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Digital Twins: Helping Your Home and Bamboo Reach Their Full Potential

Digital Twins: Helping Your Home and Bamboo Reach Their Full Potential

James Litjens
James Litjens

Director Emerging Technologies

Digital Twins: Helping Your Home and Bamboo Reach Their Full Potential

From smart homes to Smart Cities, discover the hidden potential of Digital Twin technology.

Welcome to an exciting journey into the world of Digital Twins!

In this video and blog post, I’ll delve into my experience building a Digital Twin of my home during Melbourne’s COVID lockdown and how this powerful technology transformed my family’s lives, enhanced the efficiency of my home and helped cultivate thriving bamboo plants – despite not having a green thumb.

An introduction to Digital Twins

A Digital Twin is a virtual representation of a physical object, environment, or network. In the consumer space, it is akin to a smart home but goes beyond controlling individual devices such as lights or thermostats. Instead, the Digital Twin seamlessly connects and visualises every aspect of a home, resulting in a fully integrated, efficient, and adaptive living environment.

Smart House

Digital Twins can improve home efficiency by 30%

After constructing a Digital Twin of my home as pictured above, I found that not only did my family no longer need to use light switches, but their electricity and water usage reduced by 30% and 25%, respectively. On top of that, improved ventilation management minimised the risk of mould in their bathroom – truly taking smart living to the next level.

Bamboo transformed with Digital Twin technology 

But the true showstopper in this Digital Twin story is the bamboo on the terrace. Initially struggling and yellow as pictured below, I was able to utilise the Digital Twin to revitalise the plant. The result? Happy and healthier bamboo than ever before.

With the incorporation of a moisture sensor, temperature sensor, and access to weather forecast and historical data via API’s, the Digital Twin utilised data-driven insights to optimise an irrigation system for the bamboo plant. This approach is reminiscent of adaptive scheduled maintenance in industries such as manufacturing, where machinery can be maintained more efficiently by analysing various data sources.

Digital Twin technology can lead to more sustainable urban living

The implications of Digital Twin technology extends far beyond individual homes. For Smart Cities, concepts like optimised watering of public gardens or managing large sporting venues exemplifies how this technology can lead to more sustainable urban living.

In Summary

As showcased through this experience, the power and potential of Digital Twin technology are transformative for homes, industries, and cities alike. From happy bamboo to optimised machinery to the pursuit of sustainable living, the possibilities of Digital Twins are truly endless. Explore these new horizons and unlock a smarter, greener future with Digital Twin technology.

Watch our Youtube video above to learn more about Digital Twins, their impact on home living, and my experience with this cutting-edge technology.

If you wish to know more about how your organisation can benefit from Digital Twins, feel free to reach out to me at james.litjens@arq.group or emerging.technologies@arq.group

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6 FinOps Trends and Predictions for 2023

6 FinOps Trends and Predictions for 2023

Ghassan Zalaf
Ghassan Zalaf

NCS NEXT FinOps Lead

6 FinOps Trends and Predictions for 2023

The words ‘cloud cost optimisation’ may be enough to make any CFO and CIO’s heart skip a beat in a world where every organisation is using cloud, or in most cases, multiple clouds. Cloud promises to be more agile, accelerate scalability, improve productivity and achieve business goals, however, in reality it also presents many challenges, one of the most prominent of which is financial management and governance. To avoid experiencing bill shock and maximise your investment in cloud, it’s important to understand new trends in cloud consumption.
 
This blog presents our top 6 trends and predictions for FinOps in 2023 and explains why this framework is a must-have for enterprises that want to avoid unnecessary cloud sprawl.
 
1. FinOps to top cloud initiatives list again, for the 7th year running
 
The cloud has become a vital tool in many industries as companies continue to pursue digital transformation in an effort to improve reliability, modernise environments and support new work models.
 
