Australia

IAB Australia has expanded its industry education offerings with the launch of its innovative foundational industry training program. The first two modules, Foundations of Digital Audio Buying and Foundations of Programmatic digital-out-of-home (DOOH) Buying are available, free of charge to all in the industry. Two Retail Media modules will launch next month, with modules focused on Understanding Digital Ad Fraud and Data to be released later in the year.

Cloudian announced that automotive and construction trade supplier, Würth NZ, has deployed Cloudian HyperStore object storage to store and protect its critical data from ransomware, accelerate data protection, and enable greater automation capabilities across its business. Established in New Zealand in 1987, Würth NZ has become a staple of New Zealand’s automotive, cargo, construction, engineering and wood trade sectors, offering a full range of groundbreaking tools, supplies and digital services. It employs more than 250 staff in New Zealand and has offices in Auckland, Christchurch, Mount Maunganui and Wellington.

ICEYE, a provider of natural catastrophe solutions and insights, has been selected by the Federal Govt to supply flood and bushfire hazard data for all states and territories in Australia. ICEYE will contribute directly to efforts to strengthen Australia's capabilities to manage the impact of flood and bushfire events through rapid disaster assessment and response, better resource allocation and improved coordination between national and local entities.

Microsoft has announced the first Australian customers to access Microsoft 365 (M365) Copilot as part of the invitation-only global Early Access Program. AGL, Data#3, Bupa, NAB, Powerlink Queensland, Rest Super and Suncorp are among the first organisations in Australia to deploy the groundbreaking M365 Copilot, a powerful generative AI service that combines the power of large language models (LLMs) with organisational data from Microsoft 365.

Fujitsu Ltd and Fujitsu Australia Ltd announced plans to acquire Aussie digital transformation (DX) consultancy, MF & Associates. This will strengthen Fujitsu’s management, tech and cyber security consulting capabilities within the public and healthcare sectors in Australia. Founded in 2019, Canberra-based MF & Associates is Fujitsu’s fifth acquisition since 2021 in ANZ, as part of a strategic global M&A plan to strengthen business delivery capabilities in key areas. MF & Associates will complement Fujitsu’s recent acquisitions of Microsoft specialist oobe and cyber security firm InPhySec to bolster Fujitsu’s security offerings in Australia.

Paysafe, a world-renown payments platform, and Eightcap Pty Ltd., a global retail trading provider, have joined efforts to developed an innovative embedded trading and digital wallet for instant transfers to their trading margin. This new groundbreaking payment solution is set to be rolled out and shared with partners and merchants within the EU later this year.

As cyber threats to cloud infrastructure continue to intensify, the hunt for modern security solutions that can be used to defend against them is on. And AUCloud has found one in SentinelOne. The Australian sovereign cloud provider has deployed the autonomous security firm’s Singularity Platform to keep its business operations and the critical digital infrastructure it supplies to some of the nation’s most trusted government agencies and enterprises safe.

Vudoo, an interactive video and content commerce pioneer, and the University of Technology Sydney’s Data Science Institute will combine forces to develop an Artificial Intelligence-based recommendation engine to derive deep insights on user consumption of video content. The project is backed by a $50,000 Entrepreneurs’ Programme federal grant secured by Vudoo, which will top-up an extra $96,000 to the research and development collaboration with UTS.

Partners Life, one of New Zealand’s largest private life and health insurance companies, announced that it has become the first insurer to successfully launch medical claims on the FINEOS Platform, as outlined in a new case study. The groundbreaking move to the cloud-native purpose-built FINEOS Platform enables Partners Life to provide enhanced claims processing, reduced claims leakage, and streamlined user experience to 300,000 Kiwis.

FINEOS Corporation, the provider of group and individual core software for life, accident and health insurance, announced that Insurance and Care New South Wales (icare) will move its Dust Diseases Care Scheme to the FINEOS Platform. This will enable icare to provide a contemporary claims management service to the citizens of NSW affected by dust diseases.