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This week’s episode is brought to you by Optus. Modern work happens everywhere, and businesses need to deliver seamless digital experiences without compromising security. Smart organisations are building security into the device and the connection. Giving employees frictionless access, wherever they’re working, while the business gains visibility, control, and resilience. Talk to Optus today about our Managed Mobility Solutions. Our guest this fortnight is the executive general manager of technology and data at carsales, Michelle Low. carsales has long been data driven. Increasingly they are seeking to connect with prospective car buyers from inside of AI chat apps and ecosystems, which are proving influential in the car buying experience. They’re also putting more data into the hands of car dealers and manufacturers to help them understand what is selling and why.

This week’s episode is brought to you by Optus. Modern work happens everywhere, and businesses need to deliver seamless digital experiences without compromising security. Smart organisations are building security into the device and the connection. Giving employees frictionless access, wherever they’re working, while the business gains visibility, control, and resilience. Talk to Optus today about our Managed Mobility Solutions. Hello and welcome to the iTnews Podcast Our guest on the podcast this fortnight is James Ng, the Chief Information Security Officer for Insignia Financial. Insignia Financial is perhaps better known by its component parts, which include the old IOOF, as well as the ANZ Wealth and MLC Wealth divisions that it acquired from ANZ and NAB respectively. It’s spent the past three years consolidating its security estate and removing duplicated effort and inefficiency from security operations processes. James starts by taking us through the current security strategy, as well as the next one under development.

This episode is brought to you by the iTnews Cloud Covered Breakfast Summit, powered by Microsoft and Dicker Data. Join senior technology leaders from across Western Australia on 31 March at QT Perth for a practical discussion on modernising workflows into public cloud, reducing architectural risk, and understanding where edge fits into long-term cloud strategy, with insights grounded in real-world experience. Hello and welcome to the iTnews Podcast. Our guest this week is Sallie Moore-Wood, the director of governance and information systems at Waratah-Wynyard Council and Circular Head Council in Tasmania’s north-west. The two councils share personnel and a digital transformation strategy and roadmap, which covers information systems, cybersecurity and other bodies of work. We asked Sallie to drill into particularly the cybersecurity aspects of the transformation,  into some of the challenges faced so far and how these have been addressed and overcome.

Hello and welcome to a new season of the iTnews Podcast. We begin this year by speaking to Aussie Broadband’s Head of Cloud and SRE Ben O’Shea. Eagle-eyed iTnews readers and listeners might remember Ben’s appearance at Cisco Live in 2024, when he revealed work that was underway to build a new cloud platform for Aussie Broadband’s own internal use, and to retire older virtualisation and containerisation platforms. In this episode, we hear where that cloud platform is at a year on, we discuss Ben’s role expansion to cover SRE, and we also hear about a recent change to the company’s backup tooling.

In this episode, iTnews host Jennifer O’Brien is joined by Stephanie Barnett, Vice President of Presales and Interim GM for Asia Pacific & Japan at Okta. Together they unpack why identity has moved from an authentication project to a board-level business layer, and why “attackers don’t break in – they log in”. You will hear how organisations across Australia, New Zealand and the wider APJ region are responding to Essential Eight-driven identity requirements, the rise of non-human identities and AI agents, and the growing challenge of fragmented identity estates. Stephanie also shares what CISOs should be telling their boards in 2026, including practical steps to reduce risk while enabling productivity and secure automation.

Discover how private 5G is reshaping data-driven mining. Ian Ross, Head of Enterprise, Australia and New Zealand at Ericsson explains why fast, stable onsite connectivity is now essential for safer, more productive operations, from teleremote dozers to real-time digital-twins powered by smart sensors. Learn how 5G overcomes the limits of Wi-Fi and 4G and unlocks the next wave of mining innovation.

This episode, from late last year, sees ANZ's chief information security officer Dr Maria Milosavljevic talk all things security. We'll be back with a new episode soon.

Our guest this fortnight is Rob Ison, the chief information officer of Vocus. Rob takes us through the telco’s IT strategy, as well as its agile ways of working program. He also discusses infrastructure modernisation and an ongoing simplification effort that aims to optimise how customers experience and interact with Vocus’ services.

Our guest this week is Trent Dawson, the Chief information officer of Civil construction firm Symal. Trent walks us through the past four years of IT transformation at Symal, which debuted on the ASX at the end of 2024.  He also discusses the company’s burgeoning DevOps practice and AI capabilities, which tap into services and tools from Microsoft Azure.

NetSuite’s MCP connector enables organisations to harness Agentic AI to automate complex processes and improve decision-making. Operating within defined guardrails, Agentic AI manages tasks such as financial reporting while maintaining accountability. The MCP connector’s flexible API integrates with multiple AI platforms, supported by Fusion5’s tools for custom applications.   For more information on  NetSuite's MCP Connector, delivered by Fusion5 please visit www.fusion5.com/netsuite or click the link(s) in the description below. Talk to a NetSuite expert in Australia Talk to a NetSuite expert in New Zealand

Insignia Financial is consolidating its technology systems following a series of mergers and acquisitions, while also setting itself up to become an AI-enabled organisation. Damien O'Donnell, who stepped into the CTO role at Insignia Financial in January, told the iTnews Podcast that “data and technology” system consolidation is key to realising its ambitions.   This episode is brought to you by Digital Nation. Don’t miss the Digital As Usual: Cyber Security Breakfast on October 9 at the Sofitel Brisbane. The event will unpack three of the biggest cyber risks facing organisations today: human behaviour, financial risk, and supply chain vulnerabilities. Explore the findings in the full Digital As Usual: Cyber Security 2025 Report and find practical advice on how to stay secure. Head to the Special Reports section now at itnews.com.au and register for our Brisbane event today.

In this episode iTnews speaks with Stevie-Ann Dovico, CIO and Group Executive of Technology at Beyond Bank, about her first year in the role and the technology strategy she’s building to support the organisation’s ambition of becoming Australia’s best relationship bank.

Anthony Caruana speaks with Stephan Kaiser, Genetec’s general manager for AutoVu, about Community Connect — a framework that empowers communities to collaborate with police by securely sharing video infrastructure. This initiative is helping neighbourhoods, councils, and businesses work together with law enforcement to improve safety and response times. From reducing violent crime in Detroit to virtually eliminating car theft at a Canadian airport, Community Connect is already proving its impact. It’s not a product to buy, but a new way of connecting communities and police, fostering safer streets and stronger neighbourhoods.

Melbourne-based not-for-profit DPV Health has replaced its annual penetration tests with bimonthly automated attack simulations, aiming to strengthen its vulnerability management through more frequent and proactive threat assessments. Former chief information officer of DPV Health, Noel Toal, began exploring simulations after becoming disenchanted with traditional annual tests conducted by an external organisation.