SproutX, an initiative from Findex, has announced that it will launch their Business of Agriculture Program in March 2021 to attract new entrants to the AgTech sector. The national early stage AgTech mentorship accelerator and pre-accelerator program provider will look to expedite science and technology entrepreneurs into Victorian agribusinesses.

SproutX has partnered with LaunchVic who recently announced a $2.2 million injection into their AgTech Pre Accelerator program, as well as The University of Melbourne and Marcus Oldham College. Funding from the state innovation agency LaunchVic will be used to run the two-year project, with a target to foster 70 incorporated startups by 2024.

“We believe that increasing the volume of entrepreneurship at ideation stage will have a flow on effect and number of startups that grow into investment-ready opportunities down the track,” said Maxie Juang, SproutX Community Manager.

“Through the SproutX Business of Agriculture Pre-Accelerator Program, we aim to boost the number of investment-ready AgTech startups from Victoria. We are excited to be partnering with the University of Melbourne and LaunchVic in delivering world-changing ideas that are ready to be commercialised.”

Kate Cornick, CEO of LaunchVic, “SproutX provides word-class commercialisation support for founders tackling the agriculture sector’s biggest challenges – taking new ideas from farm gate to plate. With support from LaunchVic, we’re delighted to see the team join forces with the University of Melbourne to take 154 aspiring entrepreneurs through The Business of Agriculture Pre-Accelerator Program, a new initiative designed to engage non-traditional participants in the Victorian startup ecosystem.”

The pre-accelerator program is a free 10-week online course and will run an autumn and a spring cohort each year.  The online workshops and farm tours will cater to individuals from tertiary research, academic, and corporate R&D participants to consider commercial opportunities through startup.

SproutX has built a strong reputation since launching 2016 and has an active portfolio of 26 food and AgTech startups, from pre-seed to Series A.

There are signs that the Coronavirus pandemic is creating a structural shift in gender equality as pressure eases on some of the key barriers to women’s financial progress in 2021, the Financy Women’s Index December quarter report shows.

Key Results Financy Women’s Index

• The Financy Women’s Index (FWX) finished 2021 up 1.6% to 72.3 points with women’s financial progress and time to economic equality better than expected.
• The key drivers of the FWX in 2021 included the closing of the gender gaps in employment, ASX 200 board positions and unpaid work. 
•  However there was a 2.2% drop in the Index during the December quarter, weighed down by a worsening gender pay gap.
• The timeframe to economic gender equality now stands at 59 years, down from a revised 76 years based on the worst performing area – unpaid work.

Bianca Hartge-Hazelman, author of the Financy Women’s Index, said that 2022 presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Australia to consolidate the gains of 2021 towards economic gender equality.

The FWX finished 1.6% higher at 72.3 points compared to 71.2 points in December 2020, aided by a closing of the gender gaps in employment, ASX 200 board positions and unpaid work.

It will now take 59 years to achieve financial gender equality in Australia, down from a revised 76 years in 2020, based on the worst performing area of progress – unpaid work.

Data suggests that more flexible work arrangements and a better division of unpaid labour has enabled women to spend less time on unpaid work overall, whilst men are spending slightly more of their overall time in this area.

“The significant reduction in the timeframes to equality has surprised the FWX Advisory Board because we expected that the unpaid workloads of women had probably increased as a result of home-schooling and working from home during the lockdowns,” said Ms Hartge-Hazelman.

“But in fact, women appear to have been working more than ever in paid employment, although for less financial reward than men.

“While it is encouraging to see a greater balance in paid and unpaid work between women and men, if this is to be a long-term structural shift then it is vital that we also see female workforce earnings keep up, especially in those hard-hit services areas like Health,” said Mrs Hartge-Hazelman.

This quarter, the Financy Women’s Index sheds some light on one of the big questions to have emerged during COVID-19 – who bore the brunt of the unpaid work?

“The unpaid work index remains one the most important indicators of women’s progress, with the division of domestic tasks so closely tied to gender norms,” said Rhiannon Yetsenga, an economist at Deloitte Access Economics.

“The pandemic and associated lockdowns have shown a path towards greater gender equality through more flexible working, but further cultural and structural change is required if we want to enable progress beyond the modest improvements seen this quarter,” said Ms Yetsenga.

