Tag Archives: A word from the boss (Hayden McDonald)

A Word from The Boss

“Enhance Security”

Welcome to Summer’s GeoSolutions News

In this edition, we profile a couple of client stories, detail how to best manage user management change requests, present some more X-InFocus tech tips, provide some insight in our next major software release, update of our teams’ activities in connecting people with information, and offer an exciting 2024 giveaway.

We welcome Paulina Lee, Senior GIS Specialist, to our Solutions team in Brisbane.

2023 has been a busy year, 37 solutions projects delivered, the release of version 7 of the X-Info suite, migration of all our clients to our new AWS Cloud Platform, culminating with the successful rollout of Before You Dig Australia National Referral Service Format changes in our X-Info Assurance suite completed on 23 November, the end is in sight. It has been such a pleasure to catch up with so many clients personally, whether it was in meetings, an event, sharing a bite to eat or a coffee across the country over the last few weeks. It is such a privileged to be able to travel and am reminded how lucky we are to live in this part of the world.

To service the dynamic energy and infrastructure sectors at such a significant time, as we all look to navigate the hugely complex and challenging energy transition that is well and truly underway (where hiring and retaining the resources to deliver on our commitments while keeping up to date with the risks of cyber incidents, business disruption, changes in legislation and regulation) is accelerating our digital Transformation Stages.

2024 see us start to align the Next Generation of X-Info Suite with our new AWS Platform, will see us identify capability gaps and cross organisational dependencies. Doing so will help us create strategies for improving our cloud platform operations, ensure stakeholder alignment, and facilitate relevant organisational change management activities. It is certainly exciting to be heading into the new year.

In closing, I would like to acknowledge and welcome our most recent new clients, Ampol and Energy Queensland, thank the significant number who have renewed and congratulate one of our long-term valued clients Australian Gas Infrastructure Group’s Dampier Bunbury Pipeline team on the successful migration and modernisation of their X-Info Assurance suite automated enquiry response and third party works solution to our hosted AWS platform.

On behalf of the Mipela team thank you for your trust and support throughout 2023. Wherever you might be with friends and family over the Christmas period, we send our best wishes for a rewarding and successful New Year which we look forward too with excitement and confidence. Travel safe!

Hayden McDonald
Founder and Managing Director

A Word From The Boss

Cloudy outlook?

Welcome to our Spring newsletter for 2023!

In this edition read on to discover how Mipela GeoSolutions migrate to modernise through its digital transformation stages. For something a little different, we profile one of our all rounders, Jacqueline Button, talk about reporting fatigue, provide some updates and discuss an invasion of New Zealand.

To cloud, or not to cloud? 
This is the question posed by IT professionals as they ready their organisations for an agile future.

For Murat Yanar, director of Migration Workloads within the Worldwide Specialist Organisation at Amazon Web Services (AWS), the answer is clear. “Innovation starts with cloud migration,” he says. “Helping our customers lift and shift their applications, data and infrastructure today opens up new opportunities for them to modernise tomorrow.”

When you are considering your journey to the cloud, you need to look at your short, medium, and long term requirements. Asking yourself the following questions is a great starting point:

  • Is your current platform urgently in need of a refresh?
  • Do you develop or redevelop solutions in-house?
  • Do you utilise SaaS offerings?
  • Do you need or want to have dedicated hardware?
  • Do you want managed infrastructure or do you want to do it yourself?
  • How much effort do you want to put into managing your compute?
  • Are you growing IT?
  • Is a Capex or Opex billing model preferred?
  • Are there any security policies, regulatory or compliance requirements that need to be met?
  • What Disaster Recovery requirements exist? How long are backups required to be retained? How quick is it to recover from a backup?

Finding the answers to these questions can be difficult, so please don’t hesitate to reach out to our Client Success team for a copy of our White Paper drawing on fifteen plus years of cloud experience, expertise, and industry best practices. To discover more about the benefits Mipela have gained from moving to the AWS platform check out our article in this months Australian Pipeline Magazine.

On an exciting note, Adam Herbert, Alana O’Connor and Aleksandra Hillier look forward to travelling west to see our Clients and Industry Colleagues in Perth 14-17 October for the 2023 Australian Pipeline Gas Association Annual Convention & Exhibition. This year’s theme focuses on “Power of the Present, Force of the Future”. Join us for a coffee at Stand 53 to learn more about how we are delivering assurance for your data, systems, people, projects and operating assets with our focus on enhanced security, improved reliability, and increased performance for the clients we service and fuel your business sessions with some M&M’s on us.

