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Hi, I'm Ben

Ben Petito

Solution Architect & Tech Lead at Biz Hub Australia

I work with organisations that are trying to modernise legacy systems and apply AI in ways that are actually useful in real-world environments.

The hardest part usually isn’t the technology itself. It’s dealing with years of accumulated complexity, unclear ownership, brittle integrations, and systems that no longer fit the way the business operates. Most of my work involves helping teams untangle that.

I’ve worked across government and private sector projects where security, compliance, reliability, and long-term maintainability genuinely matter — environments that force practical decision-making. You rarely have the luxury of starting from scratch or chasing perfect architecture, so much of the work comes down to making sensible tradeoffs and designing systems that can evolve without becoming fragile.

I’m particularly interested in legacy modernisation, enterprise integrations, and practical AI adoption: replacing ageing systems, building integrations that are observable and supportable, and applying AI where it removes repetitive work or improves decision-making — rather than just looking impressive in a demo.

Recent Posts

Experience

1
Biz Hub Australia

Dec 2016 - Present

Adelaide, Australia

Biz Hub Australia builds enterprise software shaped around real business processes, taking on projects that are considered too messy, too constrained, or too risky for conventional approaches.

Solution Architect & Tech Lead

Sep 2019 - Present

Responsibilities:
  • Lead solution architecture across enterprise software projects in government and private sector
  • Tech lead on bespoke enterprise applications for PIRSA, DEW, and other major clients
  • Define integration strategies for legacy modernisation and AI adoption initiatives
  • Guide teams through technically complex, compliance-sensitive environments
Senior Software Developer

Dec 2016 - Aug 2019

Responsibilities:
  • Designed and delivered complex integrations between legacy and modern systems
  • Worked on the Config Engine — a large-scale ICT transition platform used to manage the move to the new Royal Adelaide Hospital
  • Contributed automated unit test generation to the Skyve Enterprise Platform

SMS Management & Technology

Feb 2011 - Dec 2016

Adelaide, Australia

ICT consulting firm delivering technology strategy and implementation services across government and enterprise clients.

Senior Consultant

Jan 2015 - Dec 2016

Responsibilities:
  • Developed solution architecture for two public-facing citizen reporting systems for SA Police
  • Produced architecture documentation and reference architectures for enterprise clients
Consultant

Feb 2011 - Dec 2012

Responsibilities:
  • Delivered ICT consulting engagements across government and private sector clients
  • Contributed to architecture reviews and technology assessments
2

3
Fotura

Dec 2012 - Dec 2014

Adelaide, Australia

Web and design studio for small businesses.

Director

Dec 2012 - Dec 2014

Responsibilities:
  • Co-founded Fotura, providing web design, photography and software development services to small and medium businesses in Adelaide
  • Led end-to-end development of WaterMe, a consumer irrigation controller product - cloud platform, web application, mobile integration and the communication layer to the hardware

Adelaide, Australia

SA EPA is the state’s primary environmental regulator.

Senior Analyst/Programmer

Aug 2009 - Feb 2011

Responsibilities:
  • Developed and maintained enterprise applications for environmental regulation and reporting
4

5
EDS Australia

2003 - Jul 2009

Adelaide, Australia

Global IT services provider.

Software Developer

2003 - Jul 2009

Responsibilities:
  • Developed and supported globally deployed enterprise configuration-management workflows used by more than 10,000 employees
  • Led development of an automated migration utility that recreated years of historical workflow and configuration data in the replacement platform

Projects

Council Rates & Water Bill Digitisation
Tech Lead 2026

Automated ingestion and processing of council rate notices and water utility bills — extracting invoice data, validating against business rules, and feeding downstream finance workflows to reduce manual handling as document volumes grew.

Community Housing Rent Calculator
Tech Lead 2026

Automated rent reviews for a community housing provider managing hundreds of tenancies. Triggers calculations from within the housing platform, submits tenancy and income data to the Queensland Community Housing Rent Calculator (no public API), and writes results back as in-progress reviews — cutting processing time by around 95%.

