Congratulations to Team SOAK, the winners of the Australian leg of the Imagine Cup. The Imagine Cup is a competition for students that seeks to find the best technology innovators around the globe in a variety of different areas; Readify sponsored the software development category by offering internships and mentoring support to the top teams and is very pleased to see that Team SOAK has won here in Australia and is now on track to make an impressive showing at the world finals in Paris next month.

Imagine Cup always has a theme to inspire the students, and this year’s theme was all about a sustainable environment. “All four finalists had amazing proposals on how we can better utilise and manage our environment, and it’s fantastic to think we have this calibre of people just now entering the industry,” said Andrew Parsons, Education Evangelist for Readify, “With the obvious concerns around the nation about diminishing water supplies, it was gratifying to see two of the top four teams coming forward with creative and achievable concepts for managing this vital liquid resource.”

Team SOAK’s aim was to improve the experience by farmers in managing their water usage, incorporating multiple technologies including software like Virtual Earth and hardware such as ground, water, temperature and GPS sensors, to create a sophisticated, automatic guidance system to provide water to the areas of their farm that need it, and saving it, quite literally, for a rainy day in others.

Team SOAK has been interviewed by the media already and APC magazine’s editor, Tony Sarno has written up some great coverage on the winning team and how the SOAK system works. Check it out at http://apcmag.com/imagine_cups_surprise_winners_a_boon_for_farmers.htm.

Over the next few weeks, Readify will be working with Team SOAK to provide them advice and mentoring as they prepare for their showing at the world finals in France. Already, the team has made several tweaks to their system based on feedback they received from the judging panel and we’re sure that they’re going to wow the crowds in Paris.

Go Team SOAK!

 

read more ...
Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Hot news! Readify has entered the Western Australian IT services market this month, with the appointment of Andy Lamb, previously the National IT Manager, to the role of WA State Manager. The entire Readify Board and Management team is very excited about this opportunity to build a truly national company, and opening up a presence in Perth is in line with the company’s rapid growth strategy.

“This just builds on our sustained growth over the past few years, “ Lamb said. “With Readify hitting the BRW Fast 100 two years running and increasing in size and revenue this year as well, opening up operations in Perth means we can begin to properly service the IT companies there with quality .NET consulting and training.”

Andy has spent the last 18 years in the IT industry working in a variety of roles and holds a Masters of Entrepreneurship and Innovation from Swinburne University. He grew up in Perth so is looking forward to getting back to WA spend more time with family.

To build on the company’s ethos of Discover, Master, Influence, Readify will support the WA .NET user community as a matter of priority, just as it does today on the Australian eastern coast. In addition, Readify already has plans underway to bring its hugely successful RDN presentation series to Perth. Keep an eye on www.readify.net for more news on this or other WA-based activities.

If you have any enquiries for an opportunity in Western Australia, please contact Andy on +61 416 299 132 or on email at andy.lamb@readify.net.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Hot on the heels of the announcement that Readify has opened up operations in Perth comes the cool news that the Perth State Manager, Andy Lamb, has entered the blogosphere to keep you up to date with what he’s up to over in WA.

Andy’s blog has been added to the aggregated feed at www.readify.net/readify+bloggers.aspx and can be reached directly at http://whynotwa.wordpress.com. If you’re interested in Western Australia, make sure you check it out.

read more ...
Wednesday, April 02, 2008

STOP PRESS (10/3/2008): ReadiMIX Sydney Last week Microsoft revealed a number of new technologies and improvements in a variety of web development tools and applications at Mix08. Because of this and some rather extenuating circumstances with our scheduled DotNetNuke speaker, we have decided to defer the DNN sessions in Sydney in favour of some of the "cool new stuff".
Make sure you don't miss out on these exclusive sessions about technological advances that have just been announced! See below for more information.

Session 1: ASP.NET MVC R2, presented by Tatham Oddie ASP.NET MVC
What is this whole MVC thing anyway? Hot on the heels of MIX08 and last week's release of ASP.NET MVC Preview 2, Tatham Oddie will demonstrate how to use the model-view-controller (MVC) pattern to take advantage of your favourite .NET Framework language for writing business logic in a way that is de-couple from the views of the data. We'll discuss the advantages to MVC on the web, the other frameworks that are available, and build an app with it - all in an hour.

Session 2 (only presented at the Sydney PM session): IE8 and Silverlight Debugging
A slew of exciting new features in Internet Explorer 8 were revealed last week at MIX08, including Web Slices and Activities. Come and hear Mitch Denny show you how to implement them into your own websites and workflows. Mitch will also present a quick introduction to debugging Silverlight in .NET - not to be missed! read more ...
Monday, March 10, 2008

Readify would like to congratulate Grahame Leonard, the company’s own Chairman, for being recognised for community service on the Australia Day 2008 Honour Roll. Grahame was awarded the Member of the Order of Australia for service to the community as an executive member of a range of peak Jewish organisations.

