# PicNet > PicNet is an Australian-owned IT services company and managed service provider (MSP), established in 2001 > and based in Crows Nest, Sydney. Its Australian team delivers managed IT, cloud management, custom software, > systems integration and AI consulting for Australian organisations. ## Company and contact - PicNet Pty Ltd, ABN 96 096 382 982. Established in 2001. - Based in Crows Nest, Sydney, serving Australian organisations with a local team. - [About PicNet](https://picnet.com.au/about/) - [Contact PicNet](https://picnet.com.au/#contact) - Email: picnet@picnet.com.au. Phone: +61 2 8437 7900. ## Managed IT services - [Managed IT service overview](https://picnet.com.au/business-it-support/): scope, governance, onboarding and client case studies. - [MSP evaluation FAQs](https://picnet.com.au/business-it-support/faq/): customer fit, co-managed support, geographic coverage, pricing approach and response targets. - Customer fit: small and mid-sized Australian organisations, not-for-profits, professional services firms and local offices of multinationals; full IT management or support alongside an internal team. - Scope is agreed per client: help desk, Microsoft 365, Azure and AWS management, monitoring, patching, backup and disaster recovery, vendor coordination and virtual CIO advice. - Delivery: Australian staff, remote support nationally from Sydney. No interstate offices; interstate onsite visits use scheduled travel and regional partners where required. - Coverage: 24/7 infrastructure monitoring, after-hours on-call response for P1 critical incidents. Routine help desk and P2-P4 work are handled during business hours; final SLAs are agreed per client. - Commercial model: a scoped quote, usually a monthly retainer with prepaid hours and additional time-and-materials work. Fixed monthly arrangements are also available. - [Discuss managed IT requirements](https://picnet.com.au/business-it-support/#contact) ## Managed IT client evidence - [Cruising Yacht Club of Australia](https://picnet.com.au/business-it-support/#0): IT service desk and infrastructure management since 2020, Azure management, remote support, monthly onsite visits and vCIO advice. - [Indivior](https://picnet.com.au/business-it-support/#1): local onsite IT support alongside the multinational pharmaceutical company's global IT team. ## Software development client evidence - [NSW Health](https://picnet.com.au/software-engineering/#0): performance reporting and clinician billing systems. - [Ernst & Young](https://picnet.com.au/software-engineering/#2): benchmarking and survey platform supported since 2019. - [Guide Dogs NSW/ACT](https://picnet.com.au/software-engineering/#4): software development and ongoing platform support. ## Services - [AI Services](https://picnet.com.au/ai-services/): Production AI systems: LLM applications, RAG assistants, AI automation and monitoring - [Software Engineering](https://picnet.com.au/software-engineering/): Custom software development by senior .NET and web engineering teams - [Application Integration](https://picnet.com.au/application-integration-services/): Enterprise system integration and data plumbing - [Centazio](https://picnet.com.au/centazio/): PicNet's open-source code-first data integration platform for .NET - [Managed IT Services (MSP)](https://picnet.com.au/business-it-support/): Australian help desk, Microsoft 365, Azure, AWS, backup, monitoring and vCIO services from Sydney - [Cloud Migration](https://picnet.com.au/services-cloud-migration/): Cloud migration consulting and delivery - [IT Hardware and Software Licensing](https://picnet.com.au/services-it-hardware-and-software-licensing/): Business laptops, desktops, monitors and video conferencing hardware priced daily from Australian distribution stock, plus software licensing - [Project Management](https://picnet.com.au/project-management/): IT project management and business analysis ## Hardware catalogue - [Hardware catalogue](https://picnet.com.au/hardware/): 396 business hardware products priced from Australian distribution stock, updated 22/10/2026. Every product has its own page with specifications and prices with and without GST. - [Business desktops](https://picnet.com.au/hardware/desktops/): 29 products - [Business laptops](https://picnet.com.au/hardware/laptops/): 146 products - [Keyboards, mice and accessories](https://picnet.com.au/hardware/accessories/): 33 products - [Monitors and commercial displays](https://picnet.com.au/hardware/monitors-and-displays/): 179 products - [Phones, headsets and meeting room systems](https://picnet.com.au/hardware/phones-and-headsets/): 3 products - [Video conferencing equipment](https://picnet.com.au/hardware/video-conferencing/): 6 products - [Dell business hardware](https://picnet.com.au/hardware/dell/): 104 products - [Lenovo business hardware](https://picnet.com.au/hardware/lenovo/): 130 products - [LG business hardware](https://picnet.com.au/hardware/lg/): 46 products - [Logitech business hardware](https://picnet.com.au/hardware/logitech/): 27 products - [Microsoft business hardware](https://picnet.com.au/hardware/microsoft/): 15 products - [Samsung business hardware](https://picnet.com.au/hardware/samsung/): 74 products ## FAQs ### About PicNet FAQ Source: [About PicNet FAQ](https://picnet.com.au/faq/) #### Does PicNet provide managed IT services as well as software development? Yes. PicNet is a Sydney-based IT services company and managed service provider (MSP), established in 2001. Its [managed IT services](https://picnet.com.au/business-it-support/) cover help desk support, cloud and infrastructure management, monitoring, backup and virtual CIO advice. See the [managed IT FAQs](https://picnet.com.au/business-it-support/faq/) for support coverage, pricing approach, client examples and switching providers. #### How do you pick the best fit software development company for you? The right firm depends on your project, but a long production track record matters most. PicNet has built and supported [custom software](https://picnet.com.au/software-engineering/) for Australian organisations from its Sydney office since 2001, with senior engineers trusted by clients in banking, healthcare and government. #### What services does PicNet provide? PicNet provides [AI consulting](https://picnet.com.au/ai-services/), [custom software development](https://picnet.com.au/software-engineering/), [cloud migration and management](https://picnet.com.au/services-cloud-migration/), [systems integration](https://picnet.com.au/application-integration-services/), [managed IT support](https://picnet.com.au/business-it-support/), and [enterprise IT hardware and software licensing](https://picnet.com.au/services-it-hardware-and-software-licensing/). Every service is delivered by senior, Sydney-based engineers. #### Does PicNet work with government and healthcare organisations? Yes. PicNet has delivered and supported systems for Australian government and healthcare organisations for over two decades, including continuous work for a major public health agency since 2015, working within the strict security and governance requirements those sectors demand. #### How long has PicNet been operating? PicNet was founded in Sydney in 2001 and has operated continuously ever since. The company is [Australian-owned and based in Crows Nest](https://picnet.com.au/about/), with all services delivered locally by its own team. #### Is PicNet approved on any Australian government procurement panels? Yes. PicNet is an Advanced Supplier on the NSW Government ICT Services Scheme (SCM0020) with approved advanced capabilities covering business analysis, custom application development, information management, web design and content management, and software support and maintenance. PicNet holds a further set of registered capabilities across architecture, ICT strategy, risk management, project management and operations. #### Where is PicNet based and can it work with organisations outside Sydney? PicNet's head office is in Crows Nest, Sydney, and it has no interstate offices. Software development, cloud management, AI consulting and Level 2 and 3 IT support are delivered nationally from Sydney through secure remote access and service management tooling, with onsite attendance available interstate by scheduled travel and local partners engaged for regional hardware and cabling work. #### Does PicNet offshore any of its work? No. Every PicNet engineer is based in Australia, no work or data processing is sent offshore, and client data stays onshore under Australian data residency. This matters for organisations with sovereignty, privacy or procurement obligations that rule out offshore delivery. #### How large is PicNet's team and who runs the company? PicNet is a deliberately small firm of about ten people, half of them senior engineers, and every manager and director is a working engineer rather than a salesperson. It is led by directors Guido Tapia and David Booth, who have been with the company since 2001 and 2004 respectively, and staff turnover is very low, with tenures reaching close to two decades. #### What industries does PicNet work in? PicNet works across healthcare and government, banking and financial services, not-for-profits, professional services, pharmaceuticals and membership organisations. Engagements have included state health and transport agencies, a Commonwealth health pricing authority, a global professional services firm, national not-for-profits, the Australian arm of a multinational pharmaceutical company and large member organisations. #### What security and compliance standards does PicNet work to? PicNet aligns to the ASD Essential Eight at Maturity Level 2 as a baseline and Maturity Level 3 for regulated environments, handles data under the Australian Privacy Principles, and runs ITIL-aligned service management. Supporting policies cover cybersecurity, data handling and retention, modern slavery, ethical asset disposal and work health and safety. #### How does PicNet price and structure its engagements? PicNet uses a single senior rate for all roles, so there is no junior loading and no pressure to pad a team with inexperienced staff. Most clients work on a monthly retainer with a pre-paid block of hours and additional work on time and materials at reducing rates, and PicNet will adapt to fixed-price or other commercial models where a client's procurement requires it. #### Who owns the software and data PicNet works on? Clients own the custom code PicNet writes for them. PicNet retains its own pre-existing tools and frameworks, including the open-source Centazio integration platform, and grants a perpetual licence to use them within the delivered system, so clients are never locked out of what they paid for. ### Software Development FAQ Source: [Software Development FAQ](https://picnet.com.au/software-engineering/faq/) #### How do you find the most appropriate software development partner for your organisation? PicNet is a Sydney-based software development company that has built custom systems for Australian organisations [since 2001](https://picnet.com.au/about/). Its senior engineers deliver web, mobile and distributed systems, including business-critical platforms for banking, healthcare and government clients. #### What technologies does PicNet use? PicNet's core stack is .NET, Angular, React, Vue, Svelte, TypeScript and Python, deployed on [AWS and Azure](https://picnet.com.au/services-cloud-migration/). Technology choices always follow the problem, and systems are designed to still be easy to change in ten years. #### How much does custom software development cost in Australia? It depends on scope, integrations and quality requirements, but [AI-accelerated delivery](https://picnet.com.au/ai-services/) has changed the economics. PicNet's senior engineers now build systems in a fraction of the time they once took, so projects that never used to justify the investment now do. Every project starts with a clear scope and estimate. #### Who supports the software after it is built? The same Sydney-based PicNet engineers who build your system [support it afterwards](https://picnet.com.au/business-it-support/). That continuity, rare in outsourced development, means the people answering your support calls understand the architecture because they designed it. #### What kinds of systems does PicNet specialise in building? PicNet specialises in the harder end of custom software, including distributed systems, high-availability and performance-critical platforms, cloud-native architectures on Azure and AWS, microservices, and custom system integrations. Recent work includes clinical data platforms, billing portals, live operational dashboards and data warehouses for Australian health and government clients. #### Does PicNet build healthcare software? Yes. PicNet has built and supported [healthcare software for the NSW Ministry of Health](https://picnet.com.au/software-engineering/health-and-government/) since 2015, including the mLoad portal that validates patient data before it reaches the state data warehouse, the Clinician Billing Portal, and the Emergency Access View of live emergency department performance across NSW public hospitals. For