Here are a few I have come across the last week or so. Note: Each link is followed by a title and a few paragraphs. For the full article click on the link above title of the article. Note also that full access to some links may require site registration or subscription payment.
General Comment
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It seems that electronic prescriptions and the NBN phasing out the extra data it provided now that the COVID demand has settled get about equal billing
Sadly a couple of articles and digital discrimination and the digital divide seem to get less reportage!
Quite a lively week all in all!
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Medical revolution in Sydney with e-script rollout
8:00pm Oct 20, 2020
Electronic prescriptions being rolled out across Sydney
Sydney pharmacists are embarking on the biggest change in decades to the way they work, with electronic prescriptions being rolled out across the city.
Patients now have the choice to get an electronic prescription, or e-script, sent straight to their phone via SMS or email, rather than a paper prescription, when they visit their doctor or have a telehealth consultation.
The SMS or email contains a QR code, which can be scanned at any pharmacy to unlock a secure, encrypted prescription.
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Australian government to expand electronic prescriptions to metro Sydney
As part of plans to roll out the solution in stages nationwide.
By Aimee Chanthadavong | October 20, 2020 -- 23:31 GMT (10:31 AEDT) | Topic: Innovation
The Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) has announced residents of metropolitan Sydney will gain access to electronic prescriptions this month as part of plans to expand the rollout of the solution.
Expanding the solution would see doctors send a unique QR code token via SMS or email to patients in place of a paper prescription. The QR code token could then be shared with a pharmacist who would scan it to view the prescription and dispense medicine.
Electronic prescriptions have been in use across Victoria since September.
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https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/professional/nsw-to-follow-victoria-in-rollout-of-eprescribing
NSW to follow Victoria in rollout of ePrescribing
The announcement gives software providers the greenlight to ensure general practices and pharmacies in Sydney are ready for the change.
21 Oct 2020
After software delays with some pharmacies, Victoria rolled out electronic
prescribing (ePrescribing) in September to fast-track better access for
patients requiring prescriptions during the COVID lockdown.
Now, NSW is set to
follow, with residents across greater Sydney having access to electronic prescriptions,
including communities from Hornsby shire in the north to the city of
Campbelltown in the south, and the city of Penrith in the west.
A staged expansion across Australia is expected through collaboration with the
Department of Health, Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA), the Pharmacy
Guild and representatives of the RACGP.
More than 13,000 healthcare providers have already attended online
ADHA-facilitated training and education sessions to prepare for the
ePrescribing rollout.
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Wednesday, 21 October 2020 18:53
Electronic prescriptions replace paper prescriptions for Sydney residents
Sydney residents now have access to electronic prescriptions with the rollout of prescription software by the national digital health services and systems provider Digital Health Agency.
Access to the electronic prescriptions by Sydney’s five million residents includes communities from Hornsby Shire in the north, to the city of Campbelltown in the south and the city of Penrith in the west, and follows the roll-out across all of Victoria in September.
If a patient wants an electronic prescription from their doctor, rather than a paper prescription, the doctor selects this option in their software when creating the prescription and the patient will immediately receive an SMS or email, which is then sent by the patient, or taken to their preferred pharmacy.
The SMS or email contains a QR code ‘token’ that unlocks the electronic prescription from a secure, encrypted electronic prescription delivery service. Once scanned, the token allows the pharmacist to view the prescription and dispense the medicine.
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https://rpassistants.com.au/news/escrips-roll-out-in-sydney/
E-scripts roll out in Sydney
October 22, 2020
The modus operandi in pharmacy’s is changing, with Sydney pharmacists facing the roll out of electronic prescriptions throughout the city according to the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA).
This follows on the heels of e-prescriptions being rolled out across all of Victoria in September.
Patients can decide whether they’d like an e-script sent straight to their phone via SMS or email or paper prescription.
Their GP then selects this option in their software when creating the prescription, and the patient will immediately receive an SMS or email.
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Electronic prescriptions roll out expands across Metropolitan Sydney
21 October, 2020: Sydney’s five million residents will soon have access to electronic prescriptions, including communities from Hornsby shire in the north, to the city of Campbelltown in the south and the city of Penrith in the west. This follows the roll out across all of Victoria in September.
If a patient wants an electronic prescription from their doctor, rather than a paper prescription, the doctor selects this option in their software when creating the prescription and the patient will immediately receive an SMS or email.
The patient then sends or takes this to their preferred pharmacy.
