Public sector challenges to bring out best in Qld small business

Four Queensland small businesses are to share in $100,000 as part of a major Palaszczuk Government innovation program to develop clever solutions to IT challenges in the public sector.

Minister for Innovation, Science and the Digital Economy and Minister for Small Business Leeanne Enoch said as part of the Advance Queensland Testing Within Government (TWiG) program the four companies would work with the Department of Science, Information Technology and Innovation (DSITI) to develop and test ICT solutions to business problems identified by the public sector agency.

Ms Enoch said Brisbane City based Axalon, Greenslopes based Liquid State, West End based Vuid and a joint venture between MacroGIS and FlowBiz, based at Woody Point and Scarborough, would each receive $25,000.

“The TWiG program is designed to accelerate SME and startup businesses in Queensland, providing them with valuable experience of delivering products and services to large enterprises,” Ms Enoch said.

“It is about changing the way State Government agencies approach procurement and providing greater access for SMEs to access opportunities to supply services. She said the TWiG program was one of a number initiatives as part of the $405 million Advance Queensland initiative the Government had co-designed with industry to encourage collaboration and speed up the development of innovation within existing business in Queensland.

“Supporting our vibrant ICT sector and talented small businesses is vital to creating the digital jobs of the future,” Ms Enoch said.

“The TWiG program will help accelerate the growth and capability of Queensland’s small enterprise and provide cutting-edge solutions to business problems.

“For government, there are big benefits in having specialist companies come up with solutions to challenges the department has otherwise been able to address.

“Ultimately, this approach will generate improvements in business efficiency as well as improving the department’s service to the Queensland public.”

The four successful businesses will work with DSITI to develop an innovative solution to improve how style guides are used to generate documents, a modern way of publishing and accessing environmental data, a more effective solution to managing access to ICT systems, and an innovative approach to crowdsourcing mobile coverage information.

Tracey Kay, Co-Founder at Axalon, said TWiG was a fantastic Advance Queensland initiative.

“It’s a real shot in the arm to the local start-up community while helping government solve challenges using innovative technology. We’re excited about the opportunity to test Ark, our sensor data platform, with DSITI,” Ms Kay said.

"TWiG will help us solve two challenges we've found in testing our platform: getting access to large real-time data sets and working directly with customers to refine the product."

Liquid State Director Philip Andrews said TWiG highlighted the Queensland Government’s commitment to innovation and the local tech landscape.

“It will allow us to showcase how our web-based writing and editing solution Carbon Editor could improve government communications across the state, as well as helping us as a business to improve Carbon Editor based on the needs of government agencies,” Mr Andrews said.

Nathan Aherne, Co-Founder at Vuid, said Vuid would use the 12 week program to customise their product Rulerr to solve the complex and intricate permission management needs of a Queensland government department.

Managing Director at MacroGIS Victor Nicholls said MacroGIS and FlowBiz would look to solve the crowdsourcing and visualisation of mobile phone data.

“We're looking forward to the 12-weeks of collaboration, developing our solutions and showcasing our capability and products,” Mr Nicholls said.

Further information at: https://advance.qld.gov.au/twig

Media contact: Daniel Lato 0438 830 201