Short for financial operations, FinOps is an operating framework designed to accelerate business value and drive financial accountability by increasing organisation’s ability to understand cloud costs and make smarter, result-based decisions. Far from being a buzzword, the fundamental premise behind FinOps is to help enterprises make the most optimal investment decision by bringing technology, finance and business together and embrace more economically efficient cloud models. 
 
As economic uncertainty continues to build and organisational cloud wastage exceeds 30%, cloud cost optimisation will present a quick win scenario to organisations who are looking to reduce costs, fund other critical initiatives such as security, and increase profitability.
2. Increased outsourcing of FinOps
 
Although FinOps is now practiced in every major industry and continues to proliferate across the world, there are still some challenges to overcome in the collective journey. One of them is scarcity of FinOps practitioners in most regions including Asia Pacific. According to the State of FinOps Report 2022, approximately 45% of FinOps practitioners reported earnings above $140,000. While this suggests that FinOps is a well-paid field, there are still challenges that organisations must deal with. For example, training someone internally incurs a cost and smaller organisations may find it difficult to justify hiring a dedicated FinOps practitioner. On the other hand, the role may only require several hours per week, so the business may not require a full-time position.
 
Alternatively, larger organisations can also find it difficult to hire multiple sources who can handle the complexity of the business model. Therefore, outsourcing the practice not only accelerates your FinOps journey as service providers have prior expertise and experience, but can also introduce high-quality talent at a lesser cost of hiring someone on a full-time basis.
 
3. Optimisation moving earlier in migration projects
 
Cloud migration strategies entail planning of how organisations can move their applications and data to cloud. However, migrations are delayed more often than not due to resourcing limitations, architectural challenges or the inability of legacy applications to operate on cloud-based infrastructure. 
 
Current industry-standard migration models and strategies include optimisation after workloads have been migrated, testing has been completed and production workloads are live. However, we recommend introducing governance and optimisation frameworks earlier in the process to help improve cost, performance and reduce waste, allowing your organisation to realise cost savings sooner.
4. Increased cloud cost accountability
 
Cloud wastage is becoming a critical issue for many organisations as cloud costs continue to rise. Organisations self-estimate as much as 32% of cloud consumption is wasted, with real wastage amounts likely to be higher. This can be attributed to a lack of accountability associated with cloud spend across different levels within an organisation, particularly in technical teams.
 
One of the main benefits of FinOps is that it helps create a common language by breaking down functional barriers between teams from executive level to middle management. In turn, we predict cost optimisation will become a more widely used KPI in performance bonuses as a consequence of increasing accountability and consciousness of cloud spend.
 
5. Technical upskilling of FinOps practitioners
 
Although one of the goals of FinOps is to bring together different teams within an organisation, one of the main challenges is to obtain FinOps buy-in from technical team members. For instance, understanding cost and utilization from a technical point of view helps organisations make sound decisions. This makes it difficult to identify modernisation and architectural change opportunities. Our prediction is that in 2023 there will be opportunities for FinOps practitioners to upskill technically to be able to better communicate with technical team members and provide more actionable and insightful recommendations to operational teams.
6. Sustainability linked to FinOps more widely
 
Organisations across industries are rapidly adopting the cloud to accelerate time to market, deliver new functionality and improve user experience. However, many are still concerned about the environmental impact of their use of the cloud. As new sustainability requirements are being introduced, cloud service providers are responding by increasing their carbon-neutral corporate goals to support these ‘green’ initiatives. The largest cloud service providers have committed to cut their carbon emissions through initiatives such as ‘re-100’ which aim to achieve 100% renewable energy by publicising their annual progress reports.
 
By utilising a FinOps framework, you’re able to reduce cloud by utilising industry best practices, increase cost avoidance and ultimately reducing your cloud footprint, which in turn reduces your carbon footprint. You could also reinvest savings from your FinOps activities towards other sustainable initiatives such as working towards a net zero emissions goal for your organisation.
 
Recap – Why FinOps?
 
