wikinews | Wikinews interviews Bureau of Meteorology, Australia over the AU$96.5M website upgrade bill announced by new CEO

In November 2025 the new Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) chief, Dr Stuart Minchin, confirmed that the agency’s website rebuild had cost AU $96.5 million – far above the originally advertised AU $4.1 million front‑end upgrade cap. The figure was disclosed after Environment Minister Murray Watt asked the new CEO to “get on top of” the bill and provide a full explanation. BOM said the overhaul was needed because the old site no longer met modern accessibility, security and usability standards, and that a complete rebuild was the only way to ensure a reliable, safe platform for the millions of Australians who depend on it for weather information.

The project was delivered by a consortium of private consultants, with Accenture receiving AU $78 million (up from an initial AU $38 million award) and Deloitte taking AU $35 million (up from AU $11 million), plus an additional AU $12.6 million for launch and security testing. While the rebuild was originally approved by the former Turnbull Liberal government, it continued under the subsequent Morrison and Albanese administrations; National Party leaders David Littleproud and former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce have publicly criticised the cost as excessive. BOM noted that the work also responded to a 2015 cyber‑attack that highlighted the need for a more resilient digital platform.

Since the new site went live on 22 October, BOM has rolled out several user‑driven improvements: radar and weather maps were reverted to an earlier, more intuitive layout; the default weather‑map view now shows rain reflectivity (dBZ); and fire‑behaviour index information was made more accessible on 7 November. The agency emphasised that the rebuild relies on widely adopted open‑source components and modern web standards to deliver better performance, accessibility and security, and that ongoing updates will continue to be guided by user feedback, research and business needs.

Read more: https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews_interviews_Bureau_of_Meteorology%2C_Australia_over_the_AU%2496.5M_website_upgrade_bill_announced_by_new_CEO

#wikinews #bureauofmeteorology #stuartminchin #murraywatt #accenture

Accenture Federal Services

Fatcats, getting rich while the Veterans they are supposed to serve, suffer.

Then persecuting me as a whistleblower.

https://whistleblower.lovestoblog.com/

#EvilCompanyNames #HashTagGames #NoEffort #AFS #Whistleblower #Veteran #Veterans #VeteransDay #USVeterans #Corruption #Accenture

RE: https://mastodon.social/@rikviergever/116189580840064912

Really important to understand the implications of this.

And to get off these two products *now*

#Accenture are unscrupulous vultures.

#Speedtest #downdectector

<rant class="livid">

What a disaster the BOM website continues to be.

Simple things like daily weather observations, easily accessed on the old functional site. Resorting to use search for basic data demonstrates a lazily designed website. Laziness is one of Accenture's core competencies.

Finally searched for Redcliffe. The data is not available for months. September 2025 has the latest sensible data. October 2025 data and later is b0rken

https://www.bom.gov.au/climate/dwo/202510/html/IDCJDW4099.202510.shtml

 It is easy to declare an "efficiency dividend" if you never maintain and develop anything 😖 Degrade the service then flog it off.  

What is even worse, using the same search string but substituting "Redcliffe" with "Brisbane" gives no result at all, for a set of data that should be intact.

Did BOM overpay Accenture for a useless website so they can monetise OUR DATA by flogging it off to the myriad of "Weather" apps? Those apps belong in the same bin as Private Health Insurance, Accenture, and Private Schools.

Successive Federal governments over the twenty first century have underfunded our precious public institutions and infrastructure, all so a class of citizens can infested with gas guzzling status symbols and another class can more effciently siphon off OUR wealth.

</rant>

#auspol #BOM #accenture

Team Horizon wrapped up @Sitecore Hackathon 2026-built an LLMS.txt generator widget to make Sitecore sites AI‑ready. Not smooth, but worth it.

👉 https://tinyurl.com/SCLLM

#SitecoreHackathon2026 #SCHackathon #Sitecore #Hackathon #SitecoreAI #SitevoreMVP #AvanadeDoWhatMatters #SitecoreHackathon2026 #HackathonVibes #SitecoreCommunity #MVPBuzz #Avanade #Accenture #Microsoft #WeAreReinventors #SitecoreSYM #SUGCON #bemyfriend #whycantyoubemyfriend

Team Horizon is live for Sitecore Hackathon 2026 - Team are deep in the build, figuring things out as we go. It’s messy, fun, and very real.

