Corporate Profile BAL Consulting

Consult your friend on all things, especially on those which respect yourself. His counsel may then be useful when your own self-love might impair your judgment. - Seneca

Get BAL Consulting to innovate your business

BAL Consulting Pty Ltd

ABN: 80 062 643 958

Unit 1908 / 168-170 Kent Street, Millers Point NSW 2000, Australia

Telephone: +61 414 250 437

Email: info@bal.au

Domains: bal.au, bal.com.au, balconsulting.com, atpost.com and 1con.com

CEO:

Our Firm

At BAL, we strive to lead in the invention, research and development of the industry's most advanced information and communications technologies, specialising in infrastructure, cyber security, big data analytics, cloud and online. We are 100% self-funded and debt free; all our consulting profits are invested in our R&D. We translate these advanced technologies into value for our customers through our professional services and consulting. Our differentiator as a consultancy is our unique ability to bridge business with technology. See our consulting Case Study.

BAL is the founder and supporter of Aerostats All Australia (AAA) initiative for mobile coverage in rural, regional and remote Australia.

BAL's head office is in Sydney, Australia with associates in the major Australian State Capitals, the USA, UK, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, India, Israel, Hong Kong and Singapore since 1978.

We have a track record of R&D

Publications | Citation Policy | Citations Search 8 April 2020

Mission

Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that where the fruit is? - Frank Scully

BAL Consulting's mission is to provide timely, cost-effective, and practical business solutions of high quality and added value that meet our clients' business requirements.

We have established an impeccable reputation in Technology Consulting for both medium to large companies and Government agencies in the areas of Information Technology and Telecommunications. We bridge business with technology and excel in analysing business and investment opportunities.

Philosophy

We are a group of principal consultants each with specialised skills. Each of our consultants has managed his or her own consulting business successfully.

We are against having a generalist outlook and trying to be all things to all men.

We specialise in the provision of professional services for data centre infrastructure, telecommunications research and consulting, e-business, e-commerce and e-services, messaging & collaboration, data warehousing, middleware, application, database and network design, implementation and support as IT&T enablers to implement strategic planning and business process re-engineering.

We are a service only company and guarantee our clients against having any interest in product vendors; BAL Consulting does not accept vendor assignments and does not have any financial interest in any vendor.

All our consultants have a degree and/or are certified professionals with a minimum of ten years of experience; we do not contract 'trainees' at our Clients expense.

Services

True is it that we have seen better days. - William Shakespeare, "As You Like It", Act 1 scene 7

We offer services for:

Cyber Security

Everything is funny if it is happening to Somebody Else. - Will Rogers

· Significant security experience with Government agencies including APRA, Australian Federal Police, Attorney General and several NSW state government departments.
· Telstra Security Program Manager of Cyber Security Transformation. Veteran Program Manager of Telstra and Westpac Transition and Transformation T&T since 2007.
· Delivered Telstra’s Internet content Blocking security project by 30 June 2011 deadline as the CEO’s commitment to the Minister to protect 10m customers from abuse.
· Security hardening of Westpac Online Internet Banking data centre infrastructure and End User Computing. Rebuilt bank’s Internet facing security zone 0. Focus on Infrastructure Security Architecture.
· Westpac Day 121 security integration with St George, BT and Asgard Wealth Management for network address space remediation, DNS and DHCP.
· Telstra Security Program Delivery to Westpac including integration Telstra Identity and Access Management with Westpac’s CORPAU identity store,
ACS LDAP-S services for authentication, and User Access Revalidation (UAR) via Westpac’s SailPoint.
· Delivered ArcSight Security Information Even Management (SIEM) supporting Cyber Security Operations for 8,000 Telstra managed Westpac devices.
· Implemented McAfee end Protection (ePO), McAfee Vulnerability Manager (MVM) as well as Tripwire Enterprise configuration management across Telstra managed Westpac fleet.
· Project managed network security policies, planning and audits for Telstra and banks.
· Security hardening using Citrix for Vodafone Big Data.
· Developed enterprise Internet Security Presence Protection analysis and audit methodology and tools - this I believe is a unique offering rich in Intellectual Property.
· Managed Telstra T-Cloud Big Data Infrastructure Development – one of the largest online projects in the Southern Hemisphere and part of the $1b Telstra cloud program.
Deployed into three Telstra data centres as well as integrated authentication and web services with half-a-dozen Telstra data centres. Managed all security aspects,
· Multiple Telstra repeat business 15-16 assignments over 23 years. Similarly, a dozen assignments for Westpac since 2007.