FinOps entails six core principles that are designed to assist enterprises manage their cloud spend. These include:
 
  1. Team collaboration
  2. Everyone takes ownership of cloud usage
  3. A centralised team drives FinOps
  4. Accessible data and timely cost and usage reporting
  5. Business value of cloud drives decisions
  6. Taking advantage of the variance cost model of cloud
Does your organisation need FinOps?
 
Many organisations are not aware of the potential optimisation opportunity in their cloud environments. FinOps helps to identify these opportunities quickly, improve visibility into your cloud consumption and prevent unexpected increases in cost or usage using anomaly detection and increased visibility of consumption. 
 
If you wish to know more about how your organisation can benefit from FinOps or would like to discuss further, feel free to contact our FinOps Lead, Ghassan Zalaf, at finops@arq.group
 
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Meet our new ARQ Queensland State Lead

Meet our new ARQ Queensland State Lead

Tim Kuusik

Timothy (Tim) Kuusik, State Lead – Queensland, leads ARQ’s Queensland business. He recently spoke to us about his new role leading the Queensland ARQ business, the eclectic background which led to his role at ARQ and the top technology trends he predicts over the next five years. He also shared a fun fact about his experience playing string quartet at weddings.

What are you most excited about in your new role?

At ARQ, our mission is to make local impact by designing and building innovative solutions for our customers. In this new role I’m most excited about leading our Queensland team towards this mission as we digitally transform both government and enterprise organisations.

What’s a fun fact about you?

I have had the pleasure of attending over 1,200 weddings but not as a guest…I don’t have that many friends. For ten years I was in a string quartet playing music at weddings. This included weddings on sandy beaches, deep in the canopies of rainforests, on giant yachts and for a tent full of A-list celebrities.

Can you share with us a little bit more about you and your background pre-ARQ?

I have a fairly eclectic background. My career began when I started my own business building websites for enterprise organisations on the Gold Coast. At that time websites were digitally transforming organisations and bringing them in to the age of e-commerce. It was also the time when Windows 98, Internet Explorer and Zip drives were the cool tech toys all the cool kids were talking about. I then made a jump into a Big 4 accounting firm where I learned how businesses operate at the atomic financial level – I became a Chartered Accountant. After 12 years consulting in Big 4, I moved back to the world of digital transformation with Arq Group where we were not only consulting but also building the solutions we recommended to our clients. 

How did you end up in the Technology Industry?

I knew I loved technology when I first got my hands on a 1989 Gameboy. However, my real appreciation for building technology started when I was 6 years old and my uncle taught me how to code in BASIC and Assembler on a 486 microprocessor computer. Since then, I have been using technology to make not only my life better but also for help my clients succeed in the industries in which they operate.

What are the top trends you predict over the next 5 years?

These are the five technology trends we should be ready for in the next five years:

  • Data..just more data. We are going to see data being captured, used and democratised in more places. It would not surprise me at all if, in the future, accounting standards require businesses to value the future economic benefit of data and to record it as an asset on their balance sheets.
  • Google Glass was first introduced in 2013. It was highly experimental back then but I believe smart glasses are going to make a come-back and have real world commercial benefits.
  • Quantum ..I believe we are going to see “quantum” leaps in this technology over the next five years.
  • The meta-verse…not sure about this one. Call me a luddite but I’m thinking this might not have “real life” use within the next five years. We will see lots of novelty applications but, who knows, let’s watch this space.
  • The digital divide is going to be amplified and it is our job as leaders driving digital transformations to ensure we close the gap so that everyone across all demographics have equal access to digital technology.
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Meet our new ARQ Victoria State Lead

Meet our new ARQ Victoria State Lead

Kate Prohasky

Kate Prohasky, State Lead – Victoria, leads the ARQ business for the state. She spoke to us about her new role leading the Victorian ARQ business and the varied career path which led to her working in the technology industry. Kate also shared the top technology trends she predicts over the next five years.

What are you most excited about in your new role?

