A word from the Boss

“Launch to the Future – Delivering Assurance”

Welcome to our 2025 Summer’s GeoSolutions News.

In this edition, we:

• Learn how Mipela can assist in automating the encroachment process for pipelines
• Present some more practical X-InFocus Tech Tips
• Provide an update on our ongoing product development
• Provide a couple of wrap ups on Security and our Kamapim sessions
• Welcome several new Mipela Wantoks to the team.

2025: A Year of Growth and Transformation

This past year has been one of tremendous investment and change for Mipela GeoSolutions:

• 45 solutions projects delivered across Australia and in New Zealand
• Our Products team launched our Automated Deployment Pipeline (CI/CD) for all X-Info Suite modules on our cloud-hosted platform
• The soft GoLive of our new ITSM Client Confluence spaces—designed to support our growing client base with solutions that are responsible, reliable, and repeatable
• Michael Short, our Senior Solutions Specialist, is leading our ITSM Change Submission process for Client Cat B enhancements under our Change Management Policy.
• A pre-assessment audit marking a key milestone in our ISO27001 certification journey.

Together, these achievements reflect our commitment to building a stronger assurance platform for your business, guided by our purpose and values.

Listening, Learning, and Connecting

We know change isn’t always easy, even when it promises a better future. Your feedback has been invaluable, and we remain committed to listening, learning, and improving.

This time of year, it is such a pleasure to catch up with so many clients personally, whether it was in meetings, an event, sharing a meal or a coffee across the country over the last few weeks. It is such a privilege to be able to travel and am reminded how lucky we are to live in this part of the world, serving critical infrastructure sectors during such a pivotal time in the energy transition.

Looking Ahead: Next Generation X-Info Suite

2025 has set the stage for what’s next:

• Accelerated development of universal schema and solution migration tool
• Pilot launches of solution(s) in collaboration with our clients to refine our approach before scaling to full production
• Enhanced stakeholder alignment and organisational change management activities to ensure smooth adoption

The Race to Launch the next generation of X-Info Suite is well underway, and 2026 promises to be even more exciting.

On behalf of the entire Mipela team, thank you to our Clients, Partners, and Suppliers for your trust and support throughout 2025. Wherever you are this festive season, may you enjoy a safe, happy, and well-earned break with family and friends. We look forward to 2026 with excitement, confidence, and a shared commitment to connecting people with information.

Hayden McDonald
Founder and Managing Director

Automating the encroachment process

Lineal asset corridor protection is a key focus for many of Australasia’s critical infrastructure asset owners. Protecting assets and keeping people safe can be a time consuming and detailed process. Depending on the risk profile of the asset, it can mean on-site inspections, reinstatement inspections and other coordination tasks are required to make it all happen.

One of Australia’s largest energy and infrastructure owners has recently been working with Mipela to streamline and automate parts of the corridor protection processes. Mipela has provided a long standing solution for this organisation to assist in many aspects of their day to day land access and stakeholder management activities using its X-Info suite of software solutions.

Working closely together with their corridor protection team, the Mipela team were able to provide an automated workflow that significantly reduces the time it takes to work through an encroachment enquiry. Visual representation of the status of each enquiry on colour coded dashboards allow the team to keep their finger on the pulse of activities in and around their high risk assets. The encroachment team also have the ability to electronically issue secure forms to the enquirer to request additional information. There is a pre defined time limit for the enquirer to submit the completed forms before they will automatically receive a reminder. When these forms are completed and submitted, they automatically get loaded into X-Info Assurance suite and the appropriate team member is notified via an automated email, ensuring there are no delays in processing an enquiry request.

Automation of encroachment processes not only saves time for the team, expedites the end to end process, provides a real time view of the status of each enquiry and in turn, saves both the company and the enquirers money.

The result is a streamlined, cost-effective process that benefits both the asset owner and the enquirer.  Managing encroachment risks along critical infrastructure corridors is complex and resource intensive. For one of Australia’s largest energy and infrastructure owners, the solution was automation using its existing X-Info Assurance Suite solution.

Written by Karen Thompson

Kamapim end of year wrap-up

Our final Kamapim sessions offered time to reflect, align and to do more learning to shape Mipela’s progression.

Positioning for 2026: Setting the Course

We began the quarter with Hayden’s annual briefing, which provided a clear overview of the priorities and direction for the coming year to ensure we enter the new year with a shared understanding of what lies ahead.

Strengthening Leadership Capability: Building Strong Relationships that Last

Leadership coach and consultant Chris Mills joined us to explore what sits at the core of strong, lasting professional relationships. His framework of balancing logic, empathy, and authenticity offered a concise and practical way to think about how we communicate and lead in the office and with our clients.

