Writer and speaker on technology, entrepreneurship and communication, and co-author of A Faster Future: www.afasterfuture.com.
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Articles by Brad Howarth
REA Group scales personalisation across both sides of its marketplace
REA Group is using a common data and engagement architecture to transfer learnings and practices from its B2C marketing operation to its B2B customers. The creation of a Lifecycle Marketing Centre of Excellence in 2019 has enabled REA Group to bring together its consumer and customer lifecycle marketing teams together under a common operating model using best-of-breed customer data and engagement tools.
Colonial First State turns marketing automation into an always-on engagement engine
Colonial First State (CFS) has cut the time required to deploy standard customer journeys from weeks to hours and doubled its campaign output as it shifts its marketing to always-on, event-driven engagement. The superannuation and investments provider has been progressively rebuilding its marketing technology capabilities, using automation to reduce manual campaign work and respond faster to customer behaviours. This story is part of the 2026 iTnews State of MarTech report. Read it for free here.
DAFF’s export systems modernisation skips big-bang replacement
Key points DAFF's Digital Services to Take Farmers to Markets program is progressively modernising fragmented, paper-based export systems over six years rather than attempting a single big-bang replacement. The program, established in the 2020-21 Federal Budget with $222.2 million over four years, has delivered a single secure online entry point plus digitised certification, audits, licensing and quota administration.
Bupa builds single customer view to personalise healthcare
Key points Bupa has consolidated 90 percent of its customer and health data onto a single Databricks-powered platform to enable its Connected Care strategy. Chief data officer Ed Falconer says the unified data view lets Bupa build a more predictive model of care beyond marketing and targeting. Bupa is exploring digital twins of customers and sees scope for agentic AI in back-office processes, though it remains cautious about using it in health.
Whitepaper: Rethinking digital modernisation for essential digital services
With constant pressure to improve service quality, maintain near-continuous availability, and respond to a growing cyber threat environment—often with fewer resources and a low tolerance for failure—the stakes for government digital programs are high. Modernising systems while maintaining numerous other factors, such as continuity, risk management and public trust, is a major challenge for agencies, especially as AI continues to reshape operating environments.
Main Roads WA brings real-time visibility to traffic operations
Main Roads Western Australia’s home-grown traffic operations platform is bringing together data from around 30 separate systems to provide a unified real-time view of the state’s road network. Image credit: Main Roads WA The platform, known internally as the Real Time Operating Platform (RTOP), is now embedded in daily operations for the agency’s traffic network operators.
Eightcap uses AI to scale compliance across global markets
Fast-growing Australian fintech Eightcap is using AI to help manage growing compliance workloads while ensuring customer data complies with privacy, access and data sovereignty requirements across multiple jurisdictions. Eightcap senior administrator Julius Anuari said operating a global online trading platform meant complying with customer privacy, access governance and data residency requirements that differed across jurisdictions.
Journey Beyond finds safer path to customer AI with agentic agents
The Australian experiential tourism operator Journey Beyond is using agentic AI to mitigate the governance risks of customer-facing AI after finding conversational AI chatbots could not be reliably constrained to their intended purpose.
Brickworks lays AI foundations with AI-powered data cleansing
As part of its efforts to build the foundations for scaling enterprise AI, the Australian building products manufacturer Brickworks is using AI itself to improve data quality. Having spent the past year building its data platform, governance framework, and stewardship model, the Sydney-based company is now accelerating data cleansing with AI agents while preparing for broader enterprise AI use cases, from analytics to conversational access to business data.
Why constraint is the discipline that makes modernisation sustainable
Australia’s public sector has no shortage of digital ambition, but the environment in which those ambitions must be delivered has fundamentally changed. The challenge has shifted from defining ambitious transformation agendas to delivering them consistently under sustained fiscal, security, and operational pressure. Success now depends less on the vision itself and more on having the institutional capability to execute it reliably.
How Monash University is tackling the AI-driven app security gap
Application security teams are facing a widening gap between vulnerability detection and remediation thanks to the rapidly growing use of AI in both software development and vulnerability scanning, according to Monash University’s application security lead Luke Bampton. Bampton and his colleagues support more than 40 development teams across Monash, which in recent years has grown into a global higher education and research organisation with 98,000 students and more than 20,000 staff.
Toll Group puts third-party risk at centre of AI-era data security
Toll Group has adopted a more comprehensive approach to data security in response to a rapidly evolving threat landscape, extending beyond technology controls to embed requirements into vendor selection, contract management, and third-party risk governance. According to global data protection lead Vasant Prabhu, traditional approaches built around stronger firewalls, tighter access controls, and perimeter-based defences are no longer sufficient for a supply chain operating at global scale.