Despite the annual FWX improvement, a disappointing December quarter weighed on the result, with a 2.2% drop driven by a widening in the gender pay gap (14.2%). 

This was the only area of the Index which failed to improve over the year.

It acted as a drag on the annual rate of progress towards women’s economic equality, bringing it to about half of that recorded for the 2020 calendar year (1.6% versus 3%.)

“It’s frustrating to learn that, despite living in a wealthy, well-educated society in the 21st century, the Financy Women’s Index estimates it will take close to 22 years to close the gender pay gap,” said Effie Zahos, independent director InvestSMART.

“Right now, Australia is facing a skills shortage, and there may never be a better time for women to exercise their workplace clout and be paid what they are worth,” said Ms Zahos.

Among the other key findings on women’s economic progress: 

• the gender gap in underemployment is now the smallest it has ever been, reflecting that strong labour market conditions combined with greater work flexibility during the pandemic has improved employment opportunities for Australian women. 
• there was also an improvement in the number of monthly hours worked by women (6% gain versus a 5% gain for men in the December quarter). 
• the number of women on ASX 200 boards increased over the latest quarter to 34.5%, as of January 31, according to the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Nicki Hutley independent economist said she is “optimistic” that changes in the unpaid work balance will stick after the pandemic passes.

“There is still a lot of work to do and it’s concerning that some areas have worsened, especially the gap in graduate salaries. A gap right from the start tends to expand over the years and sets up a lifetime of inequality,” she said.

The remaining sub-indices of the Women’s Index such as Superannuation and Education will be updated in the March quarter of 2022.

Dr Shane Oliver, chief economist AMP said Australia needs to work harder on to getting gender equality right.

“The pandemic and associated lockdowns have shown a path towards greater gender equality through more flexible working – the key is for business, governments and workers to grasp the opportunity and push forward long after we leave the pandemic behind,” said Dr Oliver.

D-Link A/NZ has extended its 10 Gigabit Smart Managed Switch range with two new models that boast a higher port count and 25GE support. The new DXS-1210-28S and DXS-1210-28T 10 Gigabit Smart Switches offer cost-effective, intelligent options as potential Enterprise Aggregation points, affordable Access layer solutions, or as SMB Core Switch network roles.

D-Link A/NZ MD Graeme Reardon said, “The new DXS-1210-28S and DXS-1210-28T Smart Managed Switches represent truly affordable 10GB Switching. The DXS Series offers 10GB ports across the entire range and joining this series we now have the DXS-1210-28T which enjoys not only 10GB ports, but also four 25GB uplink ports that users could combine into a 100GB uplink if necessary. Alongside this, the DXS-1210-28S has all 10GB SFP+ ports and 10GBASE-T copper ports, giving users many deployment options between these two new Switches. In short, they are advanced, Smart Managed switches that provide a cost-effective way for businesses to get access to a full 10GB switch solution.”

The DXS-1210-28S and DXS-1210-28T represent two new high port count additions to the DXS-1210 Series. From access and aggregation in an enterprise network to forming the core of a smaller business network, these new additions provide intuitive, flexible and cost-effective options for IT Managers. 

The DXS-1210-28S is equipped with 24 x SFP+ ports and 4 x 10GBASE-T ports, allowing long-distance connectivity using fibre transceivers as well as the flexibility of additional copper ports. Both Switches offer high performance and low latency that are well suited to support virtualisation, cloud services, and server-to-server applications, making them the ideal choice to manage high-bandwidth demand.

The DXS-1210 Series Switches offer a robust line-up of L2 features to improve the manageability and performance of a network. These include port mirroring, Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), and Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP). They also offer lite layer 3 functions such as wire-speed inter-VLAN static routing to further enhance network efficiency by reducing the pressure on Routers and backbone networks. 

Each of these DXS-1210 Series Switches also offers a range of sophisticated but simple to deploy security features including D-Link’s innovative Safeguard Engine™ which works to protect against traffic flooding caused by malicious attacks. Additionally, the Switches support 802.1X port-based and host-based authentication for network access control as well as ACL, ARP spoofing prevention and DHCP server screening to enhance network security and improve protection against threats.