Cyber Security Month: What’s Behind the Curtain

Cyber Security Month brought a detailed session from Josh Sawell, who took us behind the scenes of our SOC and SIEM. This session clarified how ISGQ and Fortian’s processes protect our systems and the data entrusted to us.

An additional AI-focused lesson with ISGQ provided guidance on effective and responsible use of AI tools, reinforcing good habits and dispelling some common assumptions.

APGA’s Pipeline Operators Group (POG): History of how the POG came to be and what it is today

We closed the year with Colin Symonds, APGA’s Pipeline Operator Group Incident Manager. Colin demonstrated how our service is used within pipeline operator workflows and how these practices have evolved. Seeing our work applied in a real operational setting is always valuable, and his session highlighted how expectations and requirements continue to shift.

Reaching the Finish Line: Lunch, Awards and a Little Rest

We now look toward 19 December, when we will come together for our annual wrap-up and company awards, before the holiday break. This final gathering is an opportunity to acknowledge the work and commitment that carried us through another year.

Thank you to everyone that supported our Kamapim sessions this year, the year was marked by resilience, technical advancement, and a strengthened understanding of our industry and clients. It began with a memorable session from Korrin Barrett, and a powerful reminder of human capability and the importance of perseverance, qualities that remain relevant across all sectors of our work.

Client contributions continued to shape our understanding. Legislative updates, ensuring our teams remain informed as the regulatory environment shifts. Sessions throughout the year strengthened our appreciation of the broader industry landscape, expanding our understanding of natural gas pipeline safety. Seeing the realities of pipeline rectification in Papua New Guinea and adding important context to the environments in which our clients operate.

Reminders of reinforcing the importance of accurate subsurface asset location and the role of certified locators in reducing risk.

Cyber security remained a recurring focus. Global threats, including lessons from major breaches, and explored emerging risks such as vishing. We are very quickly strengthening our awareness of the evolving threat landscape.

Internally, we implemented improvements to support transparency and consistency with the introduction of our updated change management processes. Our Products team continued to advance towards version 8 to support our client’s needs.

Across the year, our vibe was:

• Strengthening relationships with clients
• Improving our understanding of industry pressures and expectations
• Continuing to focus on cyber resilience
• Ongoing momentum on product evolution
• Personal work to deepen both capability and awareness
• Coffee…

I’d like to acknowledge the contributions of everyone who shared their expertise, time, and lived experience through our Kamapim sessions. Your time and your insights are sincerely valued.

Written by Jacqueline Button

In Focus – tips and tricks

As the holiday season approaches, we want to make sure you have everything you need to keep things running smoothly. Here are answers to the most common questions about support during the Christmas break:

Q1: How do I log a support ticket over the Christmas break?

If you’re an authorised person, you can access your company’s Mipela Jira Support Portal. From there, you can log support requests and track the progress of your tickets anytime.

Q2: I’m working over the break, but my manager isn’t. Can I be registered for the Support Portal just in case?

Access to the Support Portal can only be granted by your company’s authorised person(s). You’ll need to ask the product owner/manager to email our support team and request that we invite you to join.

Q3: What if it’s urgent and a public holiday?

If your request is urgent, you can call or text your account manager directly on their mobile. See their email signature for mobile details.

Holiday Support

• Standard Support: Available via the Jira Support Portal 24/7 for ticket logging
• Urgent Issues: Phone or SMS your account manager during public holidays
• Office Closure: Our main office will be closed on Friday 19 December 2025, reopening Monday 5 January 2026.

Thank you for partnering with us, we look forward to supporting you in 2026.

Written by Jacqueline Button

Product update

Seamless Software: Our New Deployment Process

With the goal of offering seamless software, we have upgraded the process of how we deliver and manage your cloud-hosted solutions, making our service faster, more reliable, and more secure. We’ve adopted a modern approach called CI/CD – Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery.

What does CI/CD mean?

It’s something like a streamlined, automated assembly line for software solutions.

1. Continuous Integration (CI): Every new piece of code our developers write is immediately integrated and tested. All changes are pushed and with the use of AppVeyor, a software deployment automation tool, the updates can be tested in our test environments. This proactive approach ensures potential problems are caught and fixed before they are implemented in Production.
2. Continuous Delivery (CD): Once changes pass all testing, they are immediately prepared and ready to be deployed to your cloud solution. This means updates, new features, and security enhancements can be delivered rapidly and frequently.

This process is available for Cloud Managed Environments for X-Info Connect and X-Info WebConnect v7.0, X-Info Plans Management and X-Info Maps v6.3.

Written by Kirsty Beer

Security wrap-up for 2025

As we wrap up the year, one thing stands out and that’s nothing in our sector sits still anymore. Not the threats or regulations, and not the expectations on anyone managing critical infrastructure in Australia.

