Credit: Sealink
Macquarie Telecom has secured a multi-million dollar project with land and marine, tourism and public transport service provider Kelsian Group (formerly SeaLink) using Optus mobile, Azure cloud and VMware SD-WAN.
Kelsian Group operates fleets throughout Australia, the UK and Singapore and was formed following a A$635 million acquisition of Transit Systems.
Macquarie Telecom had previously provided SD-WAN, mobile and cloud services to Transit Systems, but needed to prove its worth in the new company. Ultimately, it secured a much larger deal switching the majority of Kelsian Group’s mobile services held primarily by a major telco and Singapore-based cloud services company to Macquarie’s network.
Kelsian Group CIO Chris Benson said Macquarie Telecom’s service and reliability stood out as key reasons to trust the company and expand its previous agreement with Transit Systems.
“In a transformative merger like we had with Kelsian Group and Transit Systems, there’s a lot of going back to the drawing board to ensure supply partners are equipped to service the new structure," he said. “Macquarie Telecom really had to justify its position in the new Kelsian Group and ultimately Macquarie’s efficiency and customer service made all the difference.”
The new agreement provides additional cloud services, including engaging Macquarie’s Azure expertise to help manage Australian workloads, the migration of a Singapore-based production environment and the critical applications that manage the core operations for staff and bus networks.
“The team has become an extension of our own and is helping to educate our IT personnel, particularly in Azure skills, which are in high demand,” Benson said.
SD-WAN services are being extended across more than 35 locations of Kelsian Group’s Australian Public Transport Division, maximising network visibility, reliability and control.
The company’s public transport mobile services are now under Macquarie’s Optus-backed 5G network, with Kelsian Group also considering Optus for the rest of its fleet.
“Communications reliability is essential from a safety and efficiency perspective across our teams. Admittedly, we were sceptical about Optus being able to provide the coverage we needed. Macquarie expertly guided us – using the Optus roadmap, giving us the confidence and flexibility to ensure it would meet our needs – while significantly reducing costs,” Benson said.
Macquarie is also working with specialist mobile partner Mobile Mentor on a proof-of-concept (POC) trial rolling out 200 tablets to Kelsian Group buses. The tablets track GPS position and communicates back to the operations centre, with the real-time data used to keep buses on schedule.
Last year Macquarie signed a $34 million exclusive multi-year agreement with Optus for the deployment of mobile services in Australia and secured Microsoft Azure Expert MSP status.
