Organisations big and small are often looking for opportunities to pitch their products or services to government, and they have now been given the chance through our new Pitch to Pilot Program. The program is an exciting initiative being led by the NSW Department of Finance, Services and Innovation (DFSI)'s Innovation NSW team. We are partnering with NSW Police, Department of Justice, Data Analytics Centre (NSW Treasury), NSW Department of Industry and Transport for NSW, which are all looking to the private sector for innovative technologies and solutions.
Applications for the inaugural program opened on 24 September and asked applicants to articulate both a problem, and the solution, that directly affects one (or more) of the listed government agencies. For this call out, we sought solutions specifically focused on identity and security, artificial intelligence (AI), or machine learning (ML) that can deliver improved efficiencies, better services and enhanced outcomes for NSW citizens.
As Martin Hoffman, Secretary of the Department of Finance, Services and Innovation, said: “This is just the start of greater engagement in NSW.”
What now?
The aim of the initiative is to provide a new and accessible avenue for companies to pitch their solutions to government and gain direct access to key decision makers. Shortlisted applicants will receive timely feedback on their pitch and may, where appropriate, secure a pilot with government. Agencies benefit from an expedited process for identifying new technologies and, where there's alignment, rapidly testing innovative solutions.
At the close of applications on 22 October, we had received 78 submissions from all over Australia, with 86 per cent from NSW based companies. The evaluation committee had the difficult task of creating a shortlist from such a strong list of candidates. The 13 finalists selected faced the judging panel at the Pitch Event on 8 November 8 at the Sydney Startup Hub.
A huge thanks to independent AI expert Lachlan McCalman from Data61 and innovation and data expert Khimji Vaghijiani from the Data Analytics Centre for lending a hand on the evaluation committee.
Meet the Panel:
This program could not be successful without the willing participation of agencies across NSW Government. It did not take much convincing though to put together an amazing panel of our esteemed colleagues across six different agencies, who between them offer decades of leadership experience in both the private and public sectors in IT, digital transformation, innovation and technology. Meet the panel below:
- Greg Wells, Government Chief Information and Digital Officer, DFSI
- Ian Jansen, Chief Digital and Product Officer, Service NSW
- Tony Ritchie, Chief Information Officer (CIO), DFSI
- Elizabeth Hall Walsh, CIO, NSW Department of Industry
- Aaron Liu, CIO, NSW Department of Justice
- Gordon Dunsford, CIO, Police NSW
- Richard Host, CIO, Transport for NSW
- Khimji Vaghijiani, Data Analytics Centre, NSW Treasury
Meet the finalists:
Hyperanna - "Artificialintelligence powered data analyst”
Hyper Anna is an artificial intelligence powered data analyst that streamlines and accelerates the journey from raw data to actionable insights. Anna will do all the tedious and technical work of writing codes, analysing data through advanced analytical techniques, producing charts, and more importantly, insights.
Daisee - “Turning Unstructured Data into Actionable Insights”
Daisee is an Enterprise software as a service (SaaS) AI company that offers a speech (and text) analytics solution that can help understand and better service NSW citizens. Lisa (an acronym for Linguistic Interpretive Semantic Analysis) is a suite of products that enables businesses to see what they have not seen before: the inside of conversations they have with every customer, every day. Lisa listens to every conversation, then extracts key features and builds a profile of each customer interaction. Lisa understands the dynamics of each conversation (interruptions, sentiment, empathy, rapport), and gives customers a voice.
Codebots
A codebot writes code alongside human engineers and can write over 90 per cent of the code base. Codebots enables developers to build software better with the help of AI-powered bots that can write 300,000 lines of code in one minute. To date, the platform has been used to develop over 30 applications.
SAP Australia - “Machine Learning enabled Tax Payer Insights”
SAP Australia, this innovative technology created by software giant SAP helps to identify behavioural patterns in citizens. Using specific data sets, it can make a prediction as to what that citizen might do next. Using this information, organisations can target specific behaviours (e.g. tax fraud, falling into debt, propensity to pay) and determine the best course of preventative action that can be taken to assist people in achieving an outcome (such as becoming debt free), or prevent them from committing fraud or falling into hardship.