This year has again been about keeping pace with that reality and making sure our security environment can move with it, not lag and hope for the best. A lot of work has gone into tightening our core frameworks.

ISO 27001

We’ve continued moving toward ISO 27001 compliance building habits and discipline into everyday decisions. It’s a slow burn, but the work sticks, and we are almost at the finish line.

Essential Eight

We’ve aligned more closely with the Essential Eight, lifting our maturity and tightening the practical measures that protect us from the issues we’re all talking about across the sector.

SOCI Act

The SOCI Act keeps evolving, and we’ve been investing the time to ensure our reporting and assurance processes line up cleanly with what’s required now, and what’s likely to come next.

None of these pathways are “set and forget.” They require constant adjustment, and that’s the mindset we have across the business.  If this year has confirmed anything, it’s that static security doesn’t work. The threat environment doesn’t pause because the documentation looks good.

We’ve taken a more fluid approach with reviewing, adjusting, and pivoting as new information comes in. That includes new controls, new ways of monitoring, learning from incidents around the world, and helping our clients stay ahead of what the regulators expect rather than scrambling after the fact. It’s made our work faster, more responsive, and more realistic to the environment we’re all operating in.

One of the real positives this year has been how early clients are bringing us into conversations. It has allowed us to provide the answers to all those security questionnaires which make our clients comfortable so that we are well positioned to partner with them moving forward.

Looking Ahead there’s no sign that the pressure on our sector will ease. Regulations will keep shifting. Threats will keep evolving. Technology will keep changing faster than anyone would like. Our intention for 2026 is simply to stay ahead of it, stay practical, and keep building systems that are solid enough to rely on but flexible enough to adapt when they need to.  Supported by our business partners Fortian and ISGQ, we’ll continue to strengthen our frameworks, improving our reporting and assurance monitoring, and expanding the tools that help us and our clients.

Written by Jacqueline Button

BYDA Utility Safety Conference

In living our purpose of “connecting people with information” Mipela GeoSolutions are proud to support and sponsor the upcoming 2026 BYDA Utility Safety Conference and our commitment to safety, innovation and reform in Industry. The daily operation and protection of Australia’s critical network infrastructure is complex but when you unify People, Place, Portfolio and connect your data, you connect the dots. Looking forward to the ideas, innovation and impact of having the best people from utilities, construction and safety in Melbourne, 4-5 March 2026.

Written by Karen Thompson

Staff update

Meet Sam – Our Newest Software Engineer

We’re excited to welcome Sam to the team, fresh from completing his studies at QUT with a Bachelor’s degree and a Graduate Certificate in IT.

Sam’s journey into the tech world began with a bold move—using a marketing strategy borrowed from his father, he reached out to tech companies across Brisbane, which led him to us. We liked him and he liked us and here we are. Now stepping into his first professional role, Sam is eager to apply his coding skills to the evolving demands of Connect 8.

Outside of work, Sam’s passion for problem-solving continues in the form of long-term strategy games—some of which he’s been playing for years! These games often involve complex mathematical optimisations, and Sam doesn’t shy away from writing his own code to maximise performance. With a fresh perspective and a Morpheus-like mindset for navigating tricky coding problems, Sam brings both creativity and determination to the team. Exciting for Mipela.

Introducing Lachlan – Application Support

Lachlan joins us with a rich background in IT support, having worked across desktop, server, and Linux environments, and even managed internal IT and cybersecurity for a software development firm. His journey has been driven by a lifelong curiosity about computers and a knack for solving complex problems.

Lachlan felt Mipela was the perfect place to dive into Application Support—a space where he can apply his technical skills and explore the exciting potential of building systems that clients use every day.

Outside of work, Lachlan is a seasoned tennis player with two MVP titles and a shelf full of tournament trophies. He brings the same competitive spirit and strategic thinking to his professional life. Inspired by Socrates from Way of the Peaceful Warrior, Lachlan values perspective and clarity. Although being competitive brings more fun to the office – watch out Kirsty.

Matt’s Back (aka Frysie) –  Senior Solutions Specialist

Matt brings over 25 years of experience in spatial data and location intelligence, having a degree in Information Technology and having worked across software engineering, data transformation, project management, and team leadership.

Matt has a solid foundation in IT and a passion for helping organisations make smarter decisions through data, previously with Mipela, Matt has returned to make a meaningful impact!

Matt’s mentor of choice would be Professor Farnsworth from Futurama.  He said his can-do attitude, experimentation and unwavering belief failure should be seen as a learning opportunity and not having the opinions of others impact what he sets out to achieve.

Outside of work, Matt is into trail running, regularly competing in events that test both endurance and determination.

Written by Jacqueline Button

Christmas trading hours