2005 Archive News 

Senator the Honorable Helen Coonan, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, today launched the Microsoft Unlimited Potential (UP) Portal, the first community centre network portal of its kind in the UP Program. The launch was witnessed by 250 community, government, business and Unlimited Potential leaders, many of whom are community partners or programme supporters, attending the inaugural Microsoft Australia Unlimited Potential Community Conference in Sydney

The Unlimited Potential Portal has been a collaborative effort by Microsoft and Microsoft Gold Partner, OBS. As collaborative partners Microsoft and OBS have worked over the last 5 months to develop and provide a portal that met the needs of 196 Community Technology Learning Centres, and respected community groups including The Smith Family, Inspire Foundation, Australian Seniors Computer Clubs Association, Yarnteen and WorkVentures.

“This has been a real team effort to support the Microsoft UP program, from our community partners to OBS, we could not have pulled this together with out their support,” said Mr Steve Vamos, Managing Director, Microsoft Australia.

The Unlimited Potential Portal aims to help enrich the lives of people accessing the services of community groups, and broaden the technological literacy of thousands of Australians who do not have access to technology skills important within today’s society and the modern workplace.

“Technology and connectivity are vital to ensuring community organisations are able to deliver the best possible services to their clients,” said the Honourable Senator Coonan.

The inaugural Microsoft Australia Unlimited Potential Community Conference and the new Unlimited Potential Portal strengthen the Australian Unlimited Potential Programme which was launched in June 2004, by the Hon. John Howard, MP, Prime Minister of Australia and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.

Further information on the Unlimited Potential Programme can be found at-http://www.microsoft.com/australia/corpaffairs/corpcit/community/up.aspx

OBS has been awarded the Microsoft Partner Business Solutions Competency due to proven proficiency in deploying the Microsoft CRM application.

This recognition has come just prior to the market release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 which is now strongly integrated with Microsoft Outlook, and tightly marries Microsoft Office technologies and customer relationship management functionality.

OBS has the experience and expertise to extend the value of Microsoft CRM, by integrating with existing Microsoft technologies to improve process and increase customer responsiveness.

Microsoft competencies in the Microsoft Partner Program define specialisation in specific areas. OBS this week has been awarded two more Microsoft Partner Competencies. These are the Microsoft Advanced Infrastructure Solutions Competency and the Microsoft ISV/Software Solutions Competency for our SmartLibrary product.

These complement our existing Gold Partner status in the Microsoft Partner competencies -

• Microsoft Information Worker Productivity Solutions Competency
• Microsoft Integrated E-Business Solutions Competency

The Microsoft Advanced Infrastructure Competency recognises OBS’s proven Exchange Migration and Deployment expertise and ability to help organisations respond to the challenges of providing secure, reliable, anytime, anywhere access to e-mail.

The Microsoft ISV/Software Solutions Competency recognises OBS’s skill and focus on providing solutions to meet business needs and technology demands of organisations.

OBS is thrilled to announce we have opened an office in Sydney. The Sydney office will offer the same consulting services, applications and infrastructure as OBS’s Melbourne and Adelaide offices.

Brian Cook CEO for OBS Pty Ltd said the company opened the Sydney office in George Street to be central to both CBD and North Sydney clients. “It made sense for us to open an office in Sydney as we have an established client base in Sydney, including Microsoft, Lion Nathan, AAPT and IAG Insurance Australia” said Cook.

Over the last three years OBS has being successfully engaged with Sydney clients using its existing southern based workforce. “We have staged our growth since 1998 to ensure we did not over commit ourselves. Increasing interest and sales volume from Sydney clients meant all indications to OBS were that a Sydney based office could do very well” said Cook.

Brett Campbell, OBS’s Sales Director said “By being closer to our clients in Sydney we will be able to ensure better understanding of their business and deliver value on par to what we offer our Melbourne and Adelaide clients” said Campbell.

The Sydney office has also brought OBS closer to the Australian head offices of Microsoft and P-Cubed strengthening the relationships between OBS and its alliance partners.

OBS has a number of staff attending Tech Ed, Microsoft’s premier educational event, from the 30th August – 2nd September, 2005 at the Gold Coast Convention Centre.

While this is an incredible learning environment it also offers OBS the opportunity to network with our customers in an informal environment. If you would like to meet with OBS over the period of Tech Ed please send an email to sales@obs.com.au