The SMS or email contains a QR code ‘token’ that unlocks the electronic prescription from a secure, encrypted electronic prescription delivery service. Once scanned, the token allows the pharmacist to view the prescription and dispense the medicine.
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https://www.healthcareit.com.au/article/eprescriptions-soon-be-available-metropolitan-sydney
E-prescriptions soon to be available in Metropolitan Sydney
Dean Koh | 21 Oct 2020
Following the roll out of electronic prescriptions (e-prescriptions) across all of Victoria in September, the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) has announced that Sydney’s five million residents will soon have access to e-prescriptions. This includes communities from Hornsby shire in the north, to the city of Campbelltown in the south and the city of Penrith in the west. After the roll out in Victoria and Sydney, there will be a staged expansion of e-prescriptions across the rest of the country.
HOW IT WORKS
If a patient wants an e-prescription from their doctor, rather than a paper prescription, the doctor selects this option in their software when creating the prescription and the patient will immediately receive an SMS or email.
The patient then sends or takes this to their preferred pharmacy.
The SMS or email contains a QR code ‘token’ that unlocks the electronic prescription from a secure, encrypted e-prescription delivery service. Once scanned, the token allows the pharmacist to view the prescription and dispense the medicine.
HOW IT WAS DONE
To prepare for e-prescriptions, more than 13,000 healthcare providers have attended online training and education sessions run by the Agency. Further support and advice has been provided by clinical peak bodies, including the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM), the Pharmacy Guild of Australia (PGA) and the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA). Software providers have also provided masterclasses to their health professional customers.
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http://medicalrepublic.com.au/first-fully-free-for-gps-telehealth-app-launches/35870
19 October 2020
First fully free-for-GPs telehealth app launches
Client Brain General practice Know Cents SPONSORED Telehealth
Sponsored
After
some years in development, a new telehealth application is beta
launching its new Welio platform, which will be the first in Australia to offer
purpose-built workflow functionality to GPs for telehealth as a web
application, entirely for free.
Most existing purpose-built applications work on subscription models for practice or transactional pricing. While GPs can access Coviu, the most well established purpose-built application to date, through HealthDirect for free until next March, that offer will cease as the COVID-19 situation settles down.
Welio is the first vendor to come out with a model is entirely cost free (excepting financial gateway costs) to a GP and practice, other than the downloading, setup and training, which its founders say is deliberately GP-focused and simple.
The app is designed to be GP practice outwards primarily, so that it works within the workflow of a normal practice’s reception and appointments setup.
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https://www.hinz.org.nz/news/news.asp?id=531115
Health AI start-up raises $1.1m
Monday, 19 October 2020
eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
HeartLab,
which helps doctors diagnose and treat heart disease through artificial
intelligence, has raised $1.1 million in a funding round to help bring its technology
to the New Zealand market and expand its team.
The MedTech start-up was founded less than two years ago at the Auckland
Bioengineering Institute by Will Hewitt, while he was an 18 year old first year
applied mathematics student at the University of Auckland, and cardiologist
Patrick Gladding, an expert in cardiac imaging who has previously founded a
company specialising in molecular diagnostics.
The company is building AI tools to improve the way doctors diagnose and treat cardiovascular disease by enabling doctors to extract significantly more information from an echocardiogram, the ultrasound test used to examine a patient’s heart structure and function.
It also automates the repetitive and time-intensive tasks
associated with taking measurements from these tests, speeding up the time
needed by doctors to interpret the results, which is currently around 20
minutes for each test.
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http://medicalrepublic.com.au/racgp-ceo-speaks-out-on-exam-failure/36026
21 October 2020
RACGP CEO speaks out on exam failure
Posted by Francine Crimmins
The new RACGP CEO, Dr Matthew Miles, says the college is deeply regretful over the cancellation of the Key Feature Problem and Applied Knowledge Test and is working hard to rectify the recent crisis.
But the college is yet to confirm the resit dates for both the KFP and AKT, despite numerous calls from registrars to rectify this as soon as possible.
Dr Miles told TMR he understood that waiting for news on the rescheduled KFP and AKT exams “must be very frustrating for candidates after what they have already experienced”.
“We will be communicating the new dates and format next week,” he said.
“Our priority is to ensure candidates can progress toward fellowship following the completion of safe and reliable exams.”