I’m excited to work with clients and our team to solve complex business and community problems with technology. The pace of change in our lives throughout the last two years has opened my eyes up to the capacity of Victorians and businesses to be adaptive and resilient. I am excited to have the opportunity to play a small part in creating a place that is more than a workplace, but a place where people are inspired, motivated and have a sense of belonging. I truly believe that the team we have in Victoria at the moment at ARQ is unique with the level of innovation and curiosity, the energy and passion they have for their clients, and the willingness they are to support each other is something I feel so humbled to be a part of.    

What’s a fun fact about you?

 I learnt my sales skills by working as a pharmaceutical sales rep knocking on GP doctor’s doors in Western Sydney. It was a deep dive into handling objections and rejections at every doctor’s surgery.

Can you share with us a little bit more about you and your background pre-ARQ?

ARQ has really proven that it values diversity in its approach to its people as my background is far from a typical journey into tech. My most recent experience prior to ARQ was working as a Lean Six Sigma Consultant delivering operational improvement work and training to large corporates. My formal sales training was in the pharmaceutical industry which thickened my skin. I started my career as a physiotherapist so I try to make the link between working with people, to selling pharmaceuticals to improving operations of businesses as pretty good well-rounded experience to help me step into this role.

How did you end up in the Technology Industry?

I ended up in the technology industry almost by accident. I was attracted to the business problems that were solved through the use of technology, rather than the technology itself. I have learnt so much in my time at ARQ and continue to be amazed at the diverse talent we have at ARQ. The pace of change in the technology industry is what constantly keeps me learning which is something that is important for me. 

What are the top trends you predict over the next 5 years?

We will continue to see the rise of automation through the use of technology replace labour in many industries. People will always play a part in delivering services and products as relationships will never be replaced by bots. There will be a new wave of connectiveness through a combination of digital + personal connection as people realise the 100% virtual world of COVID is not a world people want to remain in. We will see continued increase in women in technology and the needle towards 50:50 will move slowly.

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Meet our new ARQ New South Wales State Lead

Meet our new ARQ New South Wales State Lead

Amanda Milin

Amanda Milin, State Lead – New South Wales, leads the ARQ business for New South Wales. She spoke to us about her exciting new role, the career pivot which led to her finding a new role in the technology sector, the top trends she sees over the next five years and her passion for trying new things.

What excites you for your new role?

In my new role as ARQ New South Wales State Lead, I’m focused on growth – the ability to really positively influence and grow our business. I am excited to help develop and grow the next generation of leaders and improve myself. There are so many interesting people here at ARQ that come from a diverse range of backgrounds – I’m excited by the possibility of leveraging individual’s personal strengths to see how we can do things better for ourselves, for ARQ and for our clients…and have some fun along the way.

What’s a fun fact about you?

I can’t sit still and my life is always evolving. I always like to try new things and challenge myself both physically and mentally. The range includes starting to learn how to play golf (I’m still woeful), getting into road biking (I’m better at this than golf), new hikes and water sports. I love being with friends and family and especially when it is combined with travel – I’m off overseas soon for the first time in a few years.

How did you end up in the Technology Industry?

I’ve had a varied career journey to say the least. I started as a corporate lawyer in both big law firms and in-house, and then became a small business owner. I then made a complete switch to technology sales and management. I’ve been at ARQ for over three years and have had the great fortune to work alongside very talented people, who have supported me and encouraged me in the roles that I have had. I have learnt completely new skills, taken on new challenges and forged a career in a completely different industry that presents opportunity every single day.

What are the top trends you predict over the next 5 years?

