Microsoft

Microsoft Australia to subsidise partners’ gender diversity
Microsoft is offering its partners a hefty discount on leadership programs for women in a bid to improve diversity in the local tech sector. Microsoft Australia has partnered with Women Rising, a career and leadership coaching program for women, to offer the course to internal employees and those of its

Catholic schools use big data to predict student performance
The Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle is halfway through a three year build of an advanced analytics and data science platform, through a partnership with Microsoft. The 173 year old diocese is starting with insights on its near 20,000 students across 59 schools, with hopes of using data to accelerate education

CSIRO takes aim at Australia’s plastic waste with machine learning
Australia’s top scientists are using machine learning and camera sensor technologies to automatically identify items of rubbish in rivers, as part of an ongoing project to reduce the 67 million tonnes of waste Australia produces each year. By understanding where and when plastic waste enters rivers, the CSIRO hopes to

Microsoft profits up 30 per cent in last quarter
Microsoft revenue jumped 12 per cent last quarter, buoyed by software, gaming and cloud services. Search and advertising revenue continues to fall for Microsoft, however, as it too struggles with a weaker media market. Overall the tech giant posted record profits of US$13.9 billion in the three months ended September

Imagine Room to build Australia’s first Microsoft volumetric video and 3D capture studio
Immersive media company Imagine Room has signed an exclusive agreement with Microsoft to build and operate Australia’s first Mixed Reality Capture Studio to drive the next generation of content production. The state-of-the-art studio uses 106 cameras to create holographic and 3D-video performance assets and create immersive and interactive experiences for

Regional Australia Bank taps Microsoft for first Open Banking tilt
Regional Australia Bank is using Microsoft’s Azure cloud to automate and streamline its loan applications under Open Banking, and plans to also share its customer data with third party fintechs by next year. The customer owned bank became the first Accredited Data Recipient of Australia’s Consumer Data Right in March,

Business sees public cloud as a great enabler but struggles to extract maximum value
Enterprises overwhelmingly see value in public cloud and more than three in four are using it in some capacity. But relatively few of them have expanded cloud initiatives across the business due to fears of security, compliance and “vendor lock-in”. That’s according to a new study by technology consultancy Contino

Microsoft says working from home its new ‘standard’ for most employees after COVID
Some Microsoft staff will be permitted to routinely work from home from now on, the software giant announced over the weekend, showing more enduring change from the the pandemic. Some Microsoft employees in Australia have been returning to local offices over the last two months but working from home remains

Tech giants abusing their ‘monopoly power’, must be broken up, say US lawmakers
Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google have grown into “the kinds of monopolies we last saw in the era of oil barons and railroad tycoons,” abusing their dominant positions by setting pricing and rules for digital services, according to US lawmakers. The US House Judiciary Committee this week released a landmark

Telstra and Microsoft extend partnership on digital tech and sustainability
Telstra and Microsoft have recommitted to their long running partnership on cloud computing, network connectivity and sustainability. The announcement, made late last week, means the two companies will work closely on 5G, edge computing and IoT. Microsoft’s Azure will also be the telcos cloud public cloud of choice and be