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http://medicalrepublic.com.au/racgp-explains-letter-that-left-registrars-livid/36140
23 October 2020
RACGP explains letter that left registrars livid
The mistaken leak of an email from RACGP CEO, Dr Matthew Miles, reminding trainees to pay their college membership fees, has angered some Queensland registrars and left others confused.
Registrars received an email on Thursday evening from a Queensland Regional Training Organisation that had a copied statement from Dr Miles in its contents.
Dr Miles message in the email said that the RACGP would be sending out final notifications in the coming days to registrars who were not meeting their membership requirements.
It went on to say that the college would give registrars until 13 November to pay any outstanding membership fees or lose their registration in the Australian General Practice Training program.
For registrars, paying the annual $465 membership fee to the RACGP is one of many requirements for remaining in AGPT.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/practice/app-review-worry-tree-streamlined-cbt
App Review: Worry Tree - streamlined CBT
A simple and natural approach to developing responses to life's worries
22nd October 2020
An app that helps people address their worries seems particularly relevant during a global pandemic.
Worry Tree, released last year, is a simple app offering streamlined cognitive behavioural therapy, allowing users to identify specific 'worries' in their life, then encouraging them to develop a response to them.
It has been endorsed by the National Health Service in the UK.
However, it’s available worldwide for free, aside from some non-vital extra functions such as allowing phone notifications.
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https://itwire.com/technology-regulation/accc-chief-says-mandatory-media-code-going-to-plan.html
Wednesday, 21 October 2020 15:43
ACCC chief says mandatory media code going to plan
The calendar for progressing the mandatory media code into legislation has been delayed a bit, ACCC chairman Rod Sims admits, adding that he still expected to see the law presented to Parliament in time for it to be in place before the end of the year.
He attributed the delay to the presentation of the national budget coming up this month and said it had nothing to do with the objections to the code put up by Google or Facebook.
Sims made the comments in response to a question following a talk he gave on "Tackling market power in the COVID-19 era and beyond" at the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday.
In April, the Federal Government told the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to develop a draft mandatory media code of conduct before the end of July to make digital companies pay for the use of news from local publications.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/toll-group-still-mopping-up-after-ransomware-attacks-555046
Toll Group still mopping up after ransomware attacks
By Ry Crozier on Oct 23, 2020 7:00AM
Lessons provide some post-mortem hints.
Toll Group is still mopping up more than nine months after an encounter with ransomware in late January, with the security executive in charge of recovery describing the “very, very long tail from a cyber incident” that victims get caught in.
Global head of data, IT security and governance Diana Peh said 2020 “has been a very forgettable year”, though she and Toll had taken plenty away from two separate ransomware infections experienced months apart.
The logistics giant was first hit by Mailto ransomware at the end of January, which took six weeks to recover from.
It then suffered a second attack in early May that used the Nefilim malware and was similarly devastating.
“265 days ago, and one day before I actually started my new role in IT security, I faced into a large scale ransomware attack, which impacted my company, which is a very global organisation,” Melbourne-based Peh told Privasec’s Privacon 2020 summit yesterday.
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http://distribution.medianet.com.au/Download/Document?j=939571&s=2&k=8307918
21 October 2020
Experiences of discrimination drive distrust in digital health
Communities affected by blood-borne viruses and STIs are more
likely to opt out of digital health services, says a new national study.
People who have experienced stigma and discrimination in health care settings are more likely to distrust digital health services, a new UNSW study says.
The study, Understanding trust in digital health among communities affected by BBVs and STIs in Australia, is the first national survey into perspectives on the digital health of populations affected by blood-borne viruses (BBVs) and sexually transmissible infections (STIs).
The report, from UNSW’s Centre for Social Research in Health (CSRH), surveyed more than 2000 people across Australia from April – June 2020, including 600 people classified as members of one or more populations affected by BBVs and STIs.
People with HIV, trans and gender diverse people, sex workers, and gay and bisexual men reported the lowest levels of trust in digital health care services, such as My Health Record, and the most frequent experiences of stigma.
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Experiences of discrimination drive distrust in digital health
21 Oct 2020
Ben Knight
Communities affected by blood-borne viruses and STIs are more likely to opt out of digital health services, says a new national study.
Populations affected by BBVs and STIs reported the lowest levels of trust in digital health care services, such as My Health Record, and the most frequent experiences of stigma. Photo: Shutterstock.
People who have experienced stigma and discrimination in health care settings are more likely to distrust digital health services, a new UNSW study says.