  • How cloud maturity- not just adoption – will be essential for 2022 technology advancements
  • Surviving the Great Resignation – in a dynamic labour market organisations must focus more and more on employee retention. This will require increased investments in reskilling and upskilling programs. The best employee experiences will benefit customers and ultimately lead to better business results.
  • Remote work is here to stay – but we need to improve how we remote work and create effective hybrid models with face-to-face time in the office. Personal engagement is so important in the workplace from a collaboration and knowledge transfer perspective.
  • For organisations undergoing significant digital transformation – bringing people on the journey is equally as important as the technology. The key to success will be ensuring that the best fit operating models and organisational structures are in place and aligned to support transformation initiatives.
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ARQ Group’s Diaxion Acquisition Creates Australia’s Only Full-Service Technology, Data and Digital Consultancy

ARQ Group’s Diaxion Acquisition Creates Australia’s Only Full-Service Technology, Data and Digital Consultancy

Today we’re excited to announce ARQ Group is acquiring Diaxion – one of Australia’s leading technology consultancies. The acquisition unites two of the country’s leading technology companies to create Australia’s only full-service technology, data, AI, cloud and digital consultancy providing advisory, delivery and operate/managed services.  

ARQ customers now have access to the full spectrum of technological capabilities required to modernise and optimise their organisation – all onshore – and creating local jobs in one of the fastest growing industries: digital and technology. Diaxion are an Australian technology success story that began in 2000. Today Diaxion are a market leading, technology consultancy with an impressive portfolio of clients: state and federal government and ASX-200 companies, including the big four banks. 

ARQ Group CEO Tristan Sternson said Diaxion’s market leading technology consultancy and digital transformation expertise naturally complements ARQ Group’s specialist capabilities in data analytics, artificial intelligence, and process automation.

“The company continued to grow rapidly over 2020, with Diaxion identified as the ideal company to fuel the continued expansion. Arq added more than 150 new employees over the course of last year, despite the pandemic, and has already seen revenue growth of 25% in 2021.

After successfully winning numerous government tenders and projects with a range of federal agencies, we were keen to strengthen ARQ Group’s footprint into Canberra.

Diaxion’s extensive experience working with federal departments, along with our existing Canberra offices, will provide ARQ Group with the opportunity to offer a wider suite of services to public sector agencies. “Importantly, there will be no redundancies from the acquisition, and we’re excited to welcome the entire Diaxion team into the growing ARQ Group family,” Sternson said.

Simon Pither, Partner of Quadrant Private Equity and Chairman of ARQ Group celebrated the acquisition and said that 2020 was an incredible year of growth, despite the impacts of COVID-19.

  “When we first invested in ARQ Group last year, we did so because we saw the huge digital transformation tasks ahead for many Australian companies and Governments and knew ARQ Group was ideally positioned to help bridge that technical chasm.

Due to COVID-19, that digital transformation has moved faster than we initially anticipated, but I’m proud how the ARQ Group team has responded and continued, delivering incredible results for its customers.   “The combination of ARQ Group and Diaxion creates Australia’s only home-grown, full-service digital, data, cloud, and tech advisory company,” Pither said.

Diaxion becomes part of ARQ Group, which was acquired by Australian Private Equity firm Quadrant in partnership with the Management Team led by Tristan Sternson in February 2020, and the combined business will have more than 450 employees.

ARQ Group continues to seek further acquisition opportunities that will strengthen the business, expand ARQ’s geographic footprint, and provide customers new and expanded data, digital, and tech offerings.

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ARQ Group Awarded AWS Cloud Migration Competency

ARQ Group Awarded AWS Cloud Migration Competency

ARQ Group Awarded AWS Cloud Migration Competency.

ARQ Group has been recognised as one of Amazon Web Service’s trusted cloud migration partners and amongst a select few Australian companies holding AWS’ Cloud Migration Competency.

ARQ Group has been working with AWS on cloud migrations since 2013, designing processes optimised and tightly aligned to AWS best practices. This recent competency is a testament to ARQ Group’s success in continually raising the bar for full stack migrations and optimisations.

ARQ Group is Australia’s full stack partner of choice with AWS capability competency in managed services, consultancy, mobile, data and analytics, and now – cloud migrations.   

The AWS Migration Competency is highly coveted by digital transformation agencies, demonstrating AWS has tested and validated a company’s processes, practices and outcomes. AWS awards competency when satisfied cloud migrations by partner organisation’s offer best-in-class value for customers.