In closing, I would like to acknowledge and welcome our most recent new clients, CS Energy, Equis, Gas Pipelines Victoria, MIPAC, QENOS, Warrego Energy and thank the significant number who have renewed their annual contracts, we greatly appreciate your support and thank you for the trust you put in us.

From all the team at Mipela GeoSolutions, stay safe!

Hayden McDonald
Founder and Managing Director

Product update

X-Info Aware update

Development for the next release of X-Info Aware is underway. This release will include compatibility for iPhone 14 Pro MAX and iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro and support for iOS 17, along with maintenance and fixes to enhance useability.

X-Info Assurance suite update

X-Info Assurance suite will be releasing version 7.0 in the coming months to support the implementation of Referral Service format changes by Before You Dig Australia (BYDA) in November 2023. These changes will be supported within the X-Info Assurance suite application to ensure this information is available to users without impact.

Additional supporting updates will be included in the version release.

 

Let us in!

As security gets tighter and tighter, at Mipela we have noticed that some important information is not reaching all our clients’ email inboxes. This information could be about critical software updates, outage notifications and other information. From time to time there may be instructions on things we need you to do to ensure things continue to go smoothly.

If you are a Mipela client, please assist us in ensuring you get our messages and look to have the following emails whitelisted by your IT team:

noreply@mipela.com.au

support@mipela.com.au

Doing this will go a long way in helping Mipela make sure you are always informed.

Staff update

Staff profile – Jacqueline Button

Jaci first began working for Mipela in 2018 as a Business Development Executive within the Client Success team.

As the years progressed, with a multitude of varied skills and a passion for understanding how our solutions could best serve our clients, she has had the opportunity to support our clients from the Support and Solutions services teams as well.

In July this year, Jaci entered into her newest role at Mipela as Solutions Project Coordinator which has allowed her to elevate her knowledge, coordinate internal and external projects, support Client Success in optimising solutions and liaise with Support to manage client needs post GoLive.

What to know more about Jaci? We asked her some important questions!

What movie can you rewatch over and over again?

Deadpool – I laugh continuously

If you could be an animal, what animal would you be and why?

Given my love of food – a Baird’s Beaked Whale would be awesome – they have 13 stomachs!

What’s the weirdest food you’ve ever eaten?

Balut (fertilised duck eggs) – well I never actually ate it, I got close, but I just couldn’t…

Providing you that extra level of assurance

Nearly all of Mipela’s clients are part of the critical infrastructure sector. We understand the obligations for our clients around mandatory cyber incident reporting.

We feel strongly that we have a social responsibility to provide our clients with the assurance that the systems we provide or manage on their behalf are done so with their obligations considered, as well as other compliance regimes that are quickly becoming everyday mandates.

The Mipela team takes this commitment very seriously and is committed to providing the assurance that the industry expects as a baseline around secure availability, reliability, confidentiality and maintained data integrity.

We proactively monitor our cloud hosted client servers in a number of ways to ensure we are providing a secure and well protected environment.

Ask us for more info on how we are assuring your data is protected if you’re keen to learn more.

Do you have reporting fatigue?

As we head towards the end of the financial year, many of our clients have found themselves navigating an increased web of reporting requirements. Whether it’s monthly reporting, regulatory compliance, or shareholder reports, the demands for data are unrelenting.

Now is an opportune moment to re evaluate your reporting processes and ask yourself: What am I reporting on, what is my team reporting on, how frequently, to whom, how long is it taking us and what data are we capturing for these reports?

The world of data collection and data distribution is evolving, and there’s a clear trend towards reducing reliance on traditional tools like spreadsheets and word documents. Instead, there is an increase in requests to automate the reporting of critical data sets. Why? Because it’s about safeguarding your valuable information from residing in unsecure documents in vulnerable locations on desktops, laptops, mobile devices, and more. It’s also about automation, accuracy and security of information.

Our team are acutely aware of the importance of data sharing and reporting for the Critical Infrastructure sector.

This Easter, instead of wishing for more time to compile reports, or thinking of a more secure way – why not send your wish list to your Client Success Account Manager or give them a call.

Mipela has invaded New Zealand!

In 2019 the pandemic struck and the way we worked changed significantly with most of us rushing out to buy gym equipment and a new desk. The Mipela team were no different and quickly adapted to this new way of working.

In July 2021 our Client Success Team Lead, Karen Thompson (KT for those who know her) took it a step further and moved her working from home office to a new home in Central Otago in New Zealand.

“Nothing has changed,” said KT. “Oh, except the time difference, but this allows me time to get a few things done before others start work – especially in the summer with daylight savings.”

Having gotten most of her kiwi accent back, KT is now actively engaging with potential kiwi clients.

