at cultural institutions; smart camera mobile technology to tackle exhibit theft; mobile location technology to assist biosecurity officers in the field; mobile technology to help streamline trade missions; and a highly scalable infrastructure platform to support development of mobile applications for government.”

Mr Stoner said CeBIT Australia 2012 offers a strong platform for the NSW Government to demonstrate its commitment to the State’s world-leading digital sector.

“CeBIT provides the perfect opportunity to showcase our best innovative technology SMEs and their solutions to an international audience, helping spark global business collaborations and opportunities,” he said.

“Seven projects supported by the previous Collaborative Solutions Mobile Concierge program are among 16 innovative and early stage technology companies being promoted to a global audience on the NSW Government’s stand at CeBIT Australia 2012.”

7 Grant Projects

Project 1: Locamate

Consortium partners: Smarttrack RFID Pty Ltd supported by Ramp Holdings Pty Ltd of the University of Technology, Sydney and the Powerhouse Museum.

Description: A way-finding system allowing Powerhouse Museum visitors to interactively navigate the museum and access location-specific information on mobile devices. The system, which builds on a previous project at the museum, will also allow staff to intelligently track and analyse visitor numbers and movements to help tailor more successful exhibitions.

Project 2: NSW Government Elastic Infrastructure Platform

Consortium partners: OrionVM Pty Ltd supported by Asterism Digital Pty Ltd and NSW Trade & Investment’s Finance Strategy & Operations branch.

Description: A cloud-based, pay-as-you-go infrastructure platform allowing developers and systems administrators to cost effectively develop and deploy mobile applications for government agencies.

Project 3: Mobile Control Room for Security and Surveillance

Consortium partners: iOmniscient Pty Ltd supported by AnalyticsReady Pty Ltd and the Australian Museum.

Description: A project at the Australian Museum using smart camera technology to automatically send mobile alerts to staff if an exhibit is removed, helping tackle the problem of theft in cultural institutions. Mobile devices will act as security control rooms allowing security videos to be viewed automatically from multiple locations.

Project 4: BigTinCan Dashboard – “Mission Pack” extensions

Consortium partners: BigTinCan supported by NEC and NSW Trade & Investment’s Industry, Innovation & Investment branch.

Description: A customised mobile solution allowing business executives and government personnel on overseas missions to easily and securely share and update large volumes of documents in various formats. The solution also aims to reduce costly data roaming costs by optimising mobile usage during missions.

Project 5: Rural Location Based Services

Consortium partners: Artis Group Pty Ltd supported by BigTinCan Pty Ltd and ICO, a division of Avnet Technology Solutions (Australia), and the Department of Primary Industries’ Biosecurity branch

Description: Development of a system to enable Department of Primary Industries veterinarian officers to easily record location-specific biosecurity data on their mobile devices using GPS when patrolling, to boost productivity and safety. For example, an officer doing a helicopter check of livestock stranded by floodwater will be able to record the type and numbers of livestock and feed it directly back to a central database where it will be immediately available to incident managers.

Project 6: Mobile Multimedia Guide at NSW State Library

Consortium partners: Art Processors Pty Ltd supported by Hewlett-Packard Australia and State Library of NSW

Description: This project will develop a mobile solution that provides an interactive history tour of the Mitchell library allowing visitors, including school groups, to tap into digital archives and location-specific information. The free mobile application will also provide stories about the library’s history as part of personalised virtual tours that can be recorded in an interactive 3D map.

Project 7: Tapit Contentum

Consortium partners: Tapit Media Pty Ltd supported by Microsoft Australia, Samsung Australia and the Australian Museum

Description: This project at the Australian Museum will simplify the creation of mobile content allowing exhibition items to be easily tagged with downloadable digital information including images, video, audio and brochures using near field communications (NFC) and quick response (QR) codes. Users will also be able to purchase items such as catalogues or souvenirs by tapping their mobiles.

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Andrey Shirben Explains How To Monetise Social Media

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Andrey Shirben is a seasoned Seed Investor and Entrepreneur. Amongst his investments you can find companies such as Kenshoo, ILoveThisBox.com.au, Incauda, Face.com, Saguna, BehavioReal, and Storwize which was sold to IBM for $140M. Andrey is also a member of Sydney Angels investment group.

He has a unique combination of vast technological experience, business leadership, sales and marketing skills, having over 10 years of experience in online marketing and social media strategy, specializing in the retail & travel sectors, overseeing over $5B of advertising budgets over the past few years all over the globe.

Andrey’s presentation at the CeBIT Social Enterprise conference was all about explaining that Social Media is an investment not just an expense.

He began by pointing out that social media is a complex area that is constantly changing. Andrey said his own knowledge has doubled since Christmas 2011. If you take your eye off social media changes for some time your understanding can be out of date quite fast.

Are you doing social media for the right reasons is the question he asked delegates. Doing it because it’s cool, all your competitors are there, US/European companies are there and many people use it are all the wrong reasons.

The real reasons he said should be because you want to engage with your customers, listening to the wisdom of the crowds, getting new customers and yes because there are so many people using it.

In terms of social media strategy he put forward the question – where do you want your organisation to be in 1 month, 1 year, 10 years? Without a clear plan and social strategy you’ll not achieve much, also social media is not a standalone marketing method.

