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New Microsoft Technology Centre accelerates Australia’s digital transformation opportunity

SYDNEY – February 5, 2019 – Microsoft has further increased its efforts to help digitally transform the Australian economy, today opening a multi-million-dollar state-of-the-art technology centre in Sydney.

A dedicated team of experts based in the new Microsoft Technology Centre (MTC) will work with enterprise and government customers to accelerate their digital transformation journeys by demonstrating the impact that Cloud and artificial technology would have when deployed in their organisations.

Armed with that insight MTC specialists and enterprise leaders will work together to map out the most effective route to digital transformation, and how best to bring the vision to life.

To coincide with the official launch of the MTC, Microsoft Australia has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the NSW Government’s Department of Finance, Services and Innovation which will bring NSW Department leads into the new centre to explore how Government services and operations could be transformed by technology. Supported by ongoing engagement with Microsoft Australia technology experts, this will help accelerate the Government’s digital journey.

The NSW Government will also leverage the MOU to foster greater collaboration on building a data-centric approach to good government, important cyber, platform and capability development initiatives

Microsoft Australia today also announced a ground-breaking five-year strategic arrangement with IT services giant DXC Technology which will see the companies work together to transition DXC’s and Microsoft’s leading enterprise and public sector clients in Australia to the Microsoft Azure cloud.

This partnership is the first of its kind worldwide and will support current and future DXC clients who choose to transition workloads to Azure, allowing them to tap the broad and growing range of Azure cloud services in Australia.

Working together, Microsoft and DXC will be able to accelerate the migration of banking, commercial and public sector workloads to Azure where they will benefit from the security, trust, resilience and performance of a global cloud. Transitioning to the cloud also helps increase the responsiveness of enterprise to shifting market conditions and opportunities.

Steven Worrall, Managing Director, Microsoft Australia, said; “This is a significant and important investment by Microsoft in the Australian market. The Microsoft Technology Centre will help our customers accelerate their digital journeys by bringing together the right resources – people and technology – in one location to demonstrate what can be achieved in their organisation and then to work with them to bring that to life.

“We are delighted that both the NSW Government and DXC Technology and their clients are trailblazers that will be among the first to benefit from our investment in the MTC and Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to Australia.”

“This is a significant and important investment by Microsoft in the Australian market. The Microsoft Technology Centre will help our customers accelerate their digital journeys by bringing together the right resources – people and technology – in one location to demonstrate what can be achieved in their organisation and then to work with them to bring that to life.” Steven Worrall, Managing Director, Microsoft Australia.

Opening of MTC reinforces Microsoft’s commitment to Australia

These announcements reinforce Microsoft’s deep and sustained commitment to the digital success of Australian organisations.

In the last 24 months Microsoft Australia has made a number of large investments in the Australian market including the launch of two new Azure data centre regions in Canberra to support national critical computing, as well as opening the Microsoft Reactor in the Sydney StartUp Hub to support local startups.

Microsoft Australia has also increased its local workforce significantly boosting its technical and engineering expertise locally to support both clients and the 10,000 plus Australian partners who leverage Microsoft solutions for their clients both in Australia and internationally.

Microsoft Technology Centre at a glance

The MTC is staffed by a dedicated expert team of seven, including a director, five technical architects with extensive experience in different sectors, and a technology manager. The MTC will be supported by the broader Microsoft community, both in Australia and globally, in order to turn transformation blueprints developed at the MTC into reality.

With both Microsoft and partner solutions on hand, the MTC offers enterprise leaders the opportunity to explore digital opportunities through an envisioning theatre, an exploration showcase where Microsoft and partner solutions are demonstrated, , an innovation factory, social hub, cyber security room, as well as workshop and boardroom areas.

Enterprises engaging with the MTC will follow a specific process encompassing planning, preparing and executing to ensure maximum value and impact.

Engagement options include strategy briefings, architecture design sessions, data centre tours, workshops, proof-of-concepts and hackathons – with the mix optimised according to enterprise priorities, in order to ensure maximum impact and accelerated digital transformation.

Greg Wells, NSW Government Chief Information and Digital Officer welcomed the opening of the MTC and the opportunity for the NSW Government to work closely with Microsoft. “NSW is already benefitting from the impact of digital transformation in terms of streamlined services and access for residents and businesses.

“This Memorandum of Understanding will allow us to bring Department Heads to the MTC where they can see what more can be achieved with digital services, improved efficiencies and good value solutions. We expect there will be significant positive impact for citizens and businesses as well as operational efficiencies for Government.”

Maximising enterprise impact

The strategic arrangement between Microsoft Australia and DXC Technology is world-leading and will support DXC’s enterprise and public sector clients keen to transition key workloads to the cloud as they digitally transform their operations.

By digitally transforming and transitioning to Microsoft Azure, current and future DXC clients will be well positioned to:

  • Benefit from the depth, breadth and reach of Azure’s compute capacity;
  • Seamlessly manage workloads in a secure yet elastic environment;
  • Leverage state-of-the-art cloud-based toolsets to innovate faster; and
  • Drive a more cloud-native environment to ensure value.

Seelan Nayagam, managing director, DXC Technology said, “Microsoft Azure is a trusted, secure and high-performance cloud with an already comprehensive and growing array of services. Together we can provide solutions that our government and commercial clients can confidently deploy today while being prepared for changing market conditions or expectations. The combination of our deep understanding and experience and Microsoft’s cloud and technical expertise is going to be a game changer for existing and new clients to realize and expand their digital transformation ambitions.”