The whole team at Readify applauds Grahame’s efforts in serving the community and is thankful that his dedication and service also extend to his advice and leadership on the Readify board of directors.

For more information on the Australia Day honours, head over to the official website at http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/, or view Grahame’s award in detail here: http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/honours/honour_roll/search.cfm?aus_award_id=1137495&search_type=advanced&showInd=true

read more ...
Wednesday, January 30, 2008

CodeCampOz is on its way again to Wagga Wagga! This year, CodeCampOz will be held on the weekend of April 26-27, 2008. CodeCampOz is the premier developer community event in Australia, being held in wide regard nationwide for the quality of the presentations coupled with the openness and spirit exhibited by all who attend.

CodeCampOz is organised by Mitch Denny (one of Readify’s own Principal Consultants) and Dr Greg Low, and Readify is proud to once again be preparing for an en masse visit by its consulting staff and a few additions. More details about speakers and events will be coming soon to both the Readify website and the official CodeCampOz site (click the Read More link below), along with tidbits along the way over at Mitch’s blog (http://notgartner.wordpress.com – if you think you’ve got a topic you’d like to present on, Mitch even has details on how to go about it).

read more ...
Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Microsoft Australia has launched the local Imagine Cup website to further promote the prestigious event.

As previously reported, Readify is sponsoring the Australian leg of the Imagine Cup by giving the top three placed teams short term contracts in its internal Development Centre and is excited to see the new site showing students around the country how they can get involved in this fantastic event.

Head over to http://www.microsoft.com/australia/imaginecup/ for more information on the categories and other details.

read more ...
Friday, December 14, 2007

As seen and heard in the news, the NSW Breast Cancer Institute today launched www.seemyrisk.com.

This application is a world first in many ways. Firstly, from a medical perspective, it is the first tool that accurately calculates the risk of developing breast cancer based on whether the candidate has/has not or intends to take hormone replacement therapy.  Up until this point, clinicians have had to rely on anecdotal evidence for this kind of prediction. From a technology perspective it combines traditional Microsoft Office based technology with the recently released Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) from Microsoft, software that allows a more aesthetic and, ultimately, more usable piece of software.

The tool is a very significant one for the medical industry worldwide. As revealed by Tracey Fellows, Managing Director Microsoft Australia, in her presentation to the media, Readify were heavily involved in the development of this application with a number of the company's Senior Developers and Consultants, including WPF trailblazer Damian Edwards and previous Imagine Cup winner, Francois Beaussier, having big parts to play in both the backend and the user interface. As Australia's leading technical readiness experts, Readify was perfectly placed to partner with Microsoft in the development of the WPF application and the organisation is incredibly proud of being part of such an initiative. Fellows thanked Readify for their involvement a number of times during her speech.

Toni-Anne Collins, Microsoft Career Development for Readify, said, "As one of the few women who work at Readify, and being one that has been on the planet for some time, I would not only like to say, 'fabulous site and great job' but maybe more importantly, 'Thank you' to everyone who worked on this engagement."

For more information about this essential and groundbreaking application, head over to www.seemyrisk.com.

read more ...
Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Readify has been working hard with Microsoft to create a partnership that will both recognise and reward emerging talent in the Microsoft .NET development community. As a result of this collaboration, Readify is proud to announce its sponsorship of the Australian round of the Imagine Cup.

Imagine Cup is easily the top student technology competition in the world. Microsoft have been running it for the last five years and use it to encourage young people to apply their imagination, passion and creativity to technology innovations that can make a difference in the world. Last year alone more than 100,000 students from all over the globe entered the Imagine Cup competition. A great example of the kind of innovation that can come out of Imagine Cup is the winning entry from last year's Imagine Cup - an application that allows visually impaired people to program in C#.

Readify has always recognised the true talent that can come out of Imagine Cup, with two members of a previously victorious team currently on staff. "We couldn't imagine (pardon the pun) how talented Francois and Aymeric would turn out to be, but both of them have proven themselves over and over as having a huge amount of talent," said Andrew Parsons, Readify's Marketing Manager. "Definitely their experience in being part of Imagine Cup helped round out their strengths and minimised their weaknesses."

Readify is offering mentoring and advice for all students enrolled in Imagine Cup through its Readify Developer Network initiative, held in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra every two weeks. In addition, the top three placed teams from the Australian entrants in the Software Design will be offered a paid 2-3 month internship in the Readify Development Centre. The winning team will also have the opportunity to sit down with people who have been involved in Imagine Cup previously and glean valuable insight into how to approach the finals.