The study, Understanding trust in digital health among communities affected by BBVs and STIs in Australia, is the first national survey into perspectives on the digital health of populations affected by blood-borne viruses (BBVs) and sexually transmissible infections (STIs).
The report, from UNSW’s Centre for Social Research in Health (CSRH), surveyed more than 2000 people across Australia from April – June 2020, including 600 people classified as members of one or more populations affected by BBVs and STIs.
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A little known feature of your iPhone is about to completely change how your doctor talks to you
Apple's Health Records feature could lay the foundations for big changes to how doctors and their patients communicate.
By Jo Best | October 21, 2020 -- 09:21 GMT (20:21 AEDT) | Topic: Digital Health and Wellness
Two NHS trusts have become the first in the UK to allow patients to access their hospital medical records on their iPhones, though Apple's Health app. While it might seem like a small change, it could be the start of major changes to how we talk to our doctors – and how they talk to us.
Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUH) started offering patients access to their data via the feature earlier this month. Using the Health Records feature within Apple's Health app, patients in the two trusts will be able to view their information including lab results, vitals, allergies, and medications.
For the hospitals, it's a chance to help encourage patients to engage better with their healthcare by getting hold of their data.
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https://www.zdnet.com/article/labor-latches-onto-au57-billion-figure-as-nbn-cost/
Labor latches onto AU$57 billion figure as NBN cost
Cost of network financing plus new debt facility thrown together creates AU$57 billion.
By Chris Duckett | October 21, 2020 -- 04:29 GMT (15:29 AEDT) | Topic: Networking
The Australian Labor Party has latched onto admissions from representatives of the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications that AU$51 billion plus AU$6 billion does indeed equal AU$57 billion.
As mentioned in NBN's latest corporate plan released last month, the initial rollout of the NBN has a cost of AU$51 billion, and when topped up with AU$6 billion in bank credit announced in May, the total is AU$57 billion.
Of the bank credit, AU$4.5 billion has been allocated to upgrading the fibre-to-the node network, and AU$1.5 billion has been set aside to simplify NBN's IT setup, provide CVC boosts and financial assistance during the pandemic, provide extra regional capacity, and connect 300,000 new premises.
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NBN details COVID-19 CVC boost tapering across December and January 2021
Free 40% boost in capacity to retailers set to dialled down over two months.
By Chris Duckett | October 21, 2020 -- 20:30 GMT (07:30 AEDT) | Topic: Networking
After failing to kill off its 40% capacity boost to retailers in September, NBN has unveiled a new plan to dial the boost down over two months.
Using a new baseline that is calculated as the difference between a retailer's capacity usage at the beginning of the September billing period compared to that in February, the company responsible for the National Broadband Network (NBN) will offer retailers 75% of that difference in December, and 50% in January next year.
"NBN Co's tapering of COVID-19 CVC Credit offer to internet retailers recognises that peak data demand is returning to normal forecast levels of growth," the company said.
Meanwhile, the company said it would keep its 45GB boost for satellite users until the end of March 2021.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/tpg-aussie-broadband-seek-longer-term-price-change-from-nbn-co-555069
TPG, Aussie Broadband seek longer-term price change from NBN Co
By Ry Crozier on Oct 23, 2020 12:17PM
Retailers lukewarm at latest round of discounts and changes.
TPG and Aussie Broadband want NBN Co to take a longer-term view on plan pricing and fees after the network operator floated yet another round of short-term discounts as well as the resurrection of excess bandwidth charges this week.
NBN Co said this week that it would resume excess fees for connectivity virtual circuit (CVC) consumption at the end of this year, ending a pandemic-related bonus that gave retail service providers (RSPs) up to 40 percent extra above February levels for free.
To partially compensate, it said it would offer two months of transitional credits and bring forward planned CVC increases of 500Kbps on most plans by a few months.
However, the resumption of charges comes at a time when more RSPs than ever want NBN Co to drop CVC fees altogether in favour of a single access charge.
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NBN Co proposes app bandwidth limits when its wireless network is busy
By Ry Crozier on Oct 23, 2020 1:19PM
Says 'heavy users' are routinely in breach of fair use.
NBN Co is shopping a proposal to limit the bandwidth consumption of certain applications - including P2P, software and game patches and releases, VPN traffic and ultra-high definition video - in busy times on its fixed wireless network.
The company unveiled the proposal today in its product development forum (PDF), where it workshops changes with retail service providers.
Technical changes to the fixed wireless network mean that it is now a ‘best effort’ service, capable of up to 75Mbps downlink speeds, with uplink speeds pushing 20Mbps for some users.
