Deb O'Sullivan

AI’s $115B opportunity will only be realised if workers are equipped, heard and empowered. This first-of-its-kind framework embeds skilling, worker input and responsible AI at the heart of Australia’s AI future. #ResponsibleAI #SkillsForTheFuture #DigitalAustralia

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Whether you sit in a data role or hire for one, the landscape is constantly shifting. Our first Market Insights report for 2026 gives a clear and honest view of the skills, roles and trends shaping Australia’s data landscape. Practical, grounded in real industry shifts and shaped by what we’re seeing every day, helping you understand what matters most in the year ahead. Download your copy 👉 www.konnexuscg.com.au

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Qualtrics' latest data deep dives into what's really driving AI adoption – and the numbers might surprise you. Our research revealed that Aussie execs are hesitant to lead when it comes to AI, with only 7% of Aussie leaders ready to "lead the charge with AI" compared to 15% globally. #AI #CX #EX #productivity #talentmanagement #leadership #futureofwork #datadriven #digitaltransformation #innovation #qualtrics #experience #experiencemanagement #XM #experiencematters #customerexperience #employeeexperience #employeeengagement #employeelistening #employeeretention #HR #talent #talentacquisition #CHRO #CMO

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The Strategic Insights for B2B Commerce report from Commerce Vision delivers a clear message for Australian businesses: digital transformation in B2B commerce is no longer optional—it’s essential for competitiveness and growth. Amid rising costs, global competition, and changing customer expectations, leading organisations are investing in technology to drive efficiency and enhance customer experience. - 70% of businesses plan to increase investment in online integrated eCommerce. - Sales order automation and AI-driven fulfilment are emerging as key efficiency drivers. - eCommerce and email outperform traditional channels like phone and field sales in both efficiency and revenue generation. - Businesses offering flexible online payment options are building stronger customer loyalty and accelerating cash flow. “Competition is now global, not local. The ability to grow and invest depends on rethinking cost-to-serve and leveraging technology to streamline every customer interaction.” For Australian B2B leaders, the path forward is clear: embrace technology, prioritise customer experience, and evolve operations to thrive in a digital-first marketplace. How is your business preparing to stay competitive in the next wave of B2B digital transformation?

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AI is rapidly being adopted across Australia & New Zealand — but latest Dayforce research shows many organisations aren’t yet realising measurable value, largely due to skill gaps. If businesses wish to stay competitive, closing those gaps must be a priority. Read more on Channel Life Australia:

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** MSP News: Your Weekly Update! The MSP Market in Australia and New Zealand: One of the Quiet Growth Engines of the Tech Industry.. The MSP market across Oz and NZ is evolving quickly. While it may not always grab headlines like AI startups, it remains one of the most important and steadily growing parts of the technology sector. For organisations relying on IT to run their operations - which is essentially every business today - MSPs have become a critical partner. Across Oz and NZ, demand for managed services continues to rise. Organisations are increasingly outsourcing IT management as technology environments become more complex, particularly with the continued expansion of cloud platforms, cybersecurity requirements and hybrid work environments. Rather than building internal teams, many businesses are choosing to partner with MSPs that can deliver specialised expertise, predictable costs and scalable support. This growth is creating consistent demand for skilled professionals across the ecosystem. Engineers with experience in cloud platforms, cybersecurity, automation, networking and infrastructure remain highly sought after. In many cases, MSPs are capable of winning new client work but struggle to scale delivery teams fast enough due to the ongoing shortage of experienced technical talent. As a result technical specialists continue to find excellent career opportunities. The culture within many MSP organisations is also evolving. Historically, MSP environments were sometimes associated with reactive support and long working hours. Many modern MSPs are now recognising that attracting and retaining talent requires a stronger focus on workplace culture, career progression and flexibility. Hybrid working models, structured training programs and clearer career development pathways are becoming more common. Another important shift is the changing role of MSPs within their client relationships. The traditional perception of MSPs as reactive IT support providers is rapidly disappearing. Today, many MSPs operate as strategic technology partners, helping clients navigate new and complex tech areas. MSPs are not simply maintaining systems - they are helping shape how organisations use technology to operate and grow. Looking ahead, the MSP market appears well positioned for continued growth. Ongoing digital transformation, rising cybersecurity threats, and the increasing complexity of modern technology environments all point toward sustained demand. At the same time, consolidation within the sector and the continued emergence of specialised service providers are likely to reshape parts of the market in coming years. For professionals working in the sector, this makes the MSP industry one of the more dynamic and opportunity-rich areas of the technology landscape. Want more FREE content around career development and job seeking? 👉 https://jmp.sh/gla70YWp Want more FREE content around building culture and hiring? 👉 https://jmp.sh/Blgq4f8A