Good luck to everyone joining!
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#SitecoreHackathon2026 #SCHackathon #Sitecore #Hackathon #HackathonVibes #SitecoreAI #SitecoreCommunity
#SitevoreMVP #MVPBuzz #Avanade #AvanadeDoWhatMatters #Accenture #Microsoft #WeAreReinventors #SitecoreSYM #SUGCON #bemyfriend #whycantyoubemyfriend

Accenture compra Ookla – El gigante de la consultoría se hace con Speedtest y Downdetector

En una operación que promete redefinir el control de los datos de conectividad global, Accenture ha anunciado la adquisición de Ookla, la empresa matriz de servicios esenciales como Speedtest y Downdetector. El acuerdo, valorado en 1.200 millones de dólares, otorga a la consultora tecnológica el acceso a la base de datos de rendimiento de red más grande del mundo y a la plataforma de monitoreo de caídas de servicios más utilizada del planeta (Fuente Accenture).

Esta adquisición se produce en una semana marcada por la inestabilidad digital, tras las caídas reportadas en Amazon, Anthropic y los problemas de servicios de Meta, lo que subraya el valor estratégico de poseer las herramientas que diagnostican la salud de Internet en tiempo real.

¿Por qué Accenture quiere a Ookla?

Para Accenture, esta no es solo una compra de aplicaciones populares; es una adquisición de inteligencia crítica:

• Datos de Red en Tiempo Real: Con Speedtest, Accenture ahora posee datos granulares sobre el despliegue de 5G, 6G y conectividad satelital en cada rincón del mundo. Esto es oro puro para sus servicios de consultoría a operadoras de telecomunicaciones.
• Downdetector como Sensor Global: Al controlar Downdetector, Accenture se convierte en el primer ente en saber cuándo falla un servicio en la nube, una red social o una plataforma bancaria. Esta «alerta temprana» será integrada en sus servicios de gestión de crisis para clientes corporativos.
• Sinergia con la IA: Accenture planea alimentar sus modelos de IA predictiva con los billones de registros de rendimiento de Ookla para ayudar a las empresas a predecir fallos de infraestructura antes de que ocurran.

¿Qué pasará con los usuarios de Speedtest y Downdetector?

Muchos entusiastas de la tecnología temen que estos servicios gratuitos se vuelvan de pago o se llenen de publicidad corporativa. Sin embargo, el CEO de Accenture, Julie Sweet, ha intentado calmar las aguas:

«Ookla seguirá operando como una unidad independiente. Nuestra intención es fortalecer sus capacidades de análisis, no alterar la experiencia de usuario que millones de personas consultan diariamente para verificar su conexión».

Un ecosistema digital cada vez más concentrado

Esta compra sigue la tendencia de 2026, donde las grandes firmas de servicios profesionales están adquiriendo capas de infraestructura de datos. Mientras que empresas como Apple lanzan MacBooks económicos y Qualcomm presenta chips Elite para relojes, Accenture ha decidido ser el dueño del «termómetro» con el que medimos toda esa tecnología.

Para los analistas, el verdadero valor de los 1.200 millones de dólares reside en la capacidad de Accenture para ofrecer informes exclusivos de mercado a gobiernos y grandes empresas, utilizando los datos de millones de pruebas de velocidad realizadas por usuarios comunes cada día.

Drei interessante Tech-News von heute:

(1) Apple hatte heute seinen iPad-Moment für Laptops und hat das MacBook Neo vorgestellt: Ein MacBook auf Basis des iPhone-Chips (!) (Konkret der A18 Pro vom iPhone 16 Pro.) zum Kampfpreis von 599 US-Dollar bzw. hierzulande 699 Euro. Wir dürften hier den sich am besten verkaufenden Laptop ever sehen und den ultimativen Chromebook-Killer. Der Werbespot ist toll, …

→ https://eay.li/3zw #blog #apple  #raycast #accenture