“Kiwis love to hear of one of their own coming home to roost and it’s a great conversation starter with new contacts,” said KT.

KT’s focus in NZ is strongly on the energy and infrastructure industry, particularly around the renewables, and a few left field opportunities as well.

KT obviously continues to support her Australian client base as well, spending a lot more time than she used to on video calls.

In her spare time KT has also taken up every Southern girl’s favourite hobby, breeding sheep and is actively involved in the NZ Valais Blacknose Sheep Society as a committee member. KT is also on the committee for the Central Otago Riding for the Disabled.

A Word From The Boss

Gratitude in Migration: Honouring Our Valued Clients for their Tremendous Support

Welcome to our Winter newsletter for 2023!

In this edition, we are delighted to share RREDD’s Stakeholder Management client success story, excited for the pending release of X-Info Connect\WebConnect Version 7, welcome two new Wantoks, herald recent team promotions, present another X-InFocus tech tip and update of our teams’ activities in connecting people with information.

I cannot believe that it is June already and our digital Transformation Stages continue with the Migration phase of our new Hosting Platform in AWS completed. This has been one of our most significant projects Mipela has undertaken and would like to take this opportunity to thank our Valued Clients for their tremendous support. We now move into the Modernisation phase to leverage the new capabilities for our X-Info Suite assurance solutions with our focus on enhanced security, improved reliability, and increased performance for the Clients we service. Please do not hesitate to reach out to our Client Success or Support Team at any time for further information.

It also gives me great pleasure to congratulate another long term client, ElectraNet, who have also recently completed their on-premise X-Info Suite modernisation project. Another amazing project in positioning their future securely in simplifying their day-to-day activities and technical assurance of their people, processes, and systems in these significant solutions that support their business.

I would like to recognise how excited we are to welcome Alek Hillier to the Mipela Leadership team as of 1 July in her new role as the Support Team Leader, which I know she is really looking forward too and will excel at – having worked closely with all our clients over the last seven years. Jaci Button transitions into her longer-term project management role as our Solutions Project Coordinator after her outstanding work and dedication as the Acting Client Experience Team Leader over the last eleven months. Jaci consistently went above and beyond to ensure our clients receive the best possible service, whilst ensuring that everyone is well-informed and prepared to tackle any challenges that come our way. Jaci should ease into this new role well. Alana O’Connor has been promoted to Solutions Architect, recognising her as our X-Info subject matter expert, internally sharing her knowledge in the day-to-day delivery of our solutions in the Services team, and externally assisting our Client Success team to accelerate the value we offer our new and existing clients due to her industry and process expertise.

It is also a pleasure to introduce our most recent Wantoks, Joel Casey (Solution Specialist) and Adrian Guina (Finance Coordinator).

It also gives me great pleasure to welcome our most recent new clients CS Energy, Qenos, McConnell Dowell BMD JV and Total Eren Australia H2 to the extended Mipela family.

From all the team at Mipela GeoSolutions, stay safe!

Hayden McDonald
Founder and Managing Director

A Word from the Boss

Providing essential assurance solutions

Welcome to our Autumn newsletter for 2023!

In this edition, we are thrilled to share Beach Energy’s Stakeholder Management client success story journey over the last two and half years, welcome back two Wantoks who have recently returned from maternity leave, present another X-InFocus tech tip and update of our teams’ activities in connecting people with information.

To open I would like to recognise how excited we are to have Aleksandra Hillier (Senior Solution Specialist) and Mia Slattery (Administration Coordinator) back with us from maternity leave and the energy they bring to the team. We understand that the transition back to work after a period away can be challenging, but we want to assure you that we are here to support you every step of the way. It also gives me great pleasure to welcome our most recent new clients PIE Solutions, Plummers Industries and RREDD to the extended Mipela family.

It has been an exhilarating start to 2023 with some big projects successfully delivered, our Kamapim continuous improvement process carries on with this year’s focus on the theme of the three C’s (Communicate, Collaborate, Change), numerous APGA events across several states (so good to be able to see people in person again) including our sustained sponsorship of the New Zealand Seminar and Golf Day in New Plymouth. Our digital Transformation Stage continues with the mobilisation phase of our new Modern Hosted Platform completed in February we are now well underway with the migration targeted for completion at the end of May positioning us with the most up-to date secure, resilient and efficient platform for the X-Info suite of solutions.

From all the team at Mipela GeoSolutions, stay safe!