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AI That Pays for Itself: Real ROI from Real Businesses Still on the fence about AI? Here’s what we’re seeing with clients across Australia — fast, measurable ROI without major tech overhauls.  Real Results We've Delivered: 🔹 Sales Team Efficiency → AI agent automated lead scoring + email drafting → Saved 15+ hours/week = $22K annual productivity lift → Increased qualified pipeline by 38% in 3 months 🔹 Finance Automation → AI-assisted reconciliation & forecasting → Closed books 40% faster, reduced errors by 80% → CFO insights available in real-time, not weeks 🔹 Customer Service Upgrade → AI bot now resolves 70%+ tickets instantly → Support costs dropped by 25% → Customer satisfaction score ↑ from 7.1 → 8.9 🔹 Marketing Activation → Content generation + automated workflows → Campaigns launched 4x faster → 32% increase in lead conversion with zero extra headcount The Takeaway: AI is no longer a cost — it’s a multiplier. Implemented right, it starts generating returns in weeks, not years. And no — you don’t need to be a tech giant. We’re helping SMEs, trades, services, and mid-market firms implement AI tools that pay for themselves. Want ROI from your tools instead of reports? Let’s talk. 🔗 www.ravenlabs.com.au 📞 +61 432 913 392 | ✉️ info@ravenlabs.com.au @Raven Labs #AIROI #AIForBusiness #ProcessAutomation #DigitalROI #SalesAI #FinanceAutomation #CustomerServiceAI #SMEGrowth #RavenLabs #QuickWins #Microsoft365 #ZohoOne #AustralianBusinesses #AIAgent #AutomationSuccess #GPTForBusiness #AIPaysForItself

As Australian businesses navigate economic uncertainty, one thing is becoming clear: growth won’t come from adding more tools - it comes from getting your data foundation right. We’re seeing a clear shift from fragmented systems and “gut feel” decision-making to unified platforms that enable real-time visibility, automation, and ultimately, smarter use of AI. Without clean, connected data, even the most advanced AI initiatives will struggle to deliver real value. This article highlights how businesses like True Protein and Okanui are turning complexity into clarity and why a single source of truth is fast becoming the competitive advantage for scaling organisations. #NetSuite #Suiteconnect #ERP #AI #CloudERP #DigitalTransformation #Manufacturing #WholesaleDistribution #CRM #ChangeManagement https://lnkd.in/gn9QzX7s

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📢 ICYMI: 4 Key Insights from the MYOB 2025 Business Monitor 📊 Confidence is on the rise across New Zealand’s SME sector. But challenges remain. This year’s MYOB Business Monitor surveyed over 1,000 SME owners and operators, revealing four key takeaways for accountants and bookkeepers: ✅ SME confidence is the strongest in 5 years ✅ Revenue recovery is underway, but uneven ✅ Operational costs are still squeezing margins ✅ Financial health is stable, but fragile As trusted advisers, there’s never been a better time to support clients with cash flow, cost management and future-focused planning. 👉 Read the full insights here: https://lnkd.in/gZ6FeW8A

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🔊 From AI Experimentation to AI Confidence 📈 For Australian professional service businesses, 2025 was about testing and piloting AI. As we move into 2026, the focus is shifting to one thing: Proving ROI. 🔎 Clients now expect efficiency, transparency, and real cost savings, not just experimentation. Firms need to clearly demonstrate how AI improves accuracy, reduces repetitive work, and delivers measurable business value. 👉 Those that can leverage AI with confidence will stay competitive. Those that can’t risk being left behind. 🗣️ Madeleine Porter, Legal Industry Expert (APAC), iManage: https://lnkd.in/e7cxCNgM #iManage #AI #ProfessionalServices #GenAI #ROI #DigitalTransformation #APAC

