Telstra has partnered with Silicon Valley start-up Pivotal, a...

Telstra has partnered with Silicon Valley start-up Pivotal, a move it says will help the enormous telco move at start-up speed and accelerate its transformation into a technology company.
The tie-up, announced today, will allow Telstra to help Australia's largest enterprises and government agencies move faster. Telstra said in some cases its software development time has decreased from six to eight months to 10-20 weeks.
"Key to these methodologies that we're using is you're trying to get things in front of people very quickly. It's very much an experimental way of working," Pivotal CEO Rob Mee said at an event today.
"It's an intentional shortening of the scope of what you’re doing, and an increase in the efficiency."
Telstra boss Andy Penn said the partnership was paying off with the telco's clients, including banks and government agencies. He said the first project in partnership with Pivotal was focused on working with the agricultural industry, and that resulted in the creation of the Ram Select app which uses geo-matching technology to help ram buyers better monitor and track the quality of livestock.
Its most recent project is the service status page which customers informed during service disruptions and get them reconnected quicker by helping them resolve issues by themselves.
"It allows us to fast track solutions into market," he said.
Mr Penn told The Australian last month his company's path was about becoming a technology company, but not in the traditional sense.
"We are not suggesting we are going to become Google," he said.
"The point is that technology innovation is growing quickly and all of it needs connectivity, from autonomous driving and drones to the Internet of Things.
"So what's important for us is that we have the best networks in Australia, and in addition to that we are strengthening our capabilities at the applications and services layer to make sure that the people using them have the best experience on Telstr's network."


http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...p/news-story/920f398b111ef3b19b1560f9541e1ecc
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