The Coffee Club’s migration earlier this year is just one example of delivering excellence in migration to the AWS Cloud. ARQ migrated the majority of Coffee Club’s data and processes from a physically constrained data centre with multiple manual processes. The cloud migration unlocked access to a suite of industry-leading data and analytics options offering leaders a deeper understanding of the business, their customers, and the sharpening of data-driven decision making.

Tristan Sternson, ARQ Group’s CEO said,

“This has been a challenging year for many Australian businesses, but also a major wake up call for all business leaders to take full advantage of cloud technologies.

“With approximately 43% of Australia’s businesses in the cloud, there’s an abundance of untapped opportunity to accelerate digital transformation – but more importantly – it’s no longer sustainable for many businesses to simply consider ‘if’ they should migrate to the cloud, but ‘when’. I would urge all business leaders, not just CIOs and tech workers, to consider cloud in their 2021 digital strategy.

“As one of Australia’s first AWS Premium Consulting Partners, and for over 7 years, we have delivered best practice in cloud, data, digital and AI. Achieving this major milestone with AWS migrations competency is just another step in our commitment to helping Australia’s businesses take full advantage of cloud technologies, unlocking new data insights and customer centric applications.”

Steve McCormick, ARQ Group’s Chief Customer Architect, leads the company’s cloud migrations team and said,

“The competency was a key part, demonstrating ARQ Group’s excellence in all aspects of digital transformation.

“I’m immensely proud of my team for the hard work they’ve contributed over the years, for ARQ Group to be recognised as a leading Australian cloud migration specialist by AWS. Cloud migrations are just one part of many that we provide customers.

“COVID-19 has changed the way business leaders think about their businesses, witnessing years of digital progress accomplished in just a few months. As Australia’s leading digital provider, customer capabilities extend to full-service digital experiences, web and app development, and AI and machine learning solutions.

“Many of these innovative, data intensive solutions ARQ offer customers are cloud-based, so our new AWS competency is a real feather in our cap.

“Getting cloud migration done right is crucial to long-term business success. I firmly believe businesses should insist on the best in the business for crucial IT projects. AWS competency helps achieve this.”

"ARQ Group has demonstrated the highest level of specialisation, deep AWS technical expertise, and proven customer success and we congratulate the team on their achievement of the AWS Migration Competency. We are excited to work with ARQ Group as they continue to help customers across Australia migrate applications and legacy infrastructure to AWS, unlocking the power of data and machine learning to deliver business-led outcomes."

Davinia Simon, Head of ANZ Channel and Alliances at AWS
One of Australia’s Most Award Winning Consulting Partners

In 2020 ARQ Group was named AWS’s Social Impact Partner of the Year for their work building the highly scalable NSW RFS Fires Near Me App – the first time this award has been presented. ARQ Group has presented multiple times at AWS’ global conference Re:Invent and won AWS Innovation Partner of the Year in 2018 for ANZ and APAC.

ARQ Group is one of Australia’s most awarded AWS Premium Consulting Partners, and holds numerous partner qualifications, including:

  • Premier Consulting Partner
  • Managed Service Provider Partner
  • Data Competency Partner (only Australian holder)
  • Marketing and Commerce Competency
  • Public Sector Channel Partner
  • Mobile Competency Partners
  • Immersion Day Competency
  • Migration Competency
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Helping Australians Get Back to Work

Helping Australians

Get Back to Work

ARQ Group Helping Australians Get Back to Work

The National Careers Institute has launched the Your Career digital platform to provide clear and simple information to help people of all ages and circumstances plan and manage their careers. 

As part of the project, ARQ Group, Australia’s leading digital provider, helped design and build the digital platform which brings together career advice and other information from a multitude of sources to create a one stop shop for those looking to find a job or undertake a career change.

The role of the Your Career is to:

  • Help people find clear careers information and advice
  • Create a single trusted source of careers information
  • Curate and publish transparent employment and education data
  • Strengthen careers information and research through collaboration

Amanda Milin, ARQ Group’s Director – Government and project lead said it was a key part of the Australian Government’s response to the economic impacts of COVID-19.