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Busy day at the ADAPT CIO Edge event discussing how TMG helps organisations regain commercial control over IT spend. The conversations were consistent: cloud costs are rising, SaaS environments are sprawling, and CFO scrutiny is intensifying. Technology leaders don’t lack tools — they lack a single, trusted commercial view across cloud, vendors, contracts, and renewal exposure. That’s where we focus. Clarity. Control. Negotiation leverage. Great discussions with CIOs, CTOs and Heads of Procurement navigating real cost and governance pressure. #ADAPT #CIOEdge #CloudGovernance #ITAM #FinOps #CommercialControl

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A modern business operating model trying to run on an outdated database operating model is like an F1 team forced to work out of a Victorian-era workshop. Upstairs, the business is built for speed: small teams, rapid experimentation, weekly releases, real-time feedback. Everyone is thinking in pit stops, not quarterly change windows. Downstairs, the database world is still run like a steam engine: manual runbooks, specialist-only access, “book a slot” requests, fragile dependencies, and a deep belief that stability comes from slowing change down. At first, it kind of works. People compensate. Product teams keep promising velocity. Engineers keep sprinting. DBA/ops teams keep adding gates “to reduce risk.” A few heroes keep everything moving through sheer effort. But then the mismatch starts to bite: Every small change becomes a ceremony. Every release gets bigger because “we may as well bundle it.” Risk doesn’t go down — it concentrates. Innovation turns into theatre: lots of agile rituals, little real throughput. And eventually, the two models stop co-existing. Because the F1 model assumes continuous change. The Victorian workshop assumes change is exceptional. One optimises for learning speed. The other optimises for control-through-friction. So the organisation lives in permanent gear-grind: teams pushing for pace, operations pulling the handbrake, leadership stuck mediating instead of building. The punchline isn’t “the old model is bad.” It was perfect… for a different era. But if you’re serious about modern apps and AI-driven products, your database operating model isn’t a back-office detail. It’s either your engine… or your constraint. If delivery keeps stalling in the same place, it’s worth asking: Are we really missing talent and effort— or are we trying to win races from a workshop that was built for steam?

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With Amazon Bedrock in NZ now - Anthropic in-region inference in NZ includes both AU regions + Auckland (3 Regions) for your data sovereignty needs when initiated from ap-southeast-6! Requests within either AU region still stays in Australia though.

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Fantatic to see so many of our clients across industries participate, share, and learn. Great networking events. Thanks to our partners Amazon Web Services (AWS) for offering their thought leadership, funding support, as we work with our clients to deliver Enterprise Agentic AI based on strong Data Foundations Fractal Sandeep Dutta Yi Zhang Rishabh Sharma Gaurav Sharma Gaurav Garg Kartikayan Balasubramaniam Rahul Desai

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Australian government agencies can now use Snowflake on Google Cloud in Melbourne for PROTECTED workloads, broadening cloud choice and assurance. https://lnkd.in/gBcz9M3r

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The balance of speed to solution and doing things the right way. Plan ahead how you can deploy Agentic AI by doubling down on foundations. Jumping into a point solution without a strategy or governance will cause you a great number of headaches!

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How do you turn fragmented systems and inconsistent governance into a unified, intelligent data platform without overhauling your entire ERP estate?   Today at Eureka89’s Southern Point Room in Melbourne, ADAPT’s private executive roundtable, in partnership with Databricks and Amazon Web Services (AWS), brought together 15 technology leaders to explore modernising legacy systems, unlocking SAP and enterprise data, and enabling trusted, scalable AI.   Here are our key takeaways from the session:   💡 Adopt zero-copy data architectures that reduce duplication, simplify governance, and accelerate access to insights.   🔄 Enable real-time analytics, scalable ML, and agent-based AI by harmonising data semantics, ensuring data quality, and applying enterprise-grade governance across all workloads.   ⚙️ Validate transformation efforts by defining measurable outcomes such as faster time-to-insight, improved decision accuracy, and increased AI adoption linked directly to business objectives.   Adam Beavis Charles Sutikno Mahin S. Pierre van Rooyen Diego Lombardini Joanna Vallejo Peter Hind Brianna Giusti   #ADAPTRoundtable #DataModernisation #EnterpriseAI #LakehouseArchitecture

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