With that, the usage profile of the network has changed, to the point where a small subset of ‘heavy’ users are routinely in breach of the fixed wireless fair use policy, by a significant amount.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-co-sets-a-low-bar-to-qualify-for-a-full-fibre-upgrade-555055
NBN Co sets a low bar to qualify for a full-fibre upgrade
By Ry Crozier on Oct 23, 2020 7:00AM
Also reveals the cost-per-premises it will incur.
NBN Co has set a low bar for fibre-to-the-node users to qualify for a last-mile full fibre upgrade, while also revealing the anticipated full cost-per-premises of an upgraded line.
The company provided significant clarity around the $2.9 billion upgrade to half of the FTTN footprint that it unveiled with its latest corporate plan last month.
Unlike in its enterprise business, where free fibre upgrades are conditional on usage and other contractual commitments, NBN Co indicated it would set a much lower bar to qualify residential users for the so-called “on demand fibre upgrade” scheme.
“To be clear there’s been some misunderstanding I saw in the media that we’re expecting everybody to buy gigabit services. We’re not,” Rue said.
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Thursday, 22 October 2020 10:42
NBN Co launches new campaign to incentivise Internet retailers
National Broadband Network provider NBN Co has launched a campaign featuring new incentives for Internet retailers to sell higher speed broadband plans to customers.
NBN Co says its ‘Focus on Fast’ campaign is designed to help Internet retailers encourage more customers to take-up higher speed plans that aim to deliver a better home Internet experience by offering additional data inclusions and wholesale pricing rebates on higher speed tiers and extra CVC capacity credits to retailers.
As part of the campaign, NBN Co says it is working to bring forward the release of additional CVC data inclusions on its 100/40 Mbps, NBN Home Fast, Home Superfast and Home Ultrafast bundle discounts so they are available from 1 December 2020 for those retailers who enter into the fourth version of NBN Co’s Wholesale Broadband Agreement (WBA4).
“As a sales and upgrade incentive, NBN Co also proposes to offer wholesale pricing rebates to Internet retailers from 1 February 2021, which will be applicable for up to six months,” the company said.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/broadband-tax-model-review-questions-cost-clawback-554993
Broadband tax model review questions cost clawback
By Ry Crozier on Oct 22, 2020 9:34AM
Levy would be as low as $2.94 - not $7.10 - if it covered only future losses.
NBN-like operators subject to the regional broadband levy will be mostly subsidising past losses incurred by NBN Co on its fixed wireless and satellite networks, with new advice estimating future losses to 2040 could be covered by a $2.94 charge.
The levy, which is colloquially known as the broadband tax, comes into effect next year and requires residential and business users of "NBN-equivalent" fixed line services to contribute $7.10 to NBN Co’s regional costs.
NBN users are already deemed to be paying for the regional portion of the rollout via an internal cross-subsidy.
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https://www.afr.com/chanticleer/nbn-doubles-down-on-complexity-20201021-p5674o
NBN doubles down on complexity
A new pricing structure for NBN Co's fastest broadband plans fails the test of simplicity, but could lure consumers into spending more in return for higher speeds.
Oct 22, 2020 – 12.00am
If you accept that NBN Co's job is to foster the development of Australia's digital economy, it is strange that the monopoly broadband provider goes out of its way to build complexity into its pricing structures.
Surely a simplified approach to wholesale pricing of different speed tiers would encourage retail service providers and consumers to graduate up the ladder of broadband speeds.
Increased use of higher speed and affordable broadband plans should help Australian households to enjoy the productivity and efficiency gains from online services.
Higher broadband connection speeds are also critical for small, medium and large businesses which are increasingly accessing large data flows and turning to digital products such as cloud computing.
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NBN slashes prices to coax users onto ultrafast plans
James Fernyhough Reporter
Oct 22, 2020 – 12.01am
NBN Co will offer massive limited-time discounts on its fastest internet plans in a bid to get customers onto its more expensive plans, and so boost its revenue.
The discounts, which knock between $2 and $24 a month off normal wholesale prices for six months, are the latest move in NBN Co's efforts to hit the ambitious revenue targets necessary for the $57 billion network to pay for itself.
This follows the announcement last month that it would spend $3.5 billion on upgrading the copper parts of its network to fibre, giving more households access to the much more lucrative higher-speed plans.
