Systems administration for a South Australian local government organisation. Responsible for Microsoft 365 tenant management, SharePoint Online, Power Automate workflow development, Sophos and Check Point firewall/VPN administration, Proxmox virtualisation, and network operations. Delivered several major infrastructure and communication platform projects since joining, consistently receiving strong stakeholder recognition for calm, proactive, and solutions-focused support. Alexandrina Council All Staff One Team Meeting Acknowledgement.
Developed an in-house AI audio analysis tool to address a significant processing bottleneck in dog barking complaint investigations, where officers previously had to manually listen through entire recordings — often a full week of continuous audio — to substantiate nuisance complaints. Built using Google's YAMNet audio classification model running entirely on council hardware with no cloud uploads, ensuring compliance-appropriate handling of evidentiary audio. For more information, visit barkdetector.mjallen.org.
The tool processes a folder of WAV recordings and returns a timestamped Excel report, individual MP3 clips for every detected bark, and ready-to-use Copilot prompts for drafting formal notices and case-file entries. Each detection includes a confidence score, with the report automatically clustering activity and surfacing patterns such as longest bark and time-of-day spread. A full week of recordings (168 hours) that would take approximately 21 working days to review manually is instead processed in around 5 hours of unattended machine time. Every detection retains its own audio clip for spot-checking before use in any formal notice or evidence file. Delivered as a self-contained, dependency-light solution (Python, ffmpeg, and YAMNet) running on standard council hardware.
Deployed CentrePal IXCloud, a cloud-hosted call recording platform integrated with Microsoft Teams via a compliance recording policy, automatically recording inbound calls for designated Customer Experience agents. The R.O.D Teams app allows agents to pause and resume recording during live calls when handling sensitive information. The project ran longer than initially scoped due to governance and policy work that needed to be completed before go-live — including drafting the Call Recording Requirements policy covering Privacy Act 1988 (APP 11), PCI DSS v4.0.1, the SA Surveillance Devices Act, State Records GDS 40 retention, and FOI obligations.
Technical delivery included Teams compliance recording policy setup, Entra ID security group configuration, IXCloud user and retention profile management, and full onboarding, offboarding, and recording procedures. On completion, the Manager Community Experience provided written commendation acknowledging the cross-team effort: "A significant amount of work has gone into implementing this important call recording stage of our customer journey, including collaboration across IT (especially you Michael!), Governance, People and Safety, Communications and the wider Customer and Community teams."
Replaced the legacy K2 platform across four distinct business functions with purpose-built SharePoint Lists and Power Automate workflows, bringing operations in-house under existing Microsoft 365 licensing and eliminating third-party platform costs. Each solution was designed independently to serve its own function. The rollout was well received across the organisation, with staff noting that the new system made day-to-day tracking significantly easier. The Acting Senior Coordinator Customer Experience provided written commendation acknowledging the effort and dedication that went into delivering the project.
Captures submissions in a SharePoint list. A scheduled Power Automate flow generates a formatted report covering all entries back to the start of the current Australian financial year, converts it to PDF, saves it to a document library, and delivers it monthly to the governance team for publication on the Council website.
Notifies staff of incoming phone messages via richly formatted email with clickable tel: links for one-tap callback, with a parallel Teams notification including a direct call button. A department lookup table dynamically routes messages to the correct team or department inbox.
Tracks incoming deliveries and notifies recipients automatically. When a delivery is marked as collected, a follow-up notification is sent to the internal staff member who logged it — closing the loop without any manual follow-up required.
Migrated existing content from SharePoint On-Premises 2016 to SharePoint Online, uplifting and reformatting legacy documentation to align with the modern environment and ensure ongoing accessibility for staff.
Deployed Keeper as council's enterprise password manager. Delivered staff training sessions covering what Keeper is and why it's being adopted, creating records, autofill on websites and apps, and guidance on passwords vs passphrases.
Upgraded 9 meeting rooms from Cisco WebEx to Microsoft Teams using Logitech Rally Bars, Tap IP Panels, and Tap Schedulers. End-to-end delivery including Teams policies, room scheduling configuration, and full physical installation of AV and meeting room equipment.
Led the successful replacement of Cisco WebEx with Microsoft Teams as council's unified communications platform — consolidating internal and external voice calls, video meetings, persistent chat, and file collaboration into a single solution. Reduced licensing costs and integrated with the new CentrePal call management system for the Customer Experience team.
Delivered the CentrePal Teams-based contact centre solution for council's Customer Experience team. Provided hands-on floor support during go-live, built an issue tracker to manage the transition, and proactively resolved issues raised by staff. This project received direct written commendation from CX leadership: "Michael's presence made a huge difference. His calm, composed approach — even when we're at our most frazzled — is greatly appreciated. He consistently takes immediate, thoughtful action and provides solutions that ease the pressure on our team."
Onsite and remote 1st–3rd level support for ~400 users across four companies. Supported Microsoft Teams (including Teams Calling via Telstra, video-equipped meeting rooms) and Microsoft 365 across Outlook, SharePoint Online, and Entra. Became primary support lead after the Senior Analyst departed ~1 month in, taking ownership of system, service, and security improvements: implemented Lansweeper for inventory, software deployment, licence compliance and reporting; introduced Blancco for secure disk erasure to NIST 800-88 Purge standards, supporting ISO 27001 compliance and enabling donation of retired laptops to community groups and charities; developed, tested and deployed a Standard Operating Environment (SOE) for laptops and desktops including a dedicated image for donation devices.
Promoted to Desktop Support Officer with expanded scope: system enhancements, staff onboarding, laptop replacements, and deployment of ruggedised 4G/5G cellular routers and small firewalls for temporary construction site connectivity. Managed software and hardware procurement against business needs and vendor SLAs. Enrolled devices into AirWatch MDM and Apple Business Manager; packaged and deployed OS upgrades and third-party software updates. Remotely managed custom installs for resource-intensive applications including Revit, Navisworks, and AutoCAD. Administered HammerTech (construction sites) and TeamGo (visitor management). Managed LastPass for password security and AirLock for application allow-listing to meet Essential 8 requirements. Reduced single points of failure by shifting critical tasks to shared IT distribution lists. Created documentation and procedures to support consistent service delivery.
Backfill role supporting council helpdesk/desktop team. End-user support across Windows 7–10 SOE, Office 365, telephony, mobility, and remote access. Automated 90% of Dial Before You Dig processing — reduced time by 80%.
Dual-contract: desktop support at Flinders University and imaging/deployment at Dept. Treasury & Finance using SCCM asset tagging and rollout coordination.
Processing myIT requests for Centrelink and Medicare in a federal government environment.
High-skill backfill frontline support. Resolved a longstanding incident unresolved by multiple staff. Acted as escalation buffer between helpdesk and management.
Multi-agency support covering DPC, DTF, DPTI, Service SA, SAPOL, Forensic Science, SA Film Corp, Arts SA and more. Maintained SharePoint knowledge base; rostered shift coverage 8am–6pm.
Remote support for DEWNR, EPA, and Zero Waste. Citrix session management, printer issues, profile recreation.
Desktop support across Royal Adelaide Hospital, Flinders Medical Centre, Noarlunga Hospital, Victor Harbor Hospital. Windows 7 upgrade remediation, iPhone/iPad management, ePAS rollout overtime.