IHACPA it built the mobile apps, administration system and reporting environment behind a national costing study of non-admitted patient care. #### Has PicNet delivered NSW Government projects? Yes. PicNet is an Advanced Supplier on the NSW Government ICT Services Scheme (SCM0020) and has [delivered for NSW government agencies](https://picnet.com.au/software-engineering/health-and-government/). It has built and supported NSW Ministry of Health systems since 2015, and placed a senior business analyst and project manager, with a database administrator, in Transport for NSW's Digital Technology team. PicNet's engineers write, review and test all NSW Health work the traditional way. #### Who owns the code PicNet writes? The client owns the custom code PicNet develops for them. PicNet retains only its pre-existing tools and frameworks, including the open-source Centazio integration platform, and grants a perpetual licence to use them inside the delivered system. Source code, documentation and infrastructure definitions are handed over as part of delivery. #### How does PicNet test the software it builds? PicNet builds test automation into delivery rather than bolting it on at the end, covering unit, integration, end-to-end, load, performance and security testing. Pipelines run on GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps or TeamCity, with static analysis and penetration testing available for systems handling sensitive data. #### Can PicNet work within our existing project governance? Yes. PicNet adapts to the methodology a client's governance requires, whether that is Agile with daily standups and Kanban boards, traditional waterfall with fortnightly reporting, or PRINCE2. Every project includes project management, a maintained risk register, weekly progress reporting and, for larger engagements, a RACI matrix. #### Does PicNet build integrations between existing systems? Yes, and it is a core specialty. PicNet builds custom integrations using Centazio, its own open-source, code-first integration platform for .NET, as well as commercial tools such as MuleSoft, Boomi, Jitterbit and Informatica. Centazio integrations are written as ordinary .NET code, so no platform-specific integration specialists are needed to maintain them. #### Can PicNet take on a small project or does it only do large builds? PicNet works at both ends. Because delivery is AI-accelerated and staffed only by senior engineers, small and mid-sized systems that would once have been uneconomic are now practical, and many clients start with a contained piece of work before expanding. Engagements typically run on a monthly retainer, which suits ongoing incremental development as well as one-off builds. #### Does PicNet use AI when building software, and can it work without it? PicNet uses AI agents and tooling throughout its own delivery process to multiply the output of its senior engineers, which is why builds are faster and more affordable than they once were. Where a client's contract or risk position prohibits AI tooling, PicNet delivers entirely by hand instead. For one long-standing public health client, for example, every line of code is authored, reviewed and tested by engineers the traditional way. ### AI Consulting FAQ Source: [AI Consulting FAQ](https://picnet.com.au/ai-services/faq/) #### How do you pick the most appropriate AI consulting partner for your organisation? PicNet is a Sydney-based AI consulting firm that helps Australian enterprises and government agencies adopt AI safely, securely and practically. The company has [operated since 2001](https://picnet.com.au/about/) and has delivered machine learning systems in production since the mid-2010s, well before the current generative AI wave. #### Can PicNet build production AI systems, not just prototypes? Yes. PicNet designs, builds and operates production AI and machine learning systems for Australian organisations, integrated into the environments and governance frameworks they already use. Its background is [software engineering](https://picnet.com.au/software-engineering/), so AI work ships with the same security, testing and support discipline as any critical system. #### Can AI be deployed privately inside our own environment? Yes. Private AI is one of PicNet's core patterns. Models and data stay inside your own [cloud tenancy](https://picnet.com.au/services-cloud-migration/) or on-premises infrastructure, keeping sensitive Australian data sovereign and under your control. #### Which AI platforms and models does PicNet work with? PicNet builds primarily on AWS Bedrock and Microsoft Azure AI Foundry, which allow models to run inside a client's own cloud tenancy so sensitive data never leaves it. PicNet is deliberately model-agnostic and selects models per use case rather than committing clients to a single vendor. #### How does PicNet handle AI data governance and sovereignty? Data governance is the starting point of a PicNet AI engagement rather than an afterthought. Sensitive data is kept inside the client's own tenancy using platforms such as AWS Bedrock and Azure AI Foundry, access is controlled and logged, and data classification determines what may be exposed to a model at all. PicNet is Australian-owned and Australian-staffed, and no data is processed offshore. #### What AI work has PicNet actually delivered? PicNet runs ongoing AI automation for a large Australian member organisation, covering marketing automation, operational optimisation and data analysis, built on Azure AI Foundry and AWS Bedrock with a strong focus on protecting sensitive member data. PicNet also applies AI throughout its own software delivery, and has built production machine learning systems since well before generative AI became mainstream. #### What kinds of problems is AI actually worth applying to? In PicNet's experience the durable wins are operational rather than novelty, including automating repetitive internal workflows, summarising and extracting data from documents, making large internal knowledge bases searchable, and analysis that was previously too labour-intensive to attempt. PicNet will say plainly when a problem is better solved with conventional software than with AI. #### Can PicNet deliver work without using AI at all? Yes. Some clients have contractual or risk positions that prohibit AI tooling, and PicNet works to those constraints without argument. For one long-standing public health client, every line of software is written, reviewed and tested by engineers by hand because of the sensitivity of the data involved, and PicNet offers the same terms to any client with strict compliance