Audit Summaries
Audit Summaries
Developer Dec 2025

LLM-powered summarisation of nearly two decades of audit comments into concise, actionable summaries, using a local model to keep commercially sensitive data private. Skyve’s metadata made it straightforward to identify the relevant comment fields to include.

Dairysafe — Lab Results
Tech Lead Sep 2025

AI-assisted lab report ingestion for Dairysafe — monitoring a shared inbox for PDF results, extracting test data across multiple lab formats, matching reports to operators, and routing them through approval and compliance alerts. Built as an extension of the existing QMS rather than a standalone system.

Skyve UI Enhancer
Skyve UI Enhancer
Developer Jun 2025

A tool that uses chat, screenshots, or sketches to generate or refine a Skyve application’s screen definitions, and to generate application documentation and tooltips from context. Exploring the best way to integrate it into the development workflow — from within an application’s own UI or from the command line — and whether it earns its place over general-purpose tools like Copilot or Cursor.

GRID — Disaster Waste Management
Tech Lead & Project Management 2025 -

Microsoft Access migration of a Disaster waste planning and operations module for Green Industries SA, built on the GRID platform. Supports contractor workflows, waste hierarchy alignment, and sensitive-data handling for emergency waste response.

Mediation Scheduling
Tech Lead 2025 -

A case management system for scheduling and running mediation sessions between parties — covering case setup, time-slot management, session formats, notifications, and reporting for mediators and administrators.

Event Insights
Event Insights
Developer Oct 2024

Explored whether AI can review application data, generate insights automatically, and suggest actions based on them — configurable to run against a hosted model or a local model for privacy. The hardest part was keeping the AI quiet when there was nothing worth suggesting.

AI Document Capture
Solution Architect & Tech Lead 2024 -

An accounts-payable document automation platform that integrates with an AI extraction engine, then runs invoices and related documents through multi-stage validation, business rules, and reviewer queues before export. Designed for high weekly document volumes with an increasing share of straight-through processing.

Accounts Payable Automation
Solution Architect & Tech Lead 2024 -

Automated invoice management for a workers’ compensation specialist — extracting data from PDF email attachments, routing through admin, consultant, and client approval workflows, and exporting search-filtered results for external reporting.

Service Excellence Recognition
Tech Lead & Project Manager 2024 - 2025

An online development tool helping community organisations demonstrate service delivery capability against recognition standards — organisation profiles, evidence capture, and structured self-assessment workflows.

Dairysafe — Training Register
Tech Lead 2024 -

A training register for Dairysafe operators and staff — courses with video content, lessons, and assessments, with an administrator view for managing the catalogue and tracking progress alongside the quality management system.

Screenshot to Skyve Forms
Screenshot to Skyve Forms
Developer Dec 2023

Adapted a screenshot-to-webpage library to instead generate a Skyve edit view (screen definition), then integrated it into Skyve Forms so a photo of a paper form can be turned directly into a digital one — automating what was previously a tedious manual build step.

Foundry App Generator
Foundry App Generator
Developer Apr 2023

Integrated the OpenAI API into Skyve Foundry, Biz Hub’s no-code application builder, to turn a plain-language application description into an intermediate JSON format that’s parsed into a working Skyve application. Found that most use cases could be met with a small set of basic building blocks.

Skyve Flows
Skyve Flows
Developer 2023 - 2024

A visual workflow designer built as an extension to the Skyve enterprise platform. Enabled non-technical users to design and deploy structured process flows within their Skyve applications.

School-care Management
Tech Lead & Project Manager 2023 - 2026

A school-care early intervention and case management system for a US healthcare provider — tracking students, parents, program participation, attendance, and surveys across educational and support programs.

GRID — Time Series
Solution Architect & Tech Lead 2023 -

Time-series environmental monitoring for Green Industries SA — the final module needed to decommission the legacy Oracle Zeus system. Migrated ~350,000 rows (2008–2023) into GRID, with configurable programs and measures, spreadsheet import/export, validation rules, and trend reporting.