The latest gambit will rely on enough consumers being persuaded that 50 megabits per second download speeds are not fast enough, and on retailers co-operating by marketing the new plans in an effective way.
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Wednesday, 21 October 2020 14:24
Consumers, telcos to benefit from new NBN consumer experience rules: ACMA
By Peter Dinham
Australia’s telecommunications regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), has taken action to enhance NBN consumer experience rules to protect Australians during the final phase of the National Broadband Network migration.
The ACMA says the changes to enhance NBN consumer experiences will also make the rules clearer and more flexible for telco providers – without sacrificing important consumer safeguards.
The improvements, which follow a review by the ACMA, will benefit both consumers and telco providers, with the enhancements expanding the number of businesses protected by the rules.
Under the changes announced by the ACMA on Wednesday, from 14 December 2020, businesses with an estimated annual telco spend of up to $40,000 will now be covered, up from $20,000 previously.
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Wednesday, 21 October 2020 19:32
Union takes aim at NBN Co chief over ‘outrageous’ salary amid job axings
National Broadband Network operator NBN Co has come under fire from the CEPU Communications Union for the “outrageous” salary of network chief Stephen Rue, after his axing of hundreds of jobs in the middle of a pandemic and while “overseeing a shonky” NBN network rollout.
CEPU National Assistant Secretary James Perkins said, “it’s absolutely outrageous that NBN boss Stephen Rue is pocketing $3.1 million of taxpayer funds only to slash 800 jobs, and describing the salary as a “national disgrace”.
“It’s frankly unbelievable that Mr Rue can justify giving himself a $1.2 million bonus in the last financial year, only to then leave hundreds of Aussie workers without a job in the middle of a pandemic and a national unemployment crisis,” Perkins said.
“While other top business chief’s in Australia have taken pay cuts– Mr Rue somehow decided to give himself a $1.2 million bonus in the last financial year. It’s a national disgrace.”
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-co-to-restart-extra-bandwidth-charges-in-december-554972
NBN Co to restart extra bandwidth charges in December
By Ry Crozier on Oct 22, 2020 12:01AM
Lays out plan to cushion impact, but is it enough to stave off price hikes?
NBN Co will end its 40 percent bandwidth bonus at the end of November, saying peak data demand has returned to “normal forecast levels of growth”.
The company will provide a final cushion to retail service providers as they begin to levy connectivity virtual circuit ‘overage’ charges once more in the form of a “transition credit” for December and January.
Beyond that, it intends to bring forward some planned increases in the amount of bandwidth that comes bundled with 50Mbps services and above from May to February 2021.
It will also pay incentives that encourage retail service providers (RSPs) to push more users onto higher-end plans, logic it first employed last year when it suggested that having many high-speed users would be a net benefit for RSPs, since those plans came with more bandwidth.
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NBN boss Stephen Rue paid $3 million in 2020
By Rob Harris and Jennifer Duke
October 20, 2020 — 1.08pm
National Broadband Network boss Stephen Rue is now one of the nation's highest paid taxpayer-funded executive after earning more than $3 million in the past financial year, outstripping Australia Post chief Christine Holgate during the nation's first recession in three decades.
The publicly owned corporation's annual report reveals Mr Rue received a $1.2 million bonus in 2020, bringing his annual salary to $3.1 million, while NBN Co's top executive team collectively received $11.4 million. All but one received a seven-figure total pay packet.
Overall the management team received $2.9 million in personal bonuses for the last financial year compared to $2.1 million in 2019.
During the same period, executives at fellow government business enterprise, Australia Post, had bonuses slashed in an effort to better meet community expectations during a recession that left one million people unemployed at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-co-expands-itom-transformation-with-event-management-554719
NBN Co expands ITOM transformation with event management
By Ry Crozier on Oct 20, 2020 7:02AM
Turns on additional capabilities in ServiceNow.
NBN Co is expanding its use of ServiceNow for IT operations management, using newer capabilities in the platform to better understand how events such as a server issue will impact IT service delivery.
iTnews revealed NBN Co’s adoption of ServiceNow in July last year as the network operator’s new IT service management platform, replacing a BMC Remedy environment.
ITOM and major incident management practice manager James Tomlinson told ServiceNow’s Now at Work A/NZ summit that NBN Co had expanded both existing and newer uses of ServiceNow.
Its existing implementation covered both discovery of changes made to on-premises and cloud-based infrastructure, and the mapping of relationships between applications, IT components, and cloud services.
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Enjoy!
David.