obligations. #### How does an AI engagement with PicNet usually start? Most engagements begin with a short advisory piece that identifies where AI would genuinely pay off, what the data governance and sovereignty constraints are, and what the realistic sequence of work looks like. That produces a costed plan a client can act on, rather than a proof of concept that never reaches production. #### Does PicNet provide AI governance and policy advice as well as build systems? Yes. PicNet advises on the governance side of AI adoption, covering data classification, which categories of information may reach a model, sovereignty and residency requirements, access control and audit logging, and the practical policies staff need. This work is grounded in the security frameworks PicNet already operates under, including the ASD Essential Eight and the Australian Privacy Principles. ### Managed IT Support FAQ Source: [Managed IT Support FAQ](https://picnet.com.au/business-it-support/faq/) #### Is PicNet a managed service provider (MSP) in Sydney? Yes. PicNet is an Australian-owned managed service provider (MSP) based in [Crows Nest, Sydney](https://picnet.com.au/about/), operating since 2001. PicNet provides ongoing IT support, infrastructure and cloud management, monitoring, backup and disaster recovery, and virtual CIO advice for Australian businesses. Services are delivered by an Australia-based engineering team. #### How do I choose a managed IT provider for my business? Compare providers against your environment, support hours, onsite needs and security requirements. Ask who handles escalations, what the monthly fee includes, how backups are tested, and how the provider will take over from your incumbent. PicNet publishes its [service scope, priority framework, onboarding process and client case studies](https://picnet.com.au/business-it-support/) to help you assess the fit. #### What does PicNet's managed IT service cover? PicNet tailors managed IT services to each client's environment. The scope can include remote and onsite help desk support, Microsoft 365, Azure and AWS management, monitoring and patching, backup and disaster recovery, vendor coordination and virtual CIO advice. [Managed services include regular governance and performance reporting](https://picnet.com.au/business-it-support/#included); the contract defines the agreed scope and service levels. #### Can PicNet work alongside our internal IT team or global service desk? Yes. PicNet can provide co-managed IT support alongside an internal team or global service desk, as well as take responsibility for a complete managed service. For example, PicNet has provided [local onsite support for Indivior](https://picnet.com.au/business-it-support/#1) while coordinating with its global IT team. Responsibilities and escalation paths are agreed for each engagement. #### Does PicNet support businesses outside Sydney? Yes. PicNet delivers cloud management and Level 2 and 3 IT support nationally from Sydney using secure remote access and service management tools. Interstate onsite attendance is available through scheduled travel, with local partners engaged for regional hardware, cabling and break-fix work where needed. PicNet has no interstate offices; onsite coverage is agreed for each engagement. #### How much does PicNet managed IT support cost? PicNet quotes managed IT services against an agreed scope. Most clients use a monthly retainer with a prepaid allocation of hours and additional work billed on time and materials; fixed monthly arrangements are also available. [Request a scoped quote](https://picnet.com.au/business-it-support/#contact) covering your users, locations, systems, support hours and onsite requirements, including how after-hours work, travel, licences and hardware will be charged. #### Is PicNet's help desk based in Australia? Yes. PicNet's help desk is staffed in Australia, with its [engineering team based in Sydney](https://picnet.com.au/about/). PicNet does not offshore support delivery. Clients work with engineers who learn their environment and coordinate with their existing vendors and internal teams. #### What are PicNet's support response times? PicNet's standard response targets are one hour for P1 critical incidents in business hours and two hours after hours through on-call support. Business-hours targets are two hours for P2, four hours for P3 and 24 hours for P4. These are response targets, not guaranteed resolution times. Final SLAs are agreed with each client at contract commencement; P2 to P4 work is handled during business hours. #### Does PicNet offer after-hours or 24x7 IT support? PicNet provides 24/7 infrastructure monitoring and after-hours on-call support for P1 critical incidents under the agreed service contract. Routine help desk work and P2 to P4 incidents are handled during business hours, 8am to 6pm Sydney time, Monday to Friday. Confirm the coverage your business needs when agreeing the SLA. #### How does PicNet secure the environments it manages? PicNet aligns client environments to the ASD Essential Eight at Maturity Level 2 as a baseline, and Maturity Level 3 where the environment is regulated. Critical vulnerabilities rated CVE 9 or above are patched within 48 hours, data is encrypted at rest with AES-256 and in transit with TLS 1.2 or later, and security event logs are retained in tamper-evident storage. Tooling includes Microsoft Intune, Entra ID, Defender for Endpoint and SentinelOne. #### What happens to our data if something goes badly wrong? PicNet runs image-based backups through Datto, taken hourly by default, held both on a local appliance and replicated to cloud, and kept immutable so ransomware cannot encrypt them. Recovery can be run by virtualising a failed server directly from backup. PicNet also conducts annual disaster recovery simulations with managed services clients, restoring critical systems to a test environment and documenting the recovery time actually achieved. #### What tools does PicNet use to manage IT environments? PicNet runs Jira Service Management for ITSM, covering request, incident, problem and change management with SLA tracking and a CMDB, and ConnectWise RMM for monitoring, patch management and remote diagnostics. Datto provides business continuity and disaster recovery, and PRTG handles multi-site network monitoring. Clients get the reporting from these tools rather than having to take service quality on trust. #### Does PicNet provide strategic IT advice, or just fix problems? Both. Managed services clients get monthly governance meetings, monthly performance reporting covering ticket