D-Link’s Green technology capabilities help the switches minimise power and cooling demands, powering down unused ports, when possible, to save resources and reduce their carbon footprint.

The DXS-1210 Series can be managed through its multi-lingual Web UI, a full command-line interface (CLI) via Telnet or console port, as well as with the D-View Network Management System.

Availability and pricing 10 Gigabit Smart Managed Switch

The new DXS-1210-28S and DXS-1210-28T 10 Gigabit Smart Managed Switch range are available from www.dlink.com.au (RRP AUD$3,399.95 and $4,399.95) and from all D-Link Certified Partners and Resellers.

Also read Small Business Answers guide to a computer network for small businesses.

As the economy continues to battle the ongoing waves of COVID-19, businesses who are struggling to pay legacy debts may be left wondering what their future might look like. A small business restructure may be the answer.

In support of businesses under pressure, the Australian Tax Office (ATO) has encouraged taxpayers to lodge their returns on time to receive stimulus payments, such as Jobkeeper, even if the taxpayer couldn’t pay the underlying tax debt. As such, the ATO recently reported that business tax debt has ballooned from $24.9b (30 June 2020) to $53.8b (30 June 2021 – pre-Omicron).

The Small Business Restructure (SBR) process was introduced to enable eligible businesses to compromise their debts with their creditors’ agreement to maximise the chances of trading viably in the future. Unlike any other insolvency procedure, under the SBR process, business owners remain in control of their business during the restructuring.

While the ATO scaled back its debt recovery actions for much of the pandemic, it has recently taken a more assertive approach with an expectation that businesses address tax debts, usually by way of repayment plan, in some instances up to three years. The SBR is a viable alternative to a repayment plan. It can also be used to prevent directors from being individually liable either for Insolvent Trading or if they received a Director Penalty Notice from the ATO to personally repay the entirety of the company’s tax debt.

John McInerney, Partner – Financial Advisory at Grant Thornton, said: “While a repayment plan may appear attractive to a debt-riddled business owner, there is often a failure to adjust the underlying business model, in which case the business may end up collapsing with a heavier debt burden.

“As businesses find their feet in the new normal, advisors will be called on more than ever to assist clients to deal with legacy debts, including the ATO in many cases. The ATO was a major creditor in 70 per cent of SME insolvencies pre-COVID, and is now likely over-represented in the creditor pool as a result of the growth in ATO business debt during the pandemic.”

Throughout the SBR, creditors are prohibited from taking action against the business to recover money and/or property, including terminating contracts and formal debt recovery proceedings. Directors are assisted through the SBR by a restructuring practitioner, who must be a registered liquidator.

“Based on our recent engagement with the ATO, they are supportive of the new SBR process introduced 1 January 2021 to manage the predicted tsunami of insolvencies. To date there has been an approximate 90 per cent success rate for businesses who have undertaken the Small Business Restructure, which is a high success rate,” continued McInerney.

Which companies are eligible for a Small Business Restructure?

• Liabilities – Total debts must not exceed $1m.
• Tax affairs – All lodgements must be up to date.
• Employee entitlements – All employee entitlements that are due and payable must be paid in full (including superannuation).
• Limitation on time period – The company and its directors (current or in the previous 12 months), must not have engaged in a Small Business Restructure or Simplified Liquidation process in the past 7 years.

Australia’s leading travel management company for SMEs, has launched a new and improved iteration of its online booking platform. Called CT.GO, the new functionality enables businesses that partner with Corporate Traveller to implement the new online booking tool in just 24 hours.

This means that customers can onboard with CT.GO and start making bookings the next business day. Or if they have specific travel needs, customers can select a more customised solution.

Corporate Traveller General Manager Tom Walley said the new online booking solution was a winner with SMEs that wanted a quick and easy online booking solution that comes with all Corporate Traveller’s premium business travel products.

“This is a fully-integrated online travel booking solution for businesses that want to book trips with minimal fuss. Your business and travellers will have full access to our global travel network by the next business day,” Mr Walley said.

