John Anstey ✔✔☁☁

Did you know that free wifi roaming for students enrolled at participating institutions is now available at 390 locations across Aotearoa? A recent collaboration between REANNZ Ltd., National Library of New Zealand and the Ministry of Education New Zealand, with the support of suppliers and local councils has meant the global EduRoam service is now additionally available at most public libraries across the motu, including as far south as Oban public library on Stewart Island and as far East as the Chatham Islands Library. Students access eduroam networks using their institution provided authentication credentials, or managed device, to enjoy a seamless onboarding experience and avoid the vagaries and constraints of general public guest wifi networks. A coverage map of eduroam locations is available here: https://lnkd.in/gZwrEPcv #edtech #digitalequity

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I am immensely proud of the team at Wiise. We've just launched a true industry-first. Wiise is now the only ERP platform in Australia with a direct, real-time integration to the NDIS. For NDIS providers, this means: ✅ Instant claim submissions ✅ Real-time funding visibility ✅ Automated compliance & payroll ✅ Drastically reduced admin & audit risk This is a major step forward in helping providers build financial resilience and focus on their critical work. See the full details: https://lnkd.in/gGpzT3yN #Wiise #NDIS #ERP #NDISProvider #AustralianTech

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I’m really proud of this one. As part of our Digital Future Initiative, we recently announced a partnership with The University of Western Australia's Language Lab, launching a multi-year project to improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ interactions with Automated Speech Recognition (ASR) technologies. To put it simply, we're building a high-quality speech dataset of Aboriginal English, to help make ASR technologies, like those used in Gemini Live and YouTube captions, more inclusive and to allow people to express themselves authentically. Cultural safety is a top priority for Celeste Rodriguez Louro, and the team, and throughout this project we’ll be working with First Nations experts, including Glenys Collard, a First Nations scholar of the Nyungar Nation, and an Indigenous Advisory Committee, to ensure we’re using culturally appropriate language elicitation methods and responsible data governance. UWA will also retain ownership of the dataset and serve as stewards for its use. If you’re keen to know more, you can check out our blog from Ben Hutchinson ➡️ https://lnkd.in/gYht96w3

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Kiwis expect council services to be as easy as ordering a coffee on an app —but the reality’s often pretty clunky. Our latest piece, “Your community wants better digital services. Can you deliver?”, digs into why so many people struggle online and how councils can make things simpler, faster, and friendlier. It’s not just about new tech, it’s about designing with empathy and keeping it human. https://lnkd.in/g2Ym6Nty

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Knee jerk hot takes from the #xerocon Keynotes - Celebrated 17 years of Xero in Australia and a thank you to Australian accountants for " running the world" - 8,000 people registered online to watch, finally challenger to the ChangeGPS webinars!! - The gold jacket maybe a message to shareholders who knocked down the remuneration recommendation - she's worth it! Reminds me of former CEO Steve Vamos sporting the leather jacket and coming onto AC/DC. Sukhinder chose KPOP Demon hunters - probably the best way to get kids into accounting. - AI is changing client and accountant expectations. hard to argue with this but I never like these general statements. COVID probably the biggest expectation change I've seen because firms over serviced clients ..and surprise surprise..clients loved it. - "technology is nothing if it can't deliver value for customers" damn straight. - A big attempt to remind accountants that we are the leaders others need to follow. Accountants lead the cloud adoption in apac...but I don't think we'll lead AI. it's penetrated so much of the market already Onto CPO Diya Jolly's Keynote The Xero vision is " the most trusted and insightful platform for small business and advisors" A deeply embedded ecosystem experience was a key ask from customers. Almost hinted firms are frustrated with the amount of apps they need to login, and recognise accountants use more than just xero. Supports my view that we are returning to the dream of the suite. Accountants often miss the new features released because we're so busy. Great that Diya is creating awareness for new things many aren't using yet. Innovation is adoption for accountants. righto....big JAX expectations now they want to automate 90% or routine tasks, Personally, I thought Xero already had AI bank recs. As the accountant next to me said " I need to check it" -From just ask to just done. This feels like a pitch to turn it into agents - the future is not about more software but less..one intelligent platform that doesn't help do the work, it does it for you. - I did not like the AI advice at all. it asked if the client could afford a new van. The AI looked at the cash balance and said yes. Good luck getting those ATO debts paid! This feels like an overstretch AI use case for me and I would not want my clients getting advice from this and bypassing me. - Now we're reimagining accounting through AI Automated actions will give control and oversight. TASA rules will require this and it's great to see it considered. New features... I love a customisable dashboard. I'm a fan of business on a page info sharing. Tax manger looks great to manage due dates. Big round of applause for Workpapers with BGL. I reckon firms will still need the ChangeGPS workpapers to do the work, not just manage it for now. OpenAI integrated into JAX is great. Good Thing our members have had it in Evo for months! How'd I go? What did you think?