volumes and resolution times, six-monthly strategic reviews of infrastructure direction, and a maintained risk register. Virtual CIO advisory is available for organisations without a senior technology leader in house, which is how several of PicNet's managed clients operate. #### What size and type of organisations does PicNet support? PicNet supports small and mid-sized Australian organisations, not-for-profits, professional services firms and the local offices of multinationals. It suits organisations seeking ongoing access to experienced engineers, cloud management and strategic IT advice. PicNet can manage the full IT function or supplement an existing team; support hours, onsite coverage and scope are agreed to fit the organisation. #### Which organisations has PicNet provided managed IT support for? PicNet has managed the [Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's IT service desk and infrastructure since 2020](https://picnet.com.au/business-it-support/#0), including Azure management, remote support, monthly onsite visits and vCIO advice. PicNet has also provided [onsite support for Indivior](https://picnet.com.au/business-it-support/#1) alongside its global IT team. These examples cover both full managed services and support that complements an existing team. #### Can PicNet take over from our current IT provider? Yes. PicNet follows a six-stage transition, collecting documentation, credentials, vendor contracts and asset registers, auditing the environment, then deploying monitoring and service management tools. Parallel operation with the incumbent typically lasts two to four weeks. After go-live, PicNet confirms credential transfer and monitoring coverage, then runs a 30-day review to close remaining gaps. The transition schedule is agreed with the client and outgoing provider. ### Cloud Migration FAQ Source: [Cloud Migration FAQ](https://picnet.com.au/services-cloud-migration/faq/) #### How to find the most appropriate AWS and Azure management partner for your organisation? PicNet's Sydney-based cloud team plans and executes AWS, Azure and Microsoft 365 migrations for Australian organisations. PicNet has [delivered IT services from Sydney since 2001](https://picnet.com.au/about/) and its engineers are experts in large AWS and Azure environments. #### Does PicNet manage cloud environments after the migration? Yes. PicNet offers ongoing managed cloud services, using infrastructure-as-code tools such as Terraform and Pulumi. The [engineers who migrate your workloads](https://picnet.com.au/software-engineering/) are the same Sydney-based team managing them afterwards. #### Which cloud platforms does PicNet work with? PicNet works across Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365 and Google Cloud Platform. It is a Microsoft Core Partner and an AWS Technology Partner, and holds no exclusive arrangement that would push a client toward one platform when another fits better. #### What infrastructure-as-code tools does PicNet use? PicNet builds and manages cloud environments with Terraform, Terraform Cloud, Pulumi, AWS CloudFormation and Azure ARM and Bicep templates, with continuous delivery through Azure DevOps Pipelines, GitHub Actions, TeamCity or Bitbucket. Defining infrastructure as code means environments are reproducible and auditable rather than assembled by hand and undocumented. #### How does a PicNet cloud migration actually run? PicNet starts by auditing the current environment and designing the target architecture, rather than lifting and shifting whatever exists today into a more expensive equivalent. Workloads are then migrated in planned stages with rollback paths, infrastructure defined as code, and monitoring and backup established before cutover. Clients can then hand the environment to PicNet to manage or run it themselves with documentation and IaC definitions provided. #### Can PicNet reduce our cloud costs? Often, yes. Cloud bills usually grow through oversized instances, forgotten environments, unmanaged storage tiers and architectures that were never revisited after migration. PicNet's cloud architects review the environment for efficiency and optimisation as part of managed cloud services, and because PicNet is not reselling the underlying cloud capacity there is no incentive to leave waste in place. #### Does PicNet handle hybrid environments and on-premises infrastructure? Yes. Not every workload belongs in public cloud, and PicNet manages hybrid estates that mix cloud with on-premises servers and virtualisation, including Microsoft Hyper-V environments. Where infrastructure genuinely should stay on-premises, PicNet will say so rather than migrating it for the sake of it. #### How does PicNet handle cloud backup, resilience and disaster recovery? PicNet builds backup and recovery into the target architecture rather than adding it afterwards, using Azure Backup, AWS Backup and Datto depending on the environment, with immutable backups that resist ransomware. For managed clients PicNet runs annual disaster recovery simulations, restoring critical systems to a test environment and documenting the recovery time actually achieved. #### Will our data stay in Australia? Yes, where the client requires it. PicNet is Australian-owned and entirely Australian-staffed, performs no offshore processing, and configures cloud environments to keep data in Australian regions to meet sovereignty, privacy and procurement obligations. This is a routine requirement for the government, health and not-for-profit clients PicNet works with. #### Does PicNet migrate Microsoft 365 and set up new tenancies? Yes. PicNet migrates email, files and collaboration workloads into Microsoft 365 and builds new tenancies configured for security from the outset, including Entra ID identity, Intune device management and Essential Eight aligned hardening. PicNet has delivered full tenancy setups for Australian organisations including national not-for-profits. ### IT Hardware and Software Licensing FAQ Source: [IT Hardware and Software Licensing FAQ](https://picnet.com.au/services-it-hardware-and-software-licensing/faq/) #### How do you find the most cost effective enterprise IT hardware in Australia? PicNet supplies enterprise servers, networking, storage and end-user hardware across Australia from its [Sydney base](https://picnet.com.au/about/), and has done so since 2001. Unlike volume-only resellers, every quote is backed by senior engineers who can advise on, configure and [support what they sell](https://picnet.com.au/business-it-support/). #### Which hardware brands can PicNet quote? PicNet supplies