“Not only does CT.GO fast-track the onboarding process, but the solution means customers also get to use our AI-powered online booking tool Savi, our award-winning mobile app Sam – and they get a slick and easy-to-navigate user interface.

“It’s one platform with single sign-on for all your travel needs that can be rolled out rapidly and at no cost.”

Businesses using CT.GO allows travellers and bookers to manage all aspects of their travel. This includes being able to manage or view profiles, passport details, rewards and frequent flyer programs, travel alerts, travel invoices and expense reports.

Key features of CT.GO include:

• Free, next business day implementation

• Intuitive user interface for simple, fast, and easy management of travel bookings

• Full integration with Qantas Business Rewards and Accelerate for air travel savings and benefits

• Easy access to all Corporate Traveller’s negotiated SmartSTAY and SmartDRIVE rates to ensure customers are saving on accommodation and car hire

• Efficient payment options you can tailor to your billing cycle.

“CT.GO is an excellent solution for businesses with decentralised travel programs in that the onboarding process could be as quick and easy as customers required, with a fast self-registration process for staff travellers and bookers,” Mr Walley said.

“Or if companies wanted more hands-on training this also was provided. CT.GO is a cost and time efficient solution for businesses with simple travel needs but who still want access to all the bells and whistles technology that we offer.”

Australia’s debit card system, eftpos, is continuing its rollout of secure online payments options at a pace, today announcing the certification of local fraud and risk management company GPayments’ 3D Secure Server solution, ActiveServer. 

GPayments’ ActiveServer is now certified with eftpos Secure and can potentially make the eftpos-enabled two factor authentication security service available to hundreds of Australian merchants, gateways and acquirers, including some leading Australian supermarkets over the coming months. 

eftpos CEO Stephen Benton said eftpos’ online security capability is crucial to the evolution of Australia’s post-COVID digital payments ecosystem, in order to drive competition and bring to life features designed to keep Australians safe in the Digital Economy.

Mr Benton said GPayments’ ActiveServer was  certified for eftpos Secure, and eftpos’ security kit bag now included two factor authentication (3DS), tokenisation, automated Disputes and Chargebacks, a digital identity solution, connectID, and a new AI fraud detection engine.

eftpos’ continuing online rollout follows the Reserve Bank of Australia’s decision in October that Australian banks are expected to offer and promote Least Cost Routing (LCR) for ‘tap -and-go’ transactions by the end of 2022.

Mr Benton said eftpos’ extension further into online payments will quickly drive much needed large-scale competition and should place downward pressure on transaction costs.

“Our suite of world class eCommerce products and services is part of a $100m eftpos funded digital upgrade to deliver the next generation of secure payments technology,” Mr Benton said.  “In some retail sectors, online shopping is becoming the new norm, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This makes fraud prevention and detection all the more important for Australian consumers and merchants transacting in the digital economy. We need to provide the very best protections we can to keep people safe.

For online transactions eftpos is already available for some Card On File payments where banks have implemented the service for their merchant customers, and Deposits and Withdrawal payments via the Beem It mobile wallet.  The rollout of eftpos online is now accelerating and will become broadly available by the end of the year.

GPayments’ ActiveServer enables merchants to take advantage of key liability shift and avoid chargebacks by placing the responsibility for cardholder authentication with issuers. 

GPayments CEO and Founder Bahram Boutorabi said GPayments’ was very pleased to be connecting with eftpos, a fellow Australian company, on fraud risk management solutions that help safeguard the payment ecosystem end-to-end. 

“This is a great way to celebrate the 30th anniversary of our company by achieving eftpos Secure certification to support local industry in Australia,” Mr Boutorabi said.

An Australian auction company, Lloyds Auctions is carrying the baton for the private sector, by supplying over 400,000 highly sensitive bulk cheap Rapid Antigen Tests to Australian businesses as one of the Nation’s cheapest tests available for only $8 each.

“Aussie businesses have been left with only breadcrumbs to survive on during this pandemic, so we are choosing to help support struggling businesses by providing bulk quantities of Rapid Antigen Tests for only $8 each with no limits.” said Mr. Lee Hames, Chief Operations Officer for Lloyds Auctions.

“As Josh Frydenberg commented today, it is time for the private sector to take the baton and continue to run hard,” stated Mr. Hames.