This gives the winning students the opportunity of working on the absolute cutting edge Microsoft development technology alongside world class developers with proven track records, building a variety of Windows and web applications. "We couldn't think of anything better for these students than to reward their top talent by offering them a position to work with us," Parsons said, "Readify has a huge mix of people, from a range of diverse cultures, backgrounds, and sets of experience, but the one common theme is that the consultants and developers are all top guns, something these students no doubt are as well."

Graeme Strange, CEO of Readify concurred, saying "We see the students who will come out on top of the Imagine Cup heap as being a perfect match for us and certainly worthy of teaming up with to help foster their passion for development and hopefully be able to mentor them along the way."

All of the staff at Readify wishes the students in Imagine Cup the best of luck and happy coding.

Readify has always proudly supported the developer community and in just the last few months the company has gone the extra mile in both partnering with Microsoft to support Imagine Cup and by launching the Readify Developer Network. These initiatives are just the latest in a long series of activities the company has either orchestrated or been involved with, and they certainly won't be the last.

For more on Imagine Cup, head over to the official website at www.imaginecup.com or Nicholas Ellery's blog blogs.msdn.com/ausic.
For more details on Readify Developer Network, take a look at www.readify.net/rdn. read more ...
Wednesday, November 14, 2007

In their personal time, Readify employees are often looking for ways to give back to the developer community. It's a passion we try to encourage as much as possible since it synchronises well with our own desire to be involved in the community as much as possible.

The news just in is that next week at the Adelaide Dot Net Users Group, there'll be not one, but two Readify people presenting on different topics.

First up is Darren Neimke, our Development Centre Manager, who will be talking all about AJAX and Visual Studio 2008.

Darren Neimke — Developing client-centric web applications with ASP.NET Ajax and VS2008

The imminent release of Visual Studio 2008 includes many new tools and features which make it easier to create differentiated web experiences. These include things such as a new CSS designer, new server controls, and baked-in support for ASP.NET Ajax.

Come along and join the discussion as Darren demonstrates how to use ASP.NET Ajax to build web applications that are truly client-centric.

If that wasn't enough, attendees at the user group will also get to hear, Paul Stovell, Senior Developer, present on LINQ and what it means for developers moving to Visual Studio 2008.

Paul Stovell — Introducing LINQ

With Visual Studio 2008, Microsoft will release a set of extensions to the .NET Framework known collectively as “LINQ”, or Language INtegrated Queries. LINQ gives developers the ability to query many data sources, including XML and SQL Server, all from within the strongly-typed comfort of C# or Visual Basic .NET. We expect LINQ to play a part in every .NET application of the future.

In this session, Paul Stovell will look at the changes coming to the C# and VB.NET languages to support LINQ, demonstrate some of the features of LINQ, and offer guidance on real-world LINQ usage.

If you're going to be in Adelaide next week, make sure you check in on ADNUG.

Date: Wednesday, 14th November, 2007
Time: 5.45pm
Location: Innovation Centre , Level 2, Santos House, King William Street, Adelaide read more ...
Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Readify is pleased to announce the latest member of its management team, Jeff Woolcock. Jeff is filling a new role of General Manager, Service Delivery that incorporates Readify's old Resource Management position and combines it with more broad strategic efforts designed to help Readify continue its massive growth and success in the IT industry.

"I think my experience in leading and managing change in large, geographically dispered and complex businesses will help Readify as we continue up the growth curve, " says Woolcock. "However, the real benefits will come from the creation of a motivated, aligned and cohesive senior leadership team. I think that the current management team and the Readify board have done an excellent job of building a talented leadership team that provides that foundation for some serious growth, and I am excited to be an integral part of that."

Jeff was previously the General Manager, National Operations for The Trading Post and his experience will prove to be invaluable for Readify as the company continues to increase in size and capability, providing a way of moving forward while preserving the culture that makes working for Readify so rewarding.

Welcome aboard, Jeff!
Monday, October 29, 2007

As part of the BRW Fast 100, Readify's National IT Manager, Andy Lamb was interviewed for MIS magazine. The article was all about how corporations manage their IT infrastructure in the context of simultaneously growing rapidly, with Lamb providing some deep insight from his experience not only at Readify but also spanning his 17 years in the industry.

Lamb focused on managing IT growth in a company that grows in size 50% year over year, saying, "...in a small, rapidly growing company where there's a massive can-do attitude, it's a lot easier. People just want to roll up their sleeves and get it done. It helps us out, and it helps the guys on the consulting side in the market show we can actually do what we're talking about."

For the complete article head over to www.misaustralia.com. read more ...
Monday, October 29, 2007

In this month's BRW magazine, it was revealed that, yet again, Readify has scored itself a placed in this BRW's Fast 100 list. This list reveals the top 100 companies in terms of financial growth and stability and Readify is proud to be recognised as such an organisation, particularly two years running.

Further bolstering the company's success, the list shows that Readify has moved up an impressive 13 spots in the list over the past twelve months, a feat that has everyone impressed.

