Telecommunications group Telstra is teaming up with Accenture to develop cloud computing solutions for Australian and New Zealand customers that will be born in a new innovation lab in Melbourne, Australia.

 

Australian customers in particular are known to be early adopters of technology, and Telstra Chief Technology Officer Dr Hugh Bradlow said he believes the Telstra Product Innovation Lab will help further innovative solutions for government and business customers interested in the Cloud.

 

"We know Australian organizations are increasingly looking to the Cloud for their IT services and the lab will prove a powerful tool to help us develop the best possible services for our customers into the future," Bradlow said.

 

Accenture already has a number of innovation labs around the world. Accenture CTO Dr Gavin Michael said this is the first lab established in partnership with a client. It will be housed in a Telstra facility.

 

"This will not only allow us to bring globally proven cloud-based solutions to Australia quickly, it will also help our joint clients continue to lead the charge in innovative practices," Michael said.

 

Accenture’s established labs focus on unified communications, analytics, mobile technologies, emerging architecture and other technology alliances.

 

Telstra and Accenture are no strangers to each other when it comes to doing business in Australia. In August Telstra joined an Accenture-led consortium with Cerner to help build the Federal Government’s AU$466.7m electronic health record. Oracle, Orion Health, ThinkPlace, Extensia and Ocean Informatics will also be included in the project.

 

Under the agreement Telstra will host the web portals used to update information as part of what is described as a "cloud-like" service, while the information itself will be hosted on the servers of individual health bodies and facilities.

 

It is not known if this new lab will be used to further develop the work being done under the current Federal Government contract.