The 400,000 tests available are known as Cellife, one of the highest quality RAT tests on the market and available for distribution now.

“It should be recognised that not only have individuals been struggling to get these tests but both small and large Australian businesses, these are the people keeping our economy going and they are struggling to continue trading without having these Rapid Antigen Tests on hand.” said Mr. Hames.

“For this reason, we want to guarantee a supply to as many Australian businesses as possible allowing them to specify the quantity they need,” continued Mr. Hames.

Lloyds Auctions are known for their contribution towards the community where back in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic, they were fortunate to receive thousands of bottles of sanitiser when Australia had next to nothing available. The team came together to give these sanitisers away to the community and have come into a similar circumstance yet again with these Rapid Antigen Tests.

“Like many Australian businesses struggling to trade during the pandemic we actually put a call out to our Lloyds family desperately asking for goods to sell on our site and someone replied saying they had hundreds of thousands of Rapid Antigen Tests for sale,” said Mr. Hames.

“Again, our team purchased tens of thousands of those which we gave away for free to individuals in need,” he continued.

“The response so far has been overwhelming both physically and emotionally for our team who are passionate about helping people who are really struggling to find or afford these tests, but it is very rewarding, and people are extremely grateful,” continued Mr. Hames.

People can head to the Lloyds Auctions website at www.lloydsauctions.com.au to purchase the Rapid Antigen Tests or contact family@lloydsauctions.com.au or call 1800 456 588 for a custom quantity of Rapid Antigen Tests for delivery until supply runs out.

In its most significant new product launch for some time, D-Link has kicked off 2022 by unveiling its all-new R15 EAGLE PRO AI AX1500 Smart Router, M15-2PK and M15-3PK EAGLE PRO AI AX1500 Mesh Systems and E15 AX1500 Mesh Range Extender. The powerful new EAGLE PRO AI series combines the latest Wi-Fi 6 technology with artificial intelligence (AI) to offer incredible Wi-Fi coverage and speed – delivering a continuously optimising and improving network, ideal for home users and small offices.

D-Link A/NZ MD, Graeme Reardon said, “The EAGLE PRO AI Series is particularly significant as it is the first series to offer a complete range of products that not only integrate the latest in Wi-Fi 6 technology with artificial intelligence to offer incredible Wi-Fi coverage and speed, but have been specifically designed to do so together, from the ground up. This means users get the most seamless, powerful, efficient and easy to use Wi-Fi experience possible.”

The R15 EAGLE PRO AI AX1500 Smart Router offers dual-band wireless speeds of up to 1,500 Mbps, delivering blazing-fast Wi-Fi with increased range and reliability and Wi-Fi coverage of up to 230 square metres. This allows Wi-Fi to be experienced like never before and offers a perfect solution for those who require stable Wi-Fi with minimal interference. 

Bringing Wi-Fi 6 technology and AI into one place, the R15 offers 1024 QAM, MU-MIMO and OFDMA to boost speed, range, and network efficiency. The built-in AI Wi-Fi Optimiser continuously scans for the Wi-Fi channels with the least interference to always offer the best connection.

At the same time, the AI Traffic Optimiser prioritises the most critical Internet usage for optimal online experience and stability. AI Parental Control offers users flexibility and control over children’s online activities ensuring their safety is always prioritised. 

The new router is easy to set up and manage and you can even create an extended mesh Wi-Fi with the E15 EAGLE PRO AI Mesh Extender or the M15-2PK and M15-3PK Mesh Systems. It also features the AI Mesh Optimiser, which strengthens the connection between mesh nodes with unique AI beamforming technology, to deliver seamless and reliable Wi-Fi. 

Managing your Wi-Fi has never been easier with the integrated AI Assistant which continuously reviews the network and monitors data usage, sending recommendations and weekly reports to the EAGLE PRO AI app.

D-Link’s new M15-2PK two-pack and M15-3PK three pack EAGLE PRO AI AX1500 Mesh Systems and E15 AX1500 Mesh Range Extender again offer incredible Wi-Fi 6 coverage and speed, similarly and continuously optimised and improved like the R15 through artificial intelligence and faultless connectivity.