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🇦🇺 Thrilled to share this piece in the The Australian Financial Review by Tess Bennett about Sovereign Australia AI and the journey we're embarking on to build Australis - Australia's own foundational language model. I couldn’t be prouder to be building this alongside my mate and Co-Founder Simon Kriss This isn't just about building another AI model. It's about ensuring Australia maintains its digital sovereignty and voice in an increasingly AI-driven world. We shouldn't be dependent on decisions made in Washington, Silicon Valley, Beijing or Europe about how AI understands and represents our Australian culture, values, and way of life. Yet to achieve this isn’t easy and it takes scale to compete, so we’ve made a massive investment in compute and have acquired 256 NVIDIA Blackwell B200 GPUs hosted in NEXTDC's secure Australian data centre in Melbourne, and managed by our colleagues at SHARON AI What makes me particularly proud of what we’ve done so far: ✅ Ethical from the ground up - We're committing $10M to compensate copyright owners, working WITH creators rather than against them ✅ Built for Australia, by Australians - From the ground up, built, trained and inferenced onshore, here in Australia, and compliant with our privacy and copyright laws ✅ Customers & Partnerships In Place - We partnering with some amazing Aussie organisations to help them solve some of Australia’s AI challenges. The partnerships we can speak about include ACS (Australian Computer Society), UNSW Canberra & GT Systems Australia, with more to follow! The path to digital sovereignty doesn't require billions, it requires vision, ethical principles, and the determination to ensure Australia's voice isn't lost in the global AI conversation. We're proving that sovereign AI can be built responsibly, affordably, and with respect for the creators whose work makes it possible. Australia's digital future should be in Australian hands. Let's build it together. 🚀 Special thanks to Craig Scroggie, Andrew Leece, Kieran Habojan, Dan Mons, Sudarshan Ramachandran, Rhod Brown, Brett Bonser, Melissa Hamilton, Josh Griggs, Rhett Sampson and so many more. #ai #sovereignai #llm #gpt #innovation #australia #australian https://lnkd.in/gnF8N3mR

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According to Moxie Research 40% of IT partners are still deep in survival mode across Australia. This recent research found that every aspect of running an IT business has become more expensive with salaries considered as one of the most severe, especially for managed services and consultancy businesses. The Moxie Insights research identified average technical salaries from 2020 to 2025 had a double-digit increase almost across the board in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. What are you doing to reduce the impact on increasing costs and the impact on profitability? #dijitalteam #moxie #msp #increasingcosts #decreasingprofit

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Platform Engineering Melbourne Meetup is on again next Thursday at 6pm. Empowering Your Agents with the Model Context Protocol Jack Walkinshaw dives into the transformative potential of Model Context Protocol (MCP) and explore its role in the evolving landscape of Agentic AI. This session will provide an insightful walkthrough of MCP, highlighting common pitfalls, opportunities, and practical use cases for integrating it into daily workflows. The presentation will also be accompanied by a demo of an MCP server built in-house, with a peek under the covers. https://lnkd.in/ggT_-FJK

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