Data Centre Infrastructure Advisory

Our aim is to continue and excel as a Senior Data Centre Infrastructure Consulting building on many years’ experience in all aspects of online/cloud/infrastructure project delivery for Westpac, ANZ Bank, Futures Brokers, AMP, KPMG, PwC Energy Australia, Telstra & other key clients:

· Westpac Banking Corporation zone 0 Internet facing data centre infrastructure

· Managed Telstra T-Cloud Data Centre Infrastructure Development – one of the largest online projects in the Southern Hemisphere and part of the $1b Telstra cloud program.

· Telstra Big Pond and Telstra Multimedia Senior PM Assignments. Contractor of Telstra a dozen times over 20 years for a total of five years. Telstra and WebCentral Development Partner.

Technical management of large scale multi-data centre build of storage systems, networks, servers, racking and cabling including major data centre moves including decommissioning. Data centre capacity planning including heat dissipation, power and rack space.

Experienced in project managing networks, firewalls, load balancers, servers (Wintel, AIX and RHEL Linux), Oracle, SQL, SharePoint, backup and data replication between data centres. Implemented Telstra’s first EMC Isilon scale-out NAS Big Data solution that natively integrates with the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) layer. Deployed infrastructure into three Telstra data centres as well as integrated authentication and web services with half-a-dozen Telstra data centres.

We have advised on mission critical high availability and security infrastructure for stock broking clearance and futures trading, innovative credit card products, Operational Data Store for single customer view and customer value ranking across a portfolio of financial services for Westpac, upgrade of Internet Banking and Online infrastructure for Westpac, mortgage lending for AMP, front and middle offices for energy trading for Energy.

Our focus is on Data Centre Architecture and Security for hardening of data centre security for Internet access. Delivered Telstra’s Internet content Blocking by 30 June 2011 deadline as the CEO’s commitment to the Minister to protect 10m Internet access customers.

We have hardened the data centre security of Westpac Banking Corporation’s Internet facing data centre security zone 0, implemented High Availability and increased Westpac’s Internet capacity ten-fold through a series of projects from 2007 to 2009.

Telecommunications and Information Technology Planning and Selection

The scars of others should teach us caution. - Saint Jerome, Letter

We provide Feasibility Studies and Product Marketing Support in IT&T, of Internet/Electronic Commerce/e-services. As an example, we provided the original architecture and project management for parts of Telstra Big Pond for Business: Intranet web hosting, messaging and directory services. Our services include:

Business planning
Preparing companies for sale
Support for M&A and MBO investment
Preparation of Tender documents
Analysis and Design of Telecommunications Services
Evaluation, Benchmarking and Selection of hardware, databases, software and communications as integrated system solutions
Projections and Forecasting
Telecommunications Regulatory Authorities
LinkedIn Postings on Telecommunications

Aerostats All Australia AAA Mobile Coverage

Aerostats All Australia (AAA) is a start-up to commercialise the AAA-initiative to extend Mobile Coverage of Australia’s landmass and surrounding sea with high altitude aerostats as a disruptive innovative breakthrough technology reducing cost by at least an order of magnitude in comparison to all other alternatives.

The AAA vision is to provide mobile coverage, with low latency, to anyone with a mobile handset opening interactive real-time Internet applications for remote Australia.

The initial whitepaper with rich contributions by leaders of the Australian wireless operators, vendors and academia was followed by presentations to the Australian Government Department of Communications and the Arts, ACCC and Productivity Commission as well as all five leading wireless operators (Telstra, Optus, VHA, TPG and NBN).

The focus over the last year has been refining the airborne platform for carrier grade operations, analysis of the Radio Access Network payloads including base stations and antennae as well as adapting the operating model to the needs of mobile network operators.

AAA is in commercial discussions with mobile network operations and has put a bid for Commonwealth Funding in the lead up to the 2020 completion of NBN enabling budgets for the Universal Service Obligation to be reallocated subject to negotiations with Telstra and the Australian Government.

Aerostat All Australia AAA Citations

Aerostats All Australia (AAA) Mobile Coverage

AAA for Regional Telecommunications Review

AAA for Productivity Commission USO Inquiry

AAA News in the Press - Communications Day

Retrospective and Vision

Pro Bono Work

BAL takes pride in its Pro Bono work for non-profit organisations such as IEEE and ACM. Also, we have helped many talented post graduate students.