Online Teacher Applications
Senior Developer 2022 -

A recruitment register for casual teachers — applications, qualifications, employment streams, search, and automated processes supporting an institute’s hiring workflows.

Bindah
Tech Lead & Project Manager 2022 - 2024

A multi-tenant budget planning and decision tool for local councils, with a web application and companion iOS/Android clients. Led API and domain design so councils share the same platform with full data isolation between tenants.

Aquatic Laboratory Management
Tech Lead 2022 -

Led a major redevelopment of an aquatic sample and laboratory system (algal, biotoxin, and microbiological testing) — unifying, cleansing, and consolidating legacy data rather than a greenfield build, while improving scheduling, traceability, and reporting.

Instrument Asset Database
Solution Architect & Tech Lead 2022 -

Asset management for water-resource monitoring instruments — registry, maintenance, field deployments, and lifecycle reporting for a state environment agency.

Tenement & Billing System
Solution Architect & Tech Lead 2022 - 2024

A tenement lifecycle and billing platform for a state environment agency — transfers, amendments, cancellations, and related financial workflows. Mentored a blended delivery team to train and upskill the client’s in-house developers alongside the build.

Watersports Member Portal
Senior Developer 2022 -

Membership portal for a national watersports peak body — members, divisions, officials, and clubs as a single source of truth, with communications and a foundation for payments and future member services.

GRID — Grant & Contract Management
Senior Developer 2021 -

Grant and contract management for Green Industries SA, replacing the legacy Oracle system. Contributed UX prototypes and senior development across grants, contracts, CRM, and enquiry management, with full migration of historical records and attachments.

Insurance Claim Registry
Tech Lead 2021 -

Migrated a motor-vehicle insurance claim register from unsupported Oracle to a modern web platform. Insurers submit monthly claim and payment files with field-level validation; designed and built an expression-based dynamic rules engine so administrators can adjust validation rules in the running system without a development cycle.

Traffic System Backup Database
Tech Lead 2021 - 2025

Replaced an MS Access backup database for a coordinated adaptive traffic signal system — preserving historical network state that the operational platform could not retain, and giving traffic engineers a supported web interface for configuration history.

IQMS — Winston
IQMS — Winston
Developer 2021-2023

An ISO certification management platform for IQMS Australasia. Organisations register and subscribe to the system to work towards ISO certification guided by IQMS consultants. The platform supports distinct roles for system administrators, customer consultants, and business development managers — each with tailored access to templates, customer progress, communications, and payment information.

Business Finance Matching Portal
Senior Developer 2020 - 2021

A pilot portal matching businesses seeking finance with participating lenders — applicants describe their needs and situation, then algorithms produce a priority list of providers who can meet the request.

PIRSA — RUFIS
PIRSA — RUFIS
Senior Developer 2020 -

A replacement for PIRSA’s legacy Oracle-based Rural Finance Information System, which managed over $430m in subsidised mortgages, financial assistance products, and grants to rural businesses. The new system migrated all financial data with interest calculations matched to within 1 cent of the original, eliminated Oracle licensing costs, and was welcomed by staff as a significant usability improvement over the old system.

Dairysafe
Dairysafe
Senior Developer 2020 -

A quality management system for the Dairy Authority of South Australia, the legislative body responsible for overseeing dairy food safety across the state. The system performs comprehensive recurring audits against all farms, dairy processors, and transport vehicles, and includes incident and complaint management, business continuity tools, online annual returns for operators, and industry-wide KPI dashboards. Migrated existing audit history to ensure continuity of compliance records between audits.

Teacher Professional Learning
Teacher Professional Learning
Senior Developer 2019 - 2020

A professional learning management system for John Edmondson High School, migrated from a legacy Microsoft Access system using Skyve’s Wildcat conversion tool. Teachers submit professional learning applications to senior management for approval, with budget tracking across faculties and custom dashboards for teachers, head teachers, and executives.