Hayden McDonald
Founder and Managing Director

A word from the Boss
Effective land management across the Gas Pipeline Victoria
It’s the stuff you don’t see that’s keeping you safe
x-infocus tips and tricks
Ampol joins our Client Community!
#projectMAD Special Invitation (14th Year) – RideWithUs!
Staff profile
I’m in a pickle
OLDER POSTS
A Word from The Boss
Mipela are Proud to Protect Qeno’s Botany Assets using the Power of X-Info Assurance suite
Update on our process improvement Kamapim project
x-infocus
Product Update
Mousemats
Staff Updates
Ensuring Smoother User Management: Your Collaboration can Expedite the Process
SA Power Networks – Committed to Ensuring Security
‘Tis the Season
A Word From The Boss
Our cloudy outlook has never looked so rosy
Update on our process improvement Kamapim project
infocus
Product update
Let us in!
Staff update
Providing you that extra level of assurance
Do you have reporting fatigue?
Mipela has invaded New Zealand!
A Word From The Boss
Focus on the complex, the urgent and the sensitive
Update on our process improvement Kamapim project
Making light work of Safety Management Studies
Safeguarding access and data integrity – the significance of using personal credentials to log onto software
A Word from the Boss
Reporting Stakeholder Information to the Regulators
Global Excavation Safety Conference awards Australia’s Glen “Cookie” Cook as the World’s Damage Prevention Hero of the Year 2022
Adding extra assurance to your BYD automated response system
A word from The Boss
APGA POG Incident database
What integration with SPEAR means to Jemena
Sentanil product focus
A word from The Boss
A truly epic project
The true power of data automation for Jemena
Update on our process improvement Kamapim Project
A word from The Boss
Tweed Shire Council using technology to deliver value to ratepayers
Women in Pipelines Forum (APGA)
A word from the Boss
Using software to safely plant trees
How mapping retirement homes helps LendLease manage its 14,000 dwellings
Utilising Map Activities
When it rains it pours
A word from The Boss
Stakeholder management and a global wind energy company
ERA Water automates its asset protection with X-Info DBYD suite
A word from the Boss
ARTC implements X-Info DBYD suite as their automated response system
Beware the Spreadsheet
If you are breaking ground out in the field – we have you covered!
A word from the boss
When community focus is key to the success of your project
How Gladstone Area Water Board saves time processing permits using X-Info DBYD suite
Mipela delivers more efficiencies to APA Group
Helping protect Queensland assets is at the tip of your fingers
Responsive engagement, requires intuitive interactions
Managing Cultural Heritage across Barada Barna land
“The Power of Communication” – see your world from a new perspective
Ever wondered how TransLink manage their Bus Stops?
Managing contaminated land compliance
APGA moves Pipeline Engineers Competency System (PECS) to a a new platform
“Doing the right thing”
Systematising pipeline risk management
The APGA Knowledgebase has moved to a new platform
These are challenging times
Experience really counts when it comes to stakeholder management
City of Greater Dandenong implements DBYD automated response system
Some days are great, some days are good, some days are bad
Stakeholder management – the answer is blowing in the wind
Flavour of the month – renewable energy projects
3 proven ways to empower technology
Automation in Remote Regions Delivers Multiple Benefits to Council
Powering through South Australia
Bringing  together data, systems and people
There’s no watering down the importance of DBYD responses at Allwater
Tanami Gas Pipeline data integrity and materials traceability
Incident management and risk analysis of Australasia’s pipelines
Greater Shepparton City Council moves to X-Info DBYD suite
What is X-Info SMS suite?
Putting your pipeline Safety Management Study information in one place
Making Lodging DBYDs Easier
Drawing in the Power of Collaboration
Desktop GIS Analysis for Preliminary Route Selection
X-Info DBYD suite Perfect Fit for ATOM
First Gas Land Management
Managing Your Information
Managing Your Information – from beginning to end
The importance of data across the life of your assets
Mipela assist Luminous Energy in planning solar farms in Queensland
Tasmanian Irrigation
The Value of X-Info Plans Management – Zinfra
Together, we grow
X-Info Plans Management
Real time data capture and reporting in remote field environment made possible with X-Info Aware
X-Info SMS suite – Safety Management Study
Property Information Service made easy
Your competitive advantage in field service management
Remote field task management and data capture providing results for real time consumption for Veolia
TGP optimises their field workforce with mobile data capture app
More than just maps… How do we add value to your GIS?
Working together as a team towards greater success
Automated back end processes provides Gladstone Area Water Board with improved responsiveness for issuing of permits
Four steps for effective business process improvement
Field Data Conversation Efficiency
Treasure your data?
New, bold, brilliant – X-Info Aware
SEA Gas improves efficiency of land management
Reach your business potential with X-Info Aware
Perfect match: X-Info Connect and Maintenance Connection