Don’t overestimate likes, they can be bought easily. You want to gain relevent likes from existing and potential customers, give users a good reason to like you, provide relevent and interesting content helps create a healthy engagement with your fans, make them feel good about their purchase

There are no overnight success formulas. It’s all down to lots of planning, hard work, readjusting, more hard work.

When calculating investment pay out make sure you have proper tracking/analytics in place and consider how will you define a pay out/ROI goal and how will you know your user lifetime value / ARPU.

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Dr Finn Klamer Gives Insights Into Danish eHealth Portal

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Dr Finn Klamer, Medical Advisor to Sundhed.dk (the Danish eHealth Portal) gave the packed audience at CeBIT Australia’s eHealth conference a detailed understanding of how the Danish eHealth Portal works.

Conference delegates were clearly impressed by the advanced nature of the Danish eHealth portal as well as being able to learn from Dr Klamer’s decades of experience in the Healthcare sector and see a live demonstration of how the Danish portal works.

In the Danish Health system portals are very important, Dr Klamer explained that Denmark had reached this stage after moving from paper records to screens and then moving from a data centric view to the current approach which is all about sharing data with patients and empowering them to improve their health.

One of the interesting features of the Danish eHealth portal is that the patient has access to their information and everyone can set up their own profile.

Another strength of the Danish eHealth system is that the patient is an active partner. The doctor must realise they are the “pilot” only during patient consultation sessions, outside of that the patient must pilot their own healthcare journey and having access to their electronic health record plus adding their own journal notes is most beneficial for them.

CeBIT eHealth attendees who wish to learn more about Dr Klamer & the Danish eHealth Portal can read a detailed interview with him.

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Denis Tebbutt Announces Latest News From NEHTA

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Denis Tebbutt, Vendor Engagement, National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) began CeBIT Australia 2012′s eHealth conference by giving delegates an update on progress with NEHTA’s Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) project. The PCEHR first stage has 39 days to go which is 6.5% of a 608 day project.

A key part of improving the health of Australians is a PCEHR. A PCEHR is a secure, electronic record of your medical history, stored and shared in a network of connected systems. The PCEHR will bring key health information from a number of different systems together and present it in a single view.

Tebbutt says we have a complex health system with 1340 hospitals, 600 of those private. NEHTA was formed to bring the hospitals, states, federal government and other parties in the health industry together.

He said that the PCEHR is a significant initiative for all Australians and no one is taking security about it lightly. There are security measures of the highest standards for the data repositories. It will be a federal offence to access records without permission or reasonable justification.

Tebbutt then went through the productisation process, explaining that of the roughly 26000 GP’s in Australia 98% of them have a clinical desktop system and 90% of those will have access to PCEHR compliant applications.

3 eHealth sites have been chosen to implement and evaluate the infrastructure and standards in real life settings. 9 Wave II sites are integrating different clinical scenarios & journeys within their healthcare setting with the PCEHR.

All states and territories are collaborating to integrate the public hospital setting. The focus is on all other health communities and providers to build collaborative integration plans such as older Australians, chronic disease, defence personnel etc.

He concluded by noting that you cannot transform any industry without collaboration, it’s easy to say but not easy to do.

Learn more about the PCEHR by reading CeBIT’s interview with Denis Tebbutt about the PCEHR and his view of How the IT Industry Can Transform Australian Healthcare.

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CSIRO Social Media Visualisation Tool Wows CeBIT Attendees

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CSIRO is one of the key government agency exhibitors at CeBIT Australia 2012, focusing on helping Australian organisations grow through digital productivity. Their stand J20 showcases some of their top innovations such as:

 

  • Social media analysis – transforming the way organisations hear, understand and respond to customer feedback.
  • Remote tech support – getting expert help when you’re out in the field is as easy as wearing a special helmet.
  • Smarter, safer homes – helping older Australians live in their own homes for longer
  • Real-time, augmented reality – a visualisation system that lets you interact with sensor data like never before.
  • Intelligent energy management – in your home and across your suburb.
  • 3D flood modelling – the world’s most realistic simulations of this difficult-to-model natural phenomenon.

CSIRO is working with the Australian Government Department of Human Services to explore new social technologies as flexible ways to reach customers and provide them with the information they need.

Social media allows people to express their questions and opinions in incredibly diverse and numerous ways – from Twitter and Facebook, to blogs, forums and news sites. It also gives government departments and businesses more channels to listen to customers, tailor services for customer groups, identify issues of concern and respond to customers in a timely manner.

The department is working with CSIRO to pilot a CSIRO-developed social media monitoring tool called Vizie to help improve the productivity of their Digital Media team. The software, based on CSIRO research in text analysis, searches multiple platforms for defined keywords and decides which tweet/ blog/post is relevant, distinguishing between an accidental mention and text where the department is the focus.

It can also determine ‘hot topics’, for example monitoring retweets may indicate the importance given to a topic or whether there is a potential issue to be addressed. It can also exploit tweets to monitor blogs and trace links to related web pages.

Mr Hank Jongen, General Manager Communication, Department of Human Services commented on Vizie saying:

“We’re hopeful the system will begin to learn what items we follow up and those we don’t, and eventually begin to assign a priority ranking to move those higher up the list”

A unique feature of CSIRO’s social media monitoring tool is its visualisation component. A river graph represents the retrieved posts in a simple overview so that staff can instantly see the hot topics and how they are changing over time. It also allows them to isolate the original post in order to discover its context.

The river graph below shows the large number of discussions about different topics at CeBIT Australia Day 1.

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