Technology · AI · Automation / Adelaide
Over 25 years in technology, from a 90s help desk to running IT for a group of companies. Now independent, and helping small and mid-sized businesses get ready for what AI is doing to every part of tech. Advice, automation and ad-hoc projects.
Every wave since dial-up
For decades, change arrived as versions: a new server, a new Windows, a migration every few years. You planned for it and moved on. AI isn't a version. It's changing how software gets built, how work gets done and what a small team can take on, all at once, and it's still speeding up.
What it means for you
Small and mid-sized businesses have the most to gain from this. They also have the least time to work out what's real, what's noise and what to do on Monday.
That's the job I've taken on. A career spent learning how technology actually gets deployed, applied to a field that's moving faster than anything I've seen.
Sometimes that means building agents. Sometimes it means getting the foundations right first. Usually it's both, in the right order.
Tick what's true today. Ten questions, thirty seconds.
A clean slate. You get to do it in the right order, without undoing anything first.
A senior head of technology for businesses too small to hire one. Clear advice on what to adopt, what to ignore and in what order.
Automation, agents and ad-hoc projects. Built on tools you can see, with a human sign-off wherever money or customers are involved, and handed over so you own it.
AI is only as good as the systems it touches. The layer underneath, done to best practice and written down, so it doesn't depend on any one person.
How we work
What you do, where you're headed and what's in the way. No pitch deck.
A look at your systems, data and people: what's ready for AI and what isn't yet.
A short roadmap. What to do first, what to leave alone, and what each step is worth.
One piece at a time, measured and documented, on your accounts. It runs without me.
AI isn't the chat box
Open ChatGPT, get it to write an email, think "neat trick" and never go back. That's judging AI by the chat box. Here's the hierarchy without the jargon.
The engine.
Like electricity, you don't talk to it. It's been in your business for years: bank fraud checks, spam filters, Google Maps rerouting around traffic.
A temp at a desk with an encyclopedia.
Purely reactive. Ask and it answers. It has no hands: it can't open your accounts, send the email or chase the invoice. Close the laptop and it stops.
A junior who works nights.
AI with a goal, instructions and access to your tools: inbox, calendar, CRM, accounts. You give it an outcome, set the rules and check its work.
In-house vs API
The first wave of business AI ran on someone else's servers: send your data out, pay per use, trust the fine print. That's changing. Capable open models now run on hardware you own or in your own cloud account. It costs more to set up. It changes the game on privacy, and at high volume it can cost less to run.
Not every job needs the most powerful model on the planet. A lot of useful work, like sorting, summarising and searching, runs well on a smaller model you control.
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and friends, paid per use or per seat. The strongest models, ready today.
Your data goes to the vendor. Business tiers generally don't train on it.
Models running in your own Azure, AWS or Google account. Your rules, their hardware.
Your data stays in your own cloud account, and can stay in Australia.
Open models like Llama, Mistral, Qwen or Gemma on a server you own. More to set up. Nothing leaves the building.
Your data never leaves your building.
A rough guide, not gospel. The right answer depends on the job, the volume and the data, and it's often a mix: the right model for each job, with the sensitive work kept at home.
Why Okavyx
I've watched dial-up, client-server, virtualisation, cloud and a dozen hype cycles come and go. This one is different. It isn't an update to the industry I grew up in; it's a new one being built on top of it. I stepped out of corporate life to work in the middle of that, on my own terms, directly with owners who make their own decisions. I'm not young and hungry. I'm experienced, curious, and I've got a lot to pass on.
Questions I get asked
What business owners ask about AI when there's no salesperson in the room. Short answers, no hype.
Tap a question to read the answer.
The loudest voices are vendors, investors and commentators talking to each other. For a business with 5 to 50 staff the useful question is much smaller: which hours of repetitive work each week could a machine do, and is the data it would need in a fit state?
Start there. Ignore the rest until it turns up in software you already use.
No. The chat box is the demo. The value is AI wired into your inbox, accounts and CRM, doing the steps you’d otherwise do by hand. That’s an agent.
Judging AI by ChatGPT is like judging the internet by a web browser’s home page. See the difference.
The big tech companies are spending enormous sums on data centres, and economists do argue about what that does to bond yields and rates. That’s one for your financial adviser, not your IT guy.
What I can tell you is the part you control: the price of using these models has fallen sharply over the past few years, and a small business doesn’t need capital investment to get started.
For drafting and thinking, off the shelf is fine. The risks are around it:
Fix: business accounts with the data controls checked, a one-page usage policy, then look at where custom automation earns its keep.
Direct line
Tell me about your business, what's changing and what you'd like to get done. I'll read it myself and reply within one business day, usually with a question or two.