AHC — Heritage Document Management
AHC — Heritage Document Management
Senior Developer 2018 - 2019

A document and records management system built for the Australian Hills Council. Managed heritage location registers, advocacy documentation, agendas, minutes, contracts, and national nomination workflows.

Implant Billing
Implant Billing
Senior Developer 2018 -

A surgical prosthesis billing system for SA Health, ensuring the Royal Adelaide and Queen Elizabeth hospitals correctly recover the costs of implants and consumables from insurers. The system replaced a paper-based process that was not migrated when the new RAH opened — importing data from the corporate financial system, facilitating structured data entry of paper surgery records, and exporting billing data directly into Sunrise EMR for invoicing.

RevenueSA Online
Senior Developer 2017 -

South Australia’s public tax portal and back-office platform for 300,000-plus taxpayers. Contributed to the payroll tax and land tax components — registration, returns, and related workflows — as the system progressively replaced ageing financial systems and supported rapid delivery of new grant programs.

PIRSA — Food Safety Auditing
PIRSA — Food Safety Auditing
Senior Developer 2017 -

A mobile-capable food safety compliance auditing system for Primary Industries and Regions SA, covering more than 2,000 South Australian meat, seafood, and sprout processors, retailers, and cold transport vehicles. Migrated from legacy MS Access systems using Wildcat automated conversion. Includes geospatial features, automated scheduling, and offline sync so auditors can access client compliance data in remote and rural locations — spanning over 50,000 audit records, each with several hundred data points.

SA Designer Homes
SA Designer Homes
Developer 2016

Website and client-facing application for a residential home builder. Included a public marketing site and a private portal for managing client selections and project progress.

Config Engine
Config Engine
Senior Developer 2015 - 2018

Built for SA Health to manage the transition to the new Royal Adelaide Hospital — at the time the 7th most expensive building in the world. The system managed how more than 15,000 staff, 4,000 devices, medical equipment, phones, furniture, computers, software and network accounts would be allocated and configured. Combined interactive floor plans with drag-drop allocation, proximity-based printer assignment, telephone hunt groups, and building provisioning — all while avoiding interruption to essential hospital services.

Latitude — Video Platform
Latitude — Video Platform
Developer 2014

A mobile video streaming and download platform. Features included curated content feeds, most popular and recently watched lists, offline playback, and a full search experience.

Nymet
Nymet
Developer 2014

An e-commerce website for an industrial valve and flow control supplier. Custom product catalogue with category hierarchy, product detail pages, and a clean, conversion-focused design.

PsychWell
PsychWell
Developer 2013 - 2014

A practice management system for psychology clinics. Managed patient records, appointment scheduling, and clinical documentation workflows.

WaterMe
Developer 2013 - 2015

A consumer irrigation controller product. The hardware was manufactured overseas and initial firmware existed, but there was no software ecosystem around it, so we built the cloud platform, web application, mobile integrations and the communication layer to the controllers.

Simon Maiolo
Simon Maiolo
Developer 2013

Personal brand website for a professional photgrapher. Clean design focused on showcasing Simon’s portfolio.

Soranna Electrical
Soranna Electrical
Developer 2013

Business website for a residential and commercial electrician. Designed to generate leads with a clear service overview, contact forms, and a mobile-first layout.

Two Hungry Italians
Content creator 2013-2014

Personal food review website my cousin and I used to review schnitzels at pubs around Adelaide every week. Made it into the top 3 food blogs on Urbanspoon in Adelaide, back when that was a thing, and before Instagram took over.

Fotura
Fotura
Founder & Developer 2012 - 2014

Web and design studio helping small businesses build their online presence. Full-service offering from strategy and design through to development and hosting. Clients included businesses across real estate photography, trade services, and professional services.

SA Power Networks — Citizen Portals
SA Power Networks — Citizen Portals
Developer 2011 - 2012

A suite of citizen-facing web applications for SA Power Networks, including Power @ My Place (residential energy supply information), Report a Street Light Out (fault reporting), and an online forms platform for customer service workflows.