Too many have dispensed with generosity to practice charity - Albert Camus

Wireless, Internet, and e-Business Consulting

Case Study
Internet Presence Protection Services
Ecommerce - Electronic Payment System consulting
e-Business Architecture and Design
WLANs, Bluetooth, 802.11/16 consulting
Wireless business planning and investment analysis
e-valuations®
Web Mate
Messaging, e-service and Workflow design, implementation on value added messaging
Database design, implementation and support including data warehousing applications and middleware
Network design, implementation and support
Bench-marking and performance analysis
Skills Transfer

Be wary of the man who urges an action in which he himself incurs no risk. - Joaquin Setanti

Systems Integration & Project Management

· System Requirement Specification

· Interface Control Documents

· Project, Configuration Management, Quality and Test Plans

· Risk Assessment, Issues Management, Project Reviews and IT&T Management

· Enterprise architecture frameworks including FEAF, Zachman and Togaf

· Architectures: Business, Enterprise, Solution & Technical

· Architectural Blueprints and Roadmaps for Enterprise

· Vendor Management

· Project Rescue

· CMM: Capability Maturity Model assessment in partnership with Software Engineering Consultants Inc. SECI

· ITIL: IT Infrastructure Library

· SPICE: Software Process Improvement and Capability dEtermination

· Quality Audit of ISO 9000-Series

· Security Audit of ISO 27000-Series

· PMBOK® and Prince2®

Clients

You never know till you try to reach them how accessible men are; but you must approach each man by the right door. - Henry Ward Beecher

Clients over Thirty Years of Project and Program Management

Select Clients

Helicopter View of Key Projects

Client	Budget	Resources	Role	Life-Cycle	Type
Westpac	$12m	25	SPgM	Full	Westpac Online Services
ANZ Bank	$2m	20	PD	Late	www.anzbalancevisa.com
AMP Bank	$40m	25	SPM	Late	Mortgage Lending
PwC	$10m+	20	PD	Implement	Stockbroking/ Apps
KPMG	$300m	15	Lead Consult	Early	Investment Advisor ICE
Energy Australia	$10m	12	SPM	Mid-to-Late	Energy Trading Business Analysis & Architecture
Westfield	$1m multiple	10	Project Consultant	Various - Review	Digital Marketing & Development
Telstra 1	$25m+	30	SPM	Full	DW/BI
Telstra 2-3	$15m+	10	SPgM	Full	New Product Development
TAFE NSW	$5m+ pa	20	Program Manager	Full	Stake Holder Management
APCN2	$1.2b	15	CTO-Project Director	Full	CTO representing Shield Telecommunications
Unisys R&D	$5m multiple	15	R&D Manager	Mid-to-Late	Product Development Apps
Defence	$100m+	30	Test & QA Manager	Full	Product Development Apps
NSW Gov	$100m	20-to-30	Mgmnt Cons	Mid-Late	Oracle Financials & CRM

Procurement and Vendor Management Experience

Customer	Prime Contract	Vendors
Westpac	IBM & Telstra	IBM, Telstra, Optus, BT, Cisco and Unify
Telstra	IBM GSA	EMC, Sun, Oracle, SAS Institute, Coopers & Lybrand, HP, Netscape and Cisco
Vodafone	Teradata	Teradata, SAS and Oracle Exalytics - Oracle.com‎
ShieldTel	APCN2	NEC, Siemens, Layer2, Cisco, Lucent and 45 regional and global tier-1 carriers
KPMG	ICE ITC Practice	Telstra, Optus, Layer 2, Leighton
Energy Australia	CSC	Katestone Scientific, OSIX, IBM and Oracle
AMP Bank	EDS	Logica, Ericsson, HP, Compaq and DEC
NSW Government	8 Departments 3 Corporations	NSW GovDC, AC3, AWS, Accenture, Bentley, Figtree, Fujitsu, HP, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, Mincom, Qlik, SAP and Siebel

Business Advisory

No problem is so formidable that you can't walk away from it. - Charles M. Schulz

· Business Case Development

· Business Process Analysis

· Business Recovery and Alignment

· Coaching: Board, Corporate and Executive

· Strategic Technology Forecasting

· Identification of Market Trends

· Identification of New Revenue Opportunities

· ROI, NPV, IRR, EVA and Knowledge Capital Analysis

· Intellectual Property Management

· R & D Commercialisation

· New Business Development

· Vendor and Outsourcing Performance Analysis

· Business and Technology Risk Analysis, Mitigation and Planning

· Strategic Reviews

· Restructuring

· Arbitration, Mediation and Negotiation Support

· Mentoring