“We’re immensely proud of this digital platform which ARQ Group has designed and built in collaboration with the National Careers Institute. Your Career provides an end to end solution and is redefining how the Australian Government interacts with job seekers and those looking for a career change.

“COVID-19 has changed the job market and many people have spent time reconsidering their career paths. That’s why it is so important they have access to the right information to make informed decisions.

“Your Career is a one-stop-shop, and by utilising our expertise in building user-friendly digital platforms, we are making sure people have easy access to the information they need.

“It has been a significant undertaking and I am so proud of the entire team at ARQ Group who have made this a reality. Whether we are working with a major corporation, a new enterprise, or a government entity, we are driven by our goal to make a positive impact. Your Career will benefit tens of thousands of Australians for years to come,” Amanda Milin said.

Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business, Senator the Hon. Michaelia Cash, said this website will serve as Australia’s authoritative source of careers information.

“As we deal with COVID-19 and the impact on the economy, everyone should have access to reliable and accurate labour market data, and information on the skilling or re-training options available to them.

“To do that, we need to ensure everyone has access to information about how to transfer their skills to jobs in demand, upskill, retrain or start to plan for their longer-term goals,” Minister Cash said.

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AWS APN Awards 2020 Winner

AWS APN Awards 2020 Winner

ARQ Group wins Social Impact Partner of the Year Award at Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) annual Amazon Partner Network (APN) AUNZ Awards. 

ARQ was named AWS’s Social Impact Partner of the Year in recognition of its Fires Near Me mobile app. The digital innovation provides a critical service to millions of Australians during bushfire season, changing the way the public and authorities respond to bushfires, while saving lives and protecting property. 

On its busiest day the app supported more than 700,000 active users and sent more than 12 million notifications within six-hours. Throughout the bushfire season the app served over 500 million sessions, with more than 1.9 million individual watch zones created.

The APN awards recognise Amazon’s top performing partners across Australia and New Zealand who have helped customers build business-critical solutions and drive innovation in the AWS Cloud. Winners demonstrated how they pushed boundaries in technical capability and innovation by delivering positive impacts for customers.

Speaking on the winners, award host and AWS ANZ channel chief Davinia Simon said,

“Earlier this year we had a real challenge around bushfires. The Fires Near Me app changed the way consumers were accessing information about the fires in Australia. ARQ Group were able to deploy that solution to production in a matter of weeks.”

ARQ Group CEO, Tristan Sternson said,

“That given the scale of bushfires over the 2019/20 summer period, the app played an important role in protecting brave firefighters and those impacted.

 “I’m incredibly proud of the team at ARQ that developed the Fires Near Me app. Australia should be looking to invest more heavily in digital infrastructure and the Fires Near Me app is the perfect example of how digital solutions can be rolled out quickly, cost effectively, and can save lives in emergency situations.

“I’m particularly proud as this technical award for the Fires Near Me app comes less than a week after the app won a Good Design Award – Australia’s highest honour for design and innovation – in recognition of innovation, positive social impact and functional design.

“This has been a transformative year for ARQ Group with the COVID-19 pandemic prioritising business leaders’ focus on the importance of building robust technical solutions for tangible business impacts. We’re proud to be working with AWS and other partners delivering digital solutions that make a positive impact for our customers. 

“We’re 100% onshore, proudly Australian owned and operated, and growing quickly. ARQ’s the name behind many of Australia’s most loved household brands and government projects. We’re passionate about leveraging technology to solve organisational challenges – both public and private – no matter how complex.”  

In early September the Fires Near Me app won the Good Design Awards Social Impact gong and was highly praised by the deciding Jury. The Good Design Award is one of the oldest and most prestigious international design awards, which has been promoting excellence in design and innovation since 1958. 