"We've always been looking forward to the next challenge and our emphasis has always been for quality above all else. It is great to take a look back at how we've been doing and see it translate to rapid growth as well," Graeme Strange, CEO of Readify said. "Readify's fantastic continued growth is a direct reflection on the commitment shown by every single staff member and I am proud to be part of a very dynamic and progressive team."

More information can be found in the current issue of BRW or over at www.brw.com.au read more ...
Friday, October 26, 2007

Last week saw the kick off of the Readify Developer Network (RDN) to great success. In all, there were 139 attendees across three cities and incredibly valuable and high feedback on how the sessions were organised and presented.

To celebrate the launch in style, Readify chose to go with two cutting edge topics that have had a lot of press over the course of this year – Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Silverlight. Both sessions were well received and prompted intelligent Q&A sessions afterwards. The on-the-spot giveaways of Expression Web were also exciting and added an extra oomph to finish off each of the five sessions held in Sydney, Brindabella and Melbourne.

And the feedback the organisers have received both on the night and after the event has been fantastic too. Tony Gray of GrayMatter Software, one of the winners at the Sydney sessions, said "I've read a lot about Silverlight but haven't really 'got' it until now. Being able to get those one or two niggly questions answered fills in the gaps to just help it all make sense."

Gray also had a revelation about WPF that he says he owes to Paul Stovell and Philip Beadle, the presenters at the Sydney sessions. "Once I realised that WPF is kind of like bringing mark up language to the Windows platform, it all just made sense," Gray said, "I couldn't see a use for it before but now it’s something I'm really excited about."

Others have praised RDN on the web as well, with a number of blog posts published about different locations. Tim Yen of Melbourne said "I came away with some new things out of the Silverlight session... and a few things from the WPF... and most importantly I think I got inspired a little on the way."

Craig Bailey of Elcom in Sydney agrees with Gray and Yen, blogging "overall this was an excellent event. Readify have provided yet another wonderful community contribution."

And that's one of the keys to RDN for the company. It's intended for the wider community even though it was born from an idea of helping the Readify Senior Consultants to share their knowledge amongst themselves. However, in keeping with the true spirit of Readify's Discover, Master, Influence mantra, the company realised it couldn't keep it in house and opened the way to sharing with anyone who has a desire to learn.

If all indications prove right, the next sessions of RDN will fill up fast. The attendees of the first sessions are all keen to come along again, with Yen saying on his blog, "If all of the presentations are to be of this standard then I highly recommend them." Add to that the number of registrations Readify has already received and next week could prove to be quite lively.

Make sure you don’t miss out – check the RDN calendar for the sessions closest to you and register today.
Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Readify has been profiled in Human Capital magazine as an example of how to implement true mobile computing in your organisation. Highlighting the flexibility, portability and financial benefits of having a highly mobile workforce, the article goes into great depth on everything from how we choose our employees to how our financial and staffing level growth was helped, not hindered, because of the virtual nature of the organisation.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

Graeme Strange, CEO of Readify, outlines why his company has removed the traditional office from the equation. "The prime reason for 'virtual' is work-life balance. The side effects produce a myriad of benefits (and challenges), the least of which is cost saving on rent (which is why most people think you do it)."

Other benefits include:

• the ability to attract better people who would not normally work for a smaller organisation - we punch above our weight
• we retain better people
• staff are much more productive
• staff are much happier; they know we trust them
• we implement systems to track success and achievements - we do not manage by attendance like most do
• we have improved cashflow
• we focus on communications for the right reasons. Not all meetings are face to face because not all meetings need to be
• there are massive time savings in terms of commuting to work and the fact that non face-to-face meetings take less time.

Read the full article at Human Capital magazine. read more ...
Monday, August 20, 2007

What is Web 2.0?
Does it deserve the hype that surrounds it?
What does it mean for traditional media outlets?
What is its impact for technology professionals?

Join Readify MVP Darren Neimke, along with Phil Sim (Mediaconnect Australia/Squash), Richard McManus (readwriteweb), and Frank Arrigo (Microsoft) at the Microsoft Australia the Tech.Ed Bloggers lunch to discuss these and more questions on Web 2.0 and the phenomenon of social networking.

The Tech.Ed Bloggers Lunch will be held on Wednesday 8th August 2007 at 12.45pm in Arena 1A and feature an open and lively discussion on these issues and all things Web 2.0. Registrations close today at 3pm.

Register Now!
All bloggers are welcome to attend and contribute to the discussion.
1.  Log onto CommNet
2. Select Meeting Point Home - My Profile
3. Tick box "I want to attend Bloggers' Lunch" in Meeting Point by Friday 3rd August. Reserve your place now – seats are limited! Tech.Ed 2007.
Friday, August 03, 2007