Cloud-Native VET Platform Replacing Legacy Systems for a Queensland Government Department - Helium

OVERVIEW

A Queensland Government department modernised its legacy VET systems with a cloud-native Azure platform — supporting internal staff, RTOs, and the public, with near real-time integration to Commonwealth and internal systems and full CI/CD automation.

Client Story

Strategy and Priorities:

Replace inflexible legacy systems with a secure, cloud-native platform capable of supporting the scale, performance and integration demands of a modern, data-driven VET environment.

Modernize the retail banking experience to retain younger demographics and increase daily app engagement.

Digital Priorities:

Build a modular Microsoft Azure platform using low-code and custom development across Dataverse, Power Platform, Azure Functions and Azure Service Bus — with CI/CD pipelines and role-based access from the ground up.

Shift from a purely transactional utility to a proactive financial advisory tool.

The Challenge:

Ageing legacy systems managing the state's VET data were inflexible, difficult to maintain and unable to meet modern data, performance and integration requirements.

Our Collaboration:

We designed and delivered the full cloud-native solution on Microsoft Azure — combining low-code and custom development with automated data integration across Commonwealth training data services, legacy VET systems and accreditation platforms.

We partnered with the bank’s digital and data science teams to design and validate an AI-driven homepage that anticipates user needs and provides tailored financial guidance.

CONTEXT

The Challenge

The department needed to replace a suite of legacy systems managing vocational education and training data across the state. These ageing platforms were inflexible, difficult to maintain and unable to meet the scale, performance and integration demands of a modern, data-driven environment. The solution also needed to align with modern DevOps practices, support CI/CD pipelines and enforce secure, role-based access across multiple user groups.

OUR EXPERTISE

We replaced the legacy environment with a modular, cloud-native architecture on Microsoft Azure — combining low-code and custom development across Dataverse, Power Platform, Azure Functions and Azure Service Bus to handle complex data transformation, validation and automated integration at scale.

How we helped

The Solution

Integration architecture

Multi-source pipeline development

Built using Power Automate and C# Azure Functions, leveraging Azure Service Bus for scalable pub/sub messaging — enabling reliable, near-real-time data flow between the platform and external systems.

Built robust data ingestion pipelines connecting cloud platforms, CRM databases and legacy batch systems — standardising ETL/ELT processes across the organisation.

Ordered processing

Cloud data warehouse

Custom plugins enriched messages before publishing to queues, while session-based queues ensured ordered processing and preserved referential integrity across complex data transformation workloads.

Designed and deployed