Objective Corporation has announced the launch of its cloud platform for secure information sharing between government departments, agencies, private enterprise and the public at www.objectiveconnect.com.

Tony Walls, CEO of Objective Corporation said, “Objective Connect sees us address a long-term challenge for modern government, to deliver secure information sharing between organisations, irrespective of their underlying content management systems.”

Research recently conducted in conjunction with the Institute of Information Management (IIM) highlighted that while usage of online file sharing has grown rapidly, it has reached a barrier. The study found that 57% of Australian government organisations have blocked access to online file sharing due to concerns about security and privacy.

“The challenge of sharing information has become critical to security-conscious organisations. Objective Connect enables users to securely share information, in a way that enhances existing information management policies, investments and capabilities,” said Walls.

Objective Connect has been engineered to meet the requirements of Australian, New Zealand and United Kingdom government organisations where security, traceability and auditability are key priorities.

“Highlighting Objective’s approach to security, we believe Objective Connect is the only information sharing platform to conform to the Australian Government Information Security Manual (ISM) up to and including Protected. Objective Connect is also engineered to ensure data sovereignty, which is a critical issue for public sector organisations.”

Objective Connect has been designed to help organisations to satisfy compliance requirements by eliminating insecure or non-compliant methods of information sharing, such as email, ftp, cloud storage and online file sharing tools.

Engineered in Australia and developed locally and in the United Kingdom, Objective Connect represents a major Australian investment in research and development to meet the specific requirements of government in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Objective Connect has been recognised by the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) by with its appointment to AGIMO’s inaugural Data Centre as a Service (DCaaS) Multi Use List (MUL). 

Announced on October 18, AGIMO First Assistant Secretary John Sheridan said, “This presents an opportunity for Agencies to significantly simplify procurement of cloud and cloud-like services by leveraging nominated leading suppliers, with solutions built to meet the requirements of Australian government.”

A commercial data centre in Australia has been brought online to deliver the platform across Australia and New Zealand, with a similar operation in the UK serving that market. Other geographies will follow at an unspecified later date. An initial trial for 50 organisations in Australia was hosted in Singapore.

Objective Connect is available as a SaaS service via a web browser, or Objective Connect Link can be installed within SharePoint, HP TRIM and Objective to provide a “SHARE” button within the ECM.

In this case a setup files is downloaded and installed.

“Where we do have the Connect Link which is the conduit or gateway on-site, that does require some software to be installed,” said Michael Warrilow, Cloud Product Marketing Manager at Objective.

“Its designed to be a simple setup and does not necessarily require any professional services.”

Objective Connect is available in two editions. Individuals can sign up for an Objective Connect Free account, which will allow them to receive information free of charge.

A free 60-day trial of Objective Connect Standard is provided to all Objective Connect Free edition users.

Pricing is $12 per user per month for the ability to securely share from your network via Objective Connect. This can be done from a Web browser. To add the SHARE functionality from within your file system or ECM is another $2 per user per month,  and a reporting dashboard function is an additional $1.50-$2.50 per month.

Enterprise pricing is available for large organisations ranges from $A17.50-$20 per user per month for the full offering.