Why biomethane deserves a place in Australia’s energy transition
Australia’s energy transition is entering a difficult phase. Conflict in the Persian Gulf has exposed the fragility of global hydrocarbon supply chains, while Australian industry continues to come under increasing pressure to decarbonise. For many manufacturing and industrial processes, electrification is often presented as the default pathway but is often not possible, not yet practical or affordable at scale.
PEXA protects high-value property transactions with streamlined IAM
PEXA is now running all of its customer identity and access management through Okta, meaning it now uses the same technology for staff and customers. Having initially implemented Okta for workforce IAM seven years ago, PEXA recently extended this capability to customer access, coinciding with its UK expansion. This has delivered a unified approach to identity across both internal users and external participants. This story is part of the 2026 iTnews State of Security report. Read it for free here.
Sovereign capability centres: Delivering global expertise with national control
All across the world, governments are reassessing how and where critical technology capabilities are built and operated. Geopolitical instability, supply chain disruption, cyber threats, and the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) underscore the realisation that sovereign capability is fundamental to national resilience. At the same time, complete technological self-sufficiency is neither practical nor desirable.
Employers Mutual Limited strengthens cyber defences with XDR shift
Employers Mutual Limited (EML) is consuming extended detection and response (XDR), AI-powered, cloud-based security operations centre and SIEM services from a single provider to maximise visibility into its technology estate and data. The Australian insurance service provider specialises in workers’ compensation insurance and claims management, servicing schemes including icare, WorkSafe Victoria, the South Australian Return to Work Scheme, as well as various private clients.
Estia Health drives Zero Trust security overhaul
Australia’s second-largest residential aged care provider Estia Health is using Zero Trust principles to enable “precise, context-aware access” for anyone interacting with its systems or networks. Image credit: Estia Health Estia Health supports more than 10,000 residents annually across nearly 100 aged care homes.
Cleanaway tidies up endpoint security
Australian waste, recycling, and resource recovery services company Cleanaway Waste Management is consolidating its sprawling mix of cyber security tools in response to a rapidly changing threat landscape. According to Cleanaway’s chief security officer James Court, the company’s global expansion has altered its threat exposure, and he has also witnessed a recent significant change in threat actor behaviour.
University of Queensland aligns resilience approach across operations
The University of Queensland has bolstered its resilience to a range of incident types and threats with a coordinated and documented approach, supported by tooling and tested via tabletop exercises.
Building cyber resilience through Zero Trust in the public sector
Public sector agencies are prime targets for cyber criminals looking to disrupt and create immediate, visible impact. They hold large volumes of sensitive personal, financial, and national data, and they operate critical services that citizens and economies depend on. Protecting such critical systems is made more challenging by the constantly evolving tactics of cyber criminals, with breaches increasingly resulting from compromised credentials rather than traditional intrusion techniques.
eBook: Zero Trust in the public sector: From concept to capability
Cyber breaches don’t always start with a sophisticated attack. Sometimes, all it takes is a simple login. For the public sector, where sensitive data makes organisations a prime target, the traditional perimeter-based security model is no longer enough. A new approach is needed. Instead of zoning in on devices and location, Zero Trust’s focus is on permissions.
Expanding Opportunities for Microsoft Partners with Dicker Data’s Solution ConX Marketplace
Rather than miss opportunities, Dicker Data is helping Microsoft partners expand their offerings by tapping into the capabilities of their peers through its Solution ConX marketplace. According to Dicker Data general manager for Microsoft Cloud, Sarah Loiterton, Solution ConX provides a simple, trusted way for partners to work together.
The next horizon for digital government: Readying for the AI era
Artificial intelligence is no longer optional for Australian government agencies. It is an expectation. While agencies have made significant progress in digital transformation – as highlighted by Australia’s number two ranking in the OECD’s Digital Government Index – rapid advances in AI and rising citizen expectations mean this work now forms the foundation for the next phase of digital government.
Charting a course for sovereign AI success in the public sector
For public sector leaders, the expectation is constant: deliver better services for less. Emerging technologies are frequently held up as the magic solution to achieving both. Yet new technologies rarely live up to their hype – at least not immediately. No new technology has received more hype than artificial intelligence (AI). Yet despite promising a revolution, clear, high-value use cases remain scarce, with much of the discussion focused on AI’s related risks.