Genisys - “Citizen Interaction AI as a Service”
Genisys is a leading Australian Service Provider with expertise in delivering managed services, cognitive AI and data analytics, secure hybrid cloud, enterprise connectivity and data centre and disaster recovery solutions for Australia's leading organisations in the public and private sectors.
The solution looks to using apps, AI, machine learning and data analytics insights to augment the existing customer service at the contact point by providing an alternative/active channel of reporting across various agencies.
Quixxi Security - “Making Mobile apps Hack proof to secure Personal Data”
Quixxi Security is a small technology company in Manly, NSW that has been providing mobile applications security design development and security solutions for three years to the Australian and international market. Quixxi is a simple, easy to use tool for mobile application development teams to harden their mobile apps against attack by cyber criminals. There are more than 2000 customers using Quixxi Security today across a broad range of technologies.
Planet Ark Power & Elevare Energy - “Using Ai to save $ Millions on energy costs to be better spent on more services for citizens”
Planet Ark Power & Elevare Energy, by using their unique machine learning algorithms, Planet Ark Power can increase the amount of rooftop solar and other DER (Distributed Energy Resources like rooftop solar) on the Low Voltage (LV) grid by up to 13 times the current limit by managing voltage on each zone substation feeder.
Mapcite - “Spatial Data Visualisation, Analytics, Prediction and Delivery of Spatial Data to Mobile Device”
Mapcite is using spatial data visualisation, analytics, prediction and delivery of spatial data to mobile devices to help companies make use of location based data in order to make better decisions, gain new insights, create value and solve complex problems.
They help their customers bring the value of location data to field workers such as policemen, nurses, and doctors. Imagine the ability to deliver all the data held in the back office to mobile devices in the field – all with no loss of battery power.
Smart City Coral Reef IOT platform
The Coral Reef technology has been developed by Bright Innovations, a technology company founded by Bright Led Ltd. This IoT technology is a future-focused, open source, and collaborative data platform for smart cities.
Their vision is to incorporate the platform in the transportation sector to create a smart traffic management ecosystem. Their platform can monitor and analyse traffic flows to prevent roads from becoming too congested, optimise streetlights to dim when there aren't cars or pedestrians on the roads, and create smart transit to fulfil the needs of public transport users in real time, improving their efficiency and safety. Smart city technology is also increasingly being used to improve public safety through the monitoring of high crime areas to improving emergency preparedness.
Rulerr - “Permissions Reinvented”
Rulerr is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider that provides a solution to assist in the management and audit of access privileges in enterprise environments. It can be difficult using current technology to determine and manage who has access to company data across multiple I.T. systems, and with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) mandatory data breach reporting now in place, it has never been more important to do so. By using a combination of machine learning and online tools, Rulerr can secure data access quickly and efficiently and improve the security of sensitive information.
Equifax - “Interactive biometric verification of NSW citizens”
Equifax is a credit reporting body operating in Australia and overseas. They verify financial, risk, and identity information for individuals and businesses and are currently developing the use of biometrics to improve identity verification.
Their technology uses biometrics and liveness tests that can integrate with digital services to reduce the impact of fraud waste.
SecureStack - “Security Intelligence Platform”
SecureStack helps IT managers address their IT security and compliance risk through an end-to-end security platform. This includes offering customers hardened operating systems, centralised login and web based security information, and event management (SIEM) where they can see and interact with all their security data, and a smart orchestration engine to bind it all together. The solution helps manage security controls and data across all infrastructure, no matter where it lives; the cloud, data centre, on-premises, or anywhere else. It allows for the deployment of the same servers, users, applications and security controls across all your infrastructure from one simple pane of glass.
Resolves Disputes Online (RDO) - “NSW Online Dispute Resolution Pilot for Citizens and Businesses in NSW”
Resolves Disputes Online's (RDO) online dispute management software and technology has been built by lawyers, mediators and arbitrators from Australia, the UK and Canada who understand the practicalities of dispute resolution services because they do it themselves. RDO's driving force is its desire to leverage modern technology to improve access to justice and enable the rule of law.
Their aim is to improve access to justice for citizens across the globe, including NSW and the whole of Australia.
It was great to hear more about these solutions at the Pitch Event on November 8th at the Sydney Start-up Hub.
For further information, please visit Innovation