The EAGLE PRO AI AX1500 M15-2PK and M15-3PK Mesh Systems are designed to offer seamless Wi-Fi coverage of up to 370 square metres and 500 square metres respectively, with the option to expand to a maximum of four units. Again, the AI Mesh Optimiser establishes the strongest link between them to give you a robust mesh network across your entire home.

The E15 EAGLE PRO AI AX1500 Mesh Range Extender allows you to extend your Wi-Fi to where it is needed most to experience next-generation Wi-Fi. When combined with an existing EAGLE PRO AI Smart Router or Mesh System it fully utilises all the AI functionality to once again create an intelligent Mesh Wi-Fi network that is continuously optimising and improving. At the same time, the integrated Gigabit Ethernet port allows you to easily connect a wired device such as a Smart TV to your Wi-Fi network.

Similarly, the built-in AI Assistant automatically reviews the network, sending recommendations and reports, accessible through the EAGLE PRO AI app or the device web configuration page, while WPA3 support means your Wi-Fi network is protected by the latest in wireless encryption technology.

What’s more, the EAGLE PRO AI Series is compatible with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, allowing users to use voice control to easily manage their network in the most convenient way.

The EAGLE PRO AI Series is available now from www.dlink.com.au and from all authorised D-Link partners and retailers at the following RRP:

R15 Eagle PRO AI AX1500 Smart Router – AUD$199.95

M15-2PK EAGLE PRO AI AX1500 Mesh System (2-Pack) – AUD$279.95

M15-3PK EAGLE PRO AI AX1500 Mesh System (3-Pack) – AUD$379.95

E15 EAGLE PRO AI AX1500 Mesh Range Extender – AUD$179.95

Read Small Business Answers guide to setting up a Wi-Fi network

iCT Group and Jeeves.Plus partnership solves multi-lingual customer service challenges for Australian businesses and government.

With only 6% of Australia’s top 50 customer-facing companies having multilingual capabilities, finally a solution. Privately held Australian company, iCT Group has partnered with Jeeves.Plus, an Australian Start-Up, to address challenges faced by companies and all levels of government dealing with customers whose first language may not be English.

The Jeeves.Plus Customer Service Platform harnesses all forms of messaging from Facebook Messenger to WhatsApp and streamlines communication from these applications into a single user interface. It translates all inbound and outbound messaging into the user’s choice of 109 languages along the way.

David Hayes, CEO of Jeeves.Plus, notes that “the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the urgent need to stay connected to our customers.”

“While we are compelled to keep distance from each other, many businesses have seen a massive increase in online traffic and phone, email or messaging queries”. 

“Similarly, Australia’s recent bushfire and flood disasters have shown a similar need for disseminating urgent information that can be understood clearly by all members of our community”.

“Covid has highlighted that this is an ideal time to partner with iCT Group. We can bring our technology to businesses across Australia who are struggling to handle the volume and urgency of these inbound requests, or maybe lacking the capacity to take advantage of the sales opportunities they present.”

iCT Group CEO Emile Nader and his team tested the waters with their clients and has had an immediate take-up of the technology with a major property group. 

“If there is one country on earth that embraces multiculturalism, it’s Australia. As a linguistically diverse society, we know that various communities comprise of people who are not yet fully proficient in the English language”, Emile said. 

“For this reason, we partnered with Jeeves.Plus to provide intelligent texting and messaging that can take an English phrase (or announcement) and instantly convert it into one of 109 languages. This makes it ideal for sales and marketing organisations as well as urgent government, medical, or safety alerts via text to reach one client, or warn an entire suburb. Nothing is better than a message that arrives in one’s preferred mother-tongue.” 

This is where the true power of messaging lies. Businesses or government organisations can message their databases directly, in any of 109 languages, achieving 98% open rates – a number unseen in email campaigns.

With a platform enabling multiple real-time multilingual conversations between customers and support staff, customer service anywhere can be radically changed to improve customer satisfaction and reduce stress on staff. 

For more information on multi-lingual customer service , contact iCT Group at:
Jason Rowland, General Manager, Jason.Rowland@ictgroup.com.au
Video Explainer –https://youtu.be/qhGLBy5m2uc