How AI is enabling better human resources
As organisations race to adopt AI, they are finding that many of the most consequential questions they face aren’t about infrastructure or algorithms. They are about how humans and intelligent systems work together. Nowhere is this more evident than in the world of human resources, where AI is redefining how organisations attract, engage, and support their people. When used effectively in HR, AI becomes a catalyst for strategic transformation, ethical governance, and inclusive leadership.
Launch and grow your Managed Security services offering.
Cybersecurity in 2025 is a board level priority, with businesses globally now enduring over 1900 cyber-attacks each week – an increase of 47 per cent year-on-year. In ANZ, more than four out of five CIOs now ranked cybersecurity as their single highest investment priority. While having an incident response capability is now considered essential for organisations of all sizes, for many, their ability to mount an effective defence is hamstrung by a lack of funds and available skills.
Airbnb supports 107,000 jobs to nation’s workforce
When Australians open their homes to travellers, the economic impact stretches far beyond the accommodation sector. Independent analysis by Oxford Economics shows that in 2024, Airbnb supported more than 107,000 jobs across the country, around seven per cent of Australia’s tourism workforce. Guest spending associated with Airbnb stays generated $20 billion in GDP and almost $7 billion in wages. For policymakers, those numbers matter.
Bringing flexibility and accessibility to public sector communications
Effective communication is vital for every public sector organisation. Whether it’s citizens and organisations sharing information with government agencies, or those agencies responding in turn, intuitive, reliable, and secure channels are essential. But when communications need to change quickly in response to new legislation, shifting public expectations, or emerging events like a pandemic, many agencies find themselves struggling to keep up.
Amazon Web Services Archives
The Mandarin is an essential resource for anyone interested in Australia’s public sector, with daily news, commentary, analysis and expert advice. The Mandarin acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the many nations across Australia, and pay our respect to Elders past and present. We recognise that their sovereignty has never been ceded.
Maintaining Legacy Hardware
In this mini documentary,Con Pazios, Head of IT Operations at EBOS Group Limited, John Zammit, Director at Communicat and Robert Calero, Cloud Operations Manager at Blackwoods spoke to iTnews about maintaining legacy hardware. This story is part of an iTnews Focal Point on Cyber Security ROI. Click here to read and watch more.
Cost-Effective Maintenance for Aging IT Equipment: How Interactive Keeps Systems Running Smoothly
For their owners, these aging devices pose an interesting dilemma – there is no good economic or technical reason to replace them, but often they have outlasted their warranty periods, and their manufacturers are no longer willing to maintain them. For more than 35 years, the end-to-end IT service provider Interactive has been delivering the maintenance needs of aging equipment for a customer base that today numbers around 3500.
Blackwoods takes a case-by-case approach to hardware maintenance
As one of the many Australian businesses operating a hybrid computing environment, the industrial and safety supplies company Blackwoods faces constant choices regarding what to move to the cloud and what to keep on-premises. When the decision comes down in favour of the latter location, it is up to cloud operations manager Roberto Calero and his team to decide how that hardware is maintained, with skills availability being a key consideration.
EBOS takes a healthy approach to technology acquisitions
Faced with the challenge of rapidly integrating a slew of acquired businesses, the diversified health services company EBOS Group has developed a systematised program for integrating legacy environments that is reducing both risk and maintenance costs. The group is a marketer, wholesaler and distributor of healthcare, medical and pharmaceutical products, with about 5000 employees in 108 locations worldwide.
Unlocking Cloud Potential: The Fusion5 Approach to Seamless Migration
There are many reasons to migrate to the cloud, but how an organisation chooses to get there can have major consequences for what it finds at its destination. According to Kris Jackson, general manager for cloud infrastructure and security at Fusion5, benefits such as reduced costs, improved security, and stronger governance are all achievable, but also depend on how the migration is planned and executed.
Unlocking Potential: Accelerating Government Transformation with Intelligent Automation
Australians have high expectations for government services. Meeting these ever-increasing demands requires constant investment in transformation activities that deliver functionality, security, and ease of use. However, the ability to transform can be limited by the constraints of legacy systems and the significant time and cost required to change and update them.
Can AI help government agencies build trust among citizens?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has enormous potential to build trust in government by improving citizen services and government processes, but achieving these benefits means first ensuring that people have trust in AI.
Enabling a response to disasters in remote Australia
Australia encompasses over 7.5 million square kilometres and boasts diverse biomes and terrains. Because of its vastness, providing reliable digital communications across Australia is challenging, especially due to the concentration of residents in major coastal cities.
