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

Our cloudy outlook has never looked so rosy

Mipela GeoSolutions is making its mark with clients as it finalises the migration of its X-Info Portal hosting platform in Amazon Web Services as part of a digital transformation of the X-Info suite of applications. The phases of this project are to migrate and modernise, so the Mipela team can in turn enhance security, improve reliability, and increase performance.

“We are continuing with our digital transformation, with the migration phase of our new X-Info Portal hosting platform in AWS (Amazon Web Services) now complete,” Mipela GeoSolutions Founder and Managing Director Hayden McDonald said.

“This has been one of our most significant projects Mipela has undertaken and we thank our valued clients for their continuous 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.”

Having now migrated to AWS, the X-Info suite can introduce a variety of benefits for clients.

“By lowering our risk profile through improved reliability, we can now focus on increasing our performance and enhancing security,” McDonald said.

“This digital transformation will also leverage insights to improve sustainability and corporate transparency.”

“Finally, the new hosting platform will improve the employee and client experience to increase productivity, therefore reducing operating costs.”

Update on our process improvement Kamapim project

Exciting times of growth and assurance @ Mipela

It’s been an incredibly busy time this past quarter and our team has been on a roll, with a strong emphasis on change and assurance. We believe that the only constant is change, and we’ve embraced it wholeheartedly to better serve you, and to better care for our team.

Insightful Industry Briefing

First off, we had the privilege of having Karen Thompson grace us with her insights into the Critical Infrastructure sector. Her industry briefing was a powerful reminder of how staying informed and adaptable is key to success in today’s ever-evolving business landscape. Karen provided us with invaluable insights, helping us stay ahead of the curve.

A Journey Through X-Info DBYD suite Evolution

Jacqueline Button, our very own historian, took us on an incredible journey through the history of our X-Info Dial Before You Dig suite, delving into the remarkable transformations that occurred during its rebranding to the X-Info Assurance suite. We were reminded of how our commitment to improvement has been a constant, and our mission to provide you with the best services remains unwavering.

Compliance and Legislative Updates

HR & Business Consultant, Dianne Evans, is always at the forefront of compliance matters (nothing escapes her), enlightened us about the latest updates and legislative changes. These changes offer more comprehensive protection and support for our employees.

Government Initiatives and Our Vigilant Team

Everything is so fast paced, it’s not hard to miss the multitude of initiatives being rolled out by local, state, and federal governments. Fortunately, we have a dedicated team who keep an eye on these developments. Their craving for information ensures that both our internal team and, most importantly, our clients receive the care and support they need, no matter the external changes.

As we continue to move ahead with our sights on the Christmas period, we are excited about the upcoming opportunities for growth, innovation, and further strengthening our partnerships with our clients.

infocus

Map Activities

Map Activities provides a simplified approach to viewing and updating data in X-Info Connect and X-Info WebConnect. A Map Activity displays data relevant to users visually in a map and enables you to communicate tasks and outcomes in a clear and engaging way.

Q1:  What can be done from a Map Activity?

A1:  A user can use a Map Activity to search for data within the application and display results in a map. Once a map is displaying, other functions can be used to assist users with daily work activities such as displaying spatial data and displaying different layers in a map, viewing more information about the features in a map, or accessing related data in the same or new tabs – allowing a user to complete tasks using contextual activities.

Q2: Can our own data be imported into a Map Activity?

A2: Yes! A Map Activity is made up of layers which are shown in the map display and can be turned on and off by the user. This can include Internal Data (such as geometry fields in X-Info Connect), External Data (spatial data from external sources such as WFS, WMS, Tile Services, Shape/Tab files, ESRI Rest Services, Post GIS and others) and a Geocoder (datasets like Open Street Maps that enable street address searching).

Q3: Can one or multiple layers in the Maps Activity be searched on?

A3:  Layer searches can be set up by an Administrator and can be configured to include one or many layers in the search. Users can enter text to search across single or multiple layers included in the map search. The results will display grouped by layer name with the number of matches in brackets.

If you would like further information or assistance setting up a Map Activity in your application, please contact the Mipela Support Team at support@mipela.com.au.

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.