Lenovo, Dell, HPE, HP, Microsoft Surface, Cisco, Meraki, Aruba, Juniper, Fortinet and many other major brands, covering laptops, desktops, servers, switches, wireless and firewalls. For most regular hardware quotes PicNet responds the same day. #### Can PicNet quote current Australian stock and pricing? Yes. PicNet's [hardware catalogue](https://picnet.com.au/hardware/) is refreshed daily from its Australian distribution feed, with a page for every listed product showing prices with and without GST, so quotes reflect live local stock and pricing. Contact PicNet for an obligation-free quote on anything not listed. #### Does PicNet handle software licensing as well as hardware? Yes. PicNet manages software licensing for Australian businesses, including Microsoft and other major vendors, and can advise on the most cost-effective licensing arrangement for your organisation. #### How is PicNet different from a volume hardware reseller? A volume reseller sells you a part number. PicNet is an engineering firm that also supplies hardware, so the people quoting understand the environment the equipment is going into, can tell you when a cheaper configuration will do the job, and can install and support it afterwards. Every manager and director at PicNet is a working engineer. #### Can PicNet pre-configure devices before they are delivered? Yes. PicNet can pre-enrol devices in Microsoft Autopilot so they configure themselves when staff first sign in, and can image, asset-tag and service equipment before dispatch. This suits onboarding at scale, where the alternative is IT staff manually building every machine on arrival. #### Can PicNet deliver hardware to multiple sites around Australia? Yes. PicNet ships to multiple locations nationally and has supplied hardware just in time to organisations rolling out equipment across several Australian sites at short notice. Where onsite installation or cabling is needed in regional areas, PicNet engages local partners to carry out the physical work. #### Which software vendors does PicNet license? PicNet is a Microsoft Core Partner and a reseller partner for security and infrastructure vendors including Trend Micro, SentinelOne, Fortinet and VMware, alongside its hardware partnerships with Cisco, Juniper, Aruba, HPE, Dell, Lenovo and HP. That spread means PicNet can compare options across vendors rather than steering every client to a single stack. #### Can PicNet advise on reducing our software licensing costs? Yes. Licensing waste usually comes from over-licensed users, the wrong subscription tier, duplicated products across vendors and renewals nobody has reviewed in years. PicNet reviews what an organisation actually uses and recommends the most cost-effective arrangement, which sometimes means selling less than the client expected to buy. #### What does PicNet do with old hardware when it is replaced? PicNet disposes of retired equipment through certified recyclers, sanitising data to the NIST SP 800-88 standard before disposal and retaining an audit trail for seven years. This matters for organisations with privacy, records-management or procurement obligations that require documented, verifiable destruction of data on decommissioned devices. ## Authors - [Guido Tapia](https://picnet.com.au/author/guido-tapia/): Director of Software Development and Machine Learning Services - [David Booth](https://picnet.com.au/author/david-booth/): Director of Managed Cloud Services and IT Support - [Marco Tapia](https://picnet.com.au/author/marco-tapia/): IT Consulting Services Senior Advisor ## Optional - [Concise site guide](https://picnet.com.au/llms.txt): service summary and key links. - [Blog](https://picnet.com.au/blog/): technical articles from PicNet engineers. ### Current articles - [Confidentiality, privilege and AI: a governance playbook for Australian firms](https://picnet.com.au/blog/confidentiality-privilege-and-ai-a-governance-playbook-for-australian-firms/): How Australian law firms can use cloud AI and still protect privilege: vendor terms, data residency, matter segregation, logging and panel questionnaires. - [Data governance for the AI era: residency, retention and audit trails](https://picnet.com.au/blog/data-governance-for-the-ai-era-residency-retention-and-audit-trails/): A one-page AI data governance model for Australian mid-sized organisations: classification tiers, residency, retention, no-training clauses and audit trails. - [Doing more with less: where AI genuinely helps a small NFP team](https://picnet.com.au/blog/doing-more-with-less-where-ai-genuinely-helps-a-small-nfp-team/): Where AI pays off for a small Australian not-for-profit team: drafting, summarising, data cleanup and monitoring, how to cost it, and where to hold back. - [Practical AI for Not-for-Profits: the series](https://picnet.com.au/blog/practical-ai-for-not-for-profits-the-series/): Hands-on AI use cases for Australian not-for-profits, with honest costs and guidance on protecting donor data and answering to boards and funders. - [Time capture and billing narratives: AI for the billable hour](https://picnet.com.au/blog/time-capture-and-billing-narratives-ai-for-the-billable-hour/): How law firms can use AI to draft time entries and billing narratives from calendar, email and DMS records, with fee-earner review before anything is billed. - [Giving AI safe access to your systems: from chatbots to agents](https://picnet.com.au/blog/giving-ai-safe-access-to-your-systems-from-chatbots-to-agents/): Letting AI agents act on business systems safely: scoped APIs, read-only defaults, allow-listed actions, audit logs and human approval for writes. - [From runbooks to agents: automating ops toil without automating outages](https://picnet.com.au/blog/from-runbooks-to-agents-automating-ops-toil-without-automating-outages/): How we turn ops runbooks into scheduled automated tasks safely: dry-run first, idempotent steps, deterministic edits, anomaly alerts and staged rollouts. - [Matter intake, conflict checks and entity resolution](https://picnet.com.au/blog/matter-intake-conflict-checks-and-entity-resolution/): Automating legal matter intake and conflict checks: LLM extraction, deterministic entity matching, AI help for hard cases, and a person clearing every hit. - [Entity resolution at scale: deterministic first, LLM for the tail](https://picnet.com.au/blog/entity-resolution-at-scale-deterministic-first-llm-for-the-tail/): A practical entity resolution pipeline: rules clear the bulk, an LLM proposes matches for the ambiguous tail, and people sign off risky merges. - [Cloud cost control as code: automated spend reports, stale