Unlocking AI Success: NTT DATA & Microsoft Lead the Way Original
Artificial intelligence has enormous potential to reinvent work processes and boost productivity, and organisations can experience many of those benefits today. This was the core message of the webinar Unlock AI Success, delivered by NTT DATA and supported by Microsoft. NTT DATA's Senior Director for Employee Experience David Hanrahan started by defining AI as any technology that is taught to think for itself and make decisions like a human.
How a digital-first approach improves infrastructure performance and longevity
Providing robust and effective infrastructure is a core responsibility for governments, and each year billions of dollars are spent building assets ranging from schools and hospitals to transport services and utilities. Government’s role in infrastructure continues long after the asset is built however, and whether infrastructure is operated by government or a third party, the objective is always to maximise the return it can deliver.
The role of AI in self-healing networks
In this minidocumentary NBN Australia's EGM technology transformation Joanne Dutton, Origin Energy's head of networks and core infrastructure services Oliver Oldham, and My Muscle Chef's head of technology and change management John Khoury spoke to iTnews about the role AI and ML plays in self healing networks. This story is part of an iTnews Focal Point on self healing networks. Click here to read and watch more.
Origin Energy uses AI to extend human intelligence in its network
Origin Energy is turning to artificial intelligence (AI) and automation to help its network team shift away from performing manual and repetitive tasks and add greater value to its operations. The company’s head of networks and core infrastructure services Oliver Oldham said his team has been converting processes that previously involved paper forms, Excel spreadsheets, command line interfaces, and manual configuration changes and automating them as software.
NBN Co turns to AI to improve network management
NBN Co is turning to AI and automation as it strives to maintain and improve service quality and reliability. The company’s executive general manager for technology transformation Jo Dutton said AI is a useful technology for improving network management thanks to its ability to make use of the terabytes of data that the NBN network generated each day.
Measuring Cyber Security ROI
In this mini documentary, Stowe Australia's group technology officer Karl Houseman and SA Power Networks' head of cyber security and IT resilience Nathan Morelli spoke to iTnews about how security leaders can measure the ROI of cyber security programs. This story is part of an iTnews Focal Point on Cyber Security ROI. Click here to read and watch more.
Stowe Australia in simplification drive for its security platforms
Australian industrial electrical contractor Stowe Australia is pursuing a strategy of simplification as part of its ongoing investment in strengthening its cyber defence capabilities. According to group technology officer Karl Houseman, the company is closely examining the delivered value of previous investments before renewing them, with the goal of replacing individual systems with more capable technology platforms.
How automation is buying time for SA Power Networks' fight against cyber crime
South Australia’s principal electricity distributor SA Power Networks is using process automation to make headway in the battle against cyber crime, as part of a broader push to strengthen its cyber defence team. The company’s head of cyber security and IT resilience Nathan Morelli said automating common security processes meant the business had regained time that could be dedicated to higher value tasks. He described one recent example of automating account resets.
How acting small can deliver big thinking for service transformation
Today’s citizens live in a world of effortless digital experiences. They expect information to be easy to find, and for services to meet their specific needs. And when they do need help – they want it to be available instantly. These expectations have been forged by interactions with banks, retailers, and other ecommerce providers, but they apply to all service providers – including public sector agencies.
AI in XDR security
By Video: Augmenting security incident detection and response capabilities. This story is part of an iTnews Focal Point on AI in XDR security. Click here to read and watch more. Got a news tip for our journalists? Share it with us anonymously here.
Zespri sees fruitful combination of AI and XDR
Kiwifruit marketer Zespri is using AI capabilities in an eXtended Detection and Response (XDR) platform to reduce the workload of its cyber security team, and to better understand the threat landscape it operates in. The complexity of Zespri's supply chain and the perishable nature of its products mean every step must be taken to minimise possible disruptions – and that includes those arising from cyber-attacks.
MinterEllison leans on AI in cyber security ops
Law firm MinterEllison is moving artificial intelligence onto the frontline in its battle against cyber criminals, as it seeks to increase its capabilities and relieve some of the pressure from its human cyber defenders.
AI promises to revolutionise the public service, but only if it plays by our rules
In November 2022, the world was enthralled by the unveiling of an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that created complex written content at incredible speed. OpenAI’s ChatGPT was the latest breakthrough in the field of generative AI, alongside other tools that create art or write music, and demonstrated the ease with which computers could now perform tasks that were previously the domain of humans.
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