Google Play and iOS
The Fires Near Me app is available for free download on the Google Play and iOS app stores with a national fires monitoring service within the app coming soon. 
View the full case study below
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Good Design Awards 2020 Winners

Good Design Awards 2020 Winners

Congratulations to NSW Rural Fire Services and First State Super – proud winners of Australia’s peak international design awards – the highest honour for design and innovation in the country: Good Design Award®.

Built by ARQ, NSW Rural Fire Services Fires Near Me app and First State Super’s mobile app take home the coveted Good Design Awards in the categories: 

1. Social Impact
NSW Rural Fire Service Fires Near Me app received a prestigious Good Design Award Winner Accolade in the Social Impact category in recognition for outstanding design and innovation. Real-time fire tracking with live alerts down to the smallest active ember. Digital solutions saving homes and lives. ARQ Group’s Fires Near Me app built for NSW Rural Fire Services provides Aussies a navigational beacon of digital light amidst the darkness of smoke from the raging infernos in one of Australia’s worst natural disasters.

2. Digital Design
First State Super’s app for members received the Good Design Award Winner Accolade in the Digital Design category for recognition of outstanding design and innovation in the superannuation industry. A first-of-its-kind superannuation app engineered backwards. An app built by members, for members. Traditional design is typically driven by business needs first and characteristically features heavy.

But doing normal things achieves normal results. So we turned the approach upside down. We threw away the rule book and started from scratch. Months invested interviewing the people that matter: members. We asked them what they want. We studied their digital lifestyles and prioritised how they chose to interact with their superannuation fund. Customer-centricity from the bottom-up – on their terms. The results shaped the design process – and for our troubles – the app has won several design awards for a simple, practical and intuitive customer experience including ‘Gold in Digital – New Service or Application’ at the Sydney Design Awards.

Good Design Australia is one of the oldest and most prestigious international design awards in the world, promoting excellence in design and innovation since 1958.

The competition was fierce. We competed against 835 design projects judged across 11 specific design disciplines; spanning 28 categories. Meticulously scrutinised by more than 55 Good Design Award® Jurors, evaluating entries according to a strict set of design criteria covering ‘good design’, ‘design innovation’ and ‘design impact’. To win, our tech solution needed to demonstrate excellence in good design and convince the Jury our innovation is worthy of recognition.

 

The Good Design Award® Jury praised NSW Rural Fire Service Fires Near Me app, commenting:

“A very thoughtful and technologically appropriate solution to the real and ever present danger of bushfires in Australia. The positive benefits of the app are clearly evident and presents a highly functional solution to the problem of communicating the location and movement of fires quickly.”

For our winning digital design for First State Super’s members app, the Jury said: 

“This is a solid app out there making a difference. Great attention paid to those rare-but-significant moments in the relationship between a person and their superannuation. Beautifully executed, well thought through and extremely useful. Nicely resolved visuals, well-executed visual hierarchy of information and typography. The jury was impressed with comprehensive co-design process. This entry is great reflection of how Superannuation is a category where good design can really make an important difference to the customer outcome.” 

Dr. Brandon Gien, CEO of Good Design Australia said: 

“Australia’s Good Design Award is more than a symbol of design excellence – it represents the hard work and dedication towards an innovative outcome that will ultimately make our lives better. These projects showcase the shear brilliance of design and the potential it has to improve our world.” 

 

First State Super

Humble When You’re Hot – The Real Heroes
And while the awards, accolades and the 571 technical certifications we’ve amassed are nice to have – it’s never about us. The real heroes (and true winners) are our customers who enhance the lives of their customers through innovations in technology, making life easier and convenient. 
We delight in the awards, as they serve as confirmation of our consistent ability to deliver an industry-vetted calibre of expertise. It’s independent affirmation of our award-worthy excellence for the most important project in the world: yours.
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If you’d like to conquer cloud, digital and data and need a consultancy specialist with award-winning expertise across the entire gamut, we should talk. For 25 years ARQ Group has been the leader in digital technology with a proud history of pioneering-firsts: the first company to bring the internet to Australia and the first to register domain names. ARQ created the first websites and developed the first apps. Imagine what we could do for you? 
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