resources and off-hours shutdowns](https://picnet.com.au/blog/cloud-cost-control-as-code-automated-spend-reports-stale-resources-and-off-hours-shutdowns/): How we automate AWS and Azure cost control with scheduled scripts, and why the LLM in the pipeline only explains spend spikes and never does the maths. - [A research assistant grounded in your own precedents and knowledge](https://picnet.com.au/blog/a-research-assistant-grounded-in-your-own-precedents-and-knowledge/): A practical design for a law firm research assistant that answers only from your own precedents, with citations and matter-level access control. - [Code-first integration with Centazio: why we built an open-source alternative to drag-and-drop iPaaS](https://picnet.com.au/blog/code-first-integration-with-centazio-why-we-built-an-open-source-alternative-to-drag-and-drop-ipaas/): Why PicNet built Centazio, an open-source .NET integration platform, how its read, promote and write design works, and when an iPaaS is still the right choice. - [Watching the watchers: monitoring your CI/CD pipelines, branch protection and repo hygiene](https://picnet.com.au/blog/watching-the-watchers-monitoring-your-ci-cd-pipelines-branch-protection-and-repo-hygiene/): How we monitor GitHub and Azure DevOps for failing scheduled pipelines, missing branch protection and stale branches, plus AI weekly digests of what changed. - [Contract review and clause extraction: what AI can and can't do](https://picnet.com.au/blog/contract-review-and-clause-extraction-what-ai-can-and-can-t-do/): How to build an LLM first-pass contract review that extracts clauses into a structured summary a lawyer verifies, plus the accuracy and confidentiality limits. - [Practical AI for Law Firms: the series](https://picnet.com.au/blog/practical-ai-for-law-firms-the-series/): A series on practical AI for Australian law firms: document review, grounded research assistants, intake and billing automation, with confidentiality as a hard constraint. - [AI-Ready Data and Integration: the series](https://picnet.com.au/blog/ai-ready-data-and-integration-the-series/): A series on the data work behind production AI: connecting systems, resolving entities and governing data so an AI system has something trustworthy to use. - [Your AI is only as good as your data: why integration comes first](https://picnet.com.au/blog/your-ai-is-only-as-good-as-your-data-why-integration-comes-first/): Most failed AI pilots are data failures, not model failures. What AI-ready really means, the integration architecture behind it, and a checklist before you fund. - [Coding agents in a production .NET shop: what holds up](https://picnet.com.au/blog/coding-agents-in-a-production-net-shop-what-actually-works/): How PicNet runs Claude-style coding agents on production .NET code: standards docs in the repo, tests as the safety net, AI review first, and what agents still get wrong. - [One small team, 100+ automated checks: anatomy of an AI-assisted monitoring platform](https://picnet.com.au/blog/one-small-team-100-automated-checks-anatomy-of-an-ai-assisted-monitoring-platform/): How PicNet's in-house monitoring platform runs 100+ scheduled checks with OK/ALERT/FAULT states, LLM-written summary emails, a watched heartbeat, and what it costs. - [Practical AI in DevOps: the series](https://picnet.com.au/blog/practical-ai-in-devops-the-series/): A series on how AI agents and automation change day-to-day software operations, drawn from PicNet's own stack: working systems, real costs, real limits. - [Listening at scale: monitoring industry forums and communities with AI](https://picnet.com.au/blog/listening-at-scale-monitoring-industry-forums-and-communities-with-ai/): How to monitor industry forums with AI classification instead of keyword alerts, encode per-community etiquette, and keep a human writing every reply. - [Answering from your own documents: a policies and procedures assistant for any business](https://picnet.com.au/blog/answering-from-your-own-documents-a-policies-and-procedures-assistant-for-any-business/): How to build a retrieval assistant that answers staff questions from your own HR, ops and product documents, with citations, refusals, evaluation and costs. - [When AI must not act alone: human-in-the-loop patterns for security automation](https://picnet.com.au/blog/when-ai-must-not-act-alone-human-in-the-loop-patterns-for-security-automation/): Which security actions AI can run unattended, which need a human decision, and the dry-run rollouts, fault semantics and audit trails that make the split hold. - [Ad spend guardrails: automated Google Ads reporting and anomaly alerts](https://picnet.com.au/blog/ad-spend-guardrails-automated-google-ads-reporting-and-anomaly-alerts/): A daily read-only Google Ads report with anomaly alerts on runaway spend and dead campaigns, plus an LLM summary owners read. Architecture, costs and limits. - [A morning digest your team actually reads: AI-summarised news, spend and system health](https://picnet.com.au/blog/a-morning-digest-your-team-actually-reads-ai-summarised-news-spend-and-system-health/): How to build a daily digest email teams actually read: LLM-summarised industry news, yesterday's cloud and ad spend, and whatever monitoring flagged overnight. - [Cloud posture on autopilot: continuously auditing AWS, Azure and Microsoft 365](https://picnet.com.au/blog/cloud-posture-on-autopilot-continuously-auditing-aws-azure-and-microsoft-365/): How we run continuous posture checks across AWS, Azure and Microsoft 365: baseline snapshots, drift alerts, AI-written change summaries, and the limits of the approach. - [Tracking search rankings and AI Overviews without an agency](https://picnet.com.au/blog/tracking-search-rankings-and-ai-overviews-without-an-agency/): How to build a scheduled SERP and AI Overview tracker for your own site: schema, costs per query, rate limits, weekly trend reading, and what an agency still adds. - [Document hygiene at scale: finding stale, duplicated and over-shared files](https://picnet.com.au/blog/document-hygiene-at-scale-finding-stale-duplicated-and-over-shared-files/): How we run scheduled AI-assisted audits over SharePoint and OneDrive to find stale folders, over-shared links and data that should have been deleted. - [Supply-chain attacks: package cooldowns and policy checks for npm, PyPI and NuGet](https://picnet.com.au/blog/supply-chain-attacks-package-cooldowns-and-policy-checks-for-npm-pypi-and-nuget/): Two controls we run across every repository: a package age cooldown and continuous policy checks on lockfiles, install scripts and floating versions. - [An AI blog pipeline with a human editor: how this post was made](https://picnet.com.au/blog/an-ai-blog-pipeline-with-a-human-editor-how-this-post-was-made/): How PicNet's blog pipeline works: a JSON topic backlog, automated weekly research, a drafted post on a review branch, and a human editor who merges. - [The robot that chases people: automated reminders, stale quotes and follow-ups](https://picnet.com.au/blog/the-robot-that-chases-people-automated-reminders-stale-quotes-and-follow-ups/): How to build reminder, stale-quote and follow-up automation that people actually trust: due-date semantics, escalation, snooze, and AI-drafted chase messages. - [Cutting vulnerability noise: using AI and public data to demote CVEs that don't matter](https://picnet.com.au/blog/cutting-vulnerability-noise-using-ai-and-public-data-to-demote-cves-that-don-t-matter/): Most CVEs in a scan report have no fix available. How we use OSV.dev data and a small AI step to demote them safely, and fail noisy when the enrichment breaks. - [Is ChatGPT recommending you? Measuring your visibility to AI assistants](https://picnet.com.au/blog/is-chatgpt-recommending-you-measuring-your-visibility-to-ai-assistants/): How we built a scheduled task that asks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity the questions our buyers ask, and tracks whether PicNet appears over time. - [Practical AI in Marketing: the series](https://picnet.com.au/blog/practical-ai-in-marketing-the-series/): A series on AI in marketing for Australian IT managers: assistant visibility, content pipelines with human editors, and marketing ops automation we run ourselves. - [Practical AI in Business Operations: the series](https://picnet.com.au/blog/practical-ai-in-business-operations-the-series/): A series on unglamorous back-office automation: timesheets, leave, reminders and daily digests, grounded in systems PicNet runs on itself and for clients. - [Reconciling timesheets, leave and payroll automatically](https://picnet.com.au/blog/reconciling-timesheets-leave-and-payroll-automatically/): How we run scheduled cross-system checks between leave forms, timesheets and Xero payroll, where plain joins are enough and where LLM matching earns its place. - [Ransomware early warning: watching leak sites for your name, your clients and your suppliers](https://picnet.com.au/blog/ransomware-early-warning-monitoring-leak-sites-and-dark-web-mentions-with-ai/): How to monitor ransomware leak sites and breach chatter with LLM classification, what separates a real mention from name-collision noise, and what to do in the first hour. - [An LLM-triaged SIEM: reviewing thousands of security events a day with a small team](https://picnet.com.au/blog/an-llm-triaged-siem-reviewing-thousands-of-security-events-a-day-with-a-small-team/): How PicNet runs an LLM triage pass over FortiGate, Entra ID, CloudTrail and SentinelOne logs: the architecture, the costs, prompt-injection risk and human sign-off. - [Practical AI in Cyber Security: the series](https://picnet.com.au/blog/practical-ai-in-cyber-security-the-series/): How a small senior team runs 24/7 security monitoring with LLM triage. Real systems, honest costs and failure modes, from PicNet's own production platform. - [Governing AI in Australian health: privacy, PHI and safe adoption](https://picnet.com.au/blog/governing-ai-in-australian-health-privacy-phi-and-safe-adoption/): How Australian health organisations can govern AI use of patient data: Privacy Act obligations, residency and model choice, human sign-off, and vendor questions. - [Scanning public health signals: outbreak and drug safety news monitoring](https://picnet.com.au/blog/scanning-public-health-signals-outbreak-and-drug-safety-news-monitoring/): How to build an AI monitor for WHO, TGA and state health alerts: feed ingestion, tiered classification, routing to the right team, and honest precision and recall trade-offs. - [A policy and procedure chat assistant for health organisations](https://picnet.com.au/blog/a-policy-and-procedure-chat-assistant-rag-for-health-organisations/): How to build a grounded RAG assistant over internal health policies: citations, refusals, why RAG beats fine-tuning, and the evaluation you run before rollout. - [Where deterministic matching ends: cleaning and matching patient records with AI](https://picnet.com.au/blog/cleaning-and-matching-patient-and-customer-records-with-ai-and-integration-tooling/): How to resolve duplicate patient and customer records across systems: deterministic rules first, LLM adjudication on the grey zone, human sign-off. - [From meeting audio to structured minutes in health settings](https://picnet.com.au/blog/from-meeting-audio-to-structured-minutes-in-health-settings/): How to turn committee and case conference audio into structured minutes in Australian health services: consent, accuracy review, retention and real error rates. - [Mining patient feedback and complaints for themes](https://picnet.com.au/blog/mining-patient-feedback-and-complaints-for-themes/): How Australian health services can turn years of free-text patient feedback and complaints into themes and risk signals, with an architecture, costs and limits. - [AI-assisted medical coding: suggestions your coders can defend](https://picnet.com.au/blog/ai-assisted-medical-coding-and-billing-support/): How to build an AI assistant that suggests ICD-10-AM and AR-DRG codes for coder review in Australian hospitals: architecture, audit trails, costs and honest limits. - [Predicting appointment no-shows: what actually works in an Australian clinic](https://picnet.com.au/blog/predicting-appointment-no-shows-with-machine-learning/): Building a no-show prediction model for an Australian clinic: local base rates, features, class imbalance, honest accuracy figures and intervention design. - [Summarising clinical and referral documents with AI](https://picnet.com.au/blog/summarising-clinical-and-referral-documents-with-ai/): Turning free-text referrals and discharge summaries into structured summaries with human sign-off: extraction over abstraction, grounding controls and onshore data. - [Building a daily AI digest of global health news](https://picnet.com.au/blog/building-a-daily-ai-digest-of-global-health-news/): How we built a scheduled AI task that reads global health news overnight and emails a grounded summary each morning, for a few cents a day. - [Practical AI in Health: the series](https://picnet.com.au/blog/practical-ai-in-health-the-series/): A series on practical AI for Australian health IT teams: working systems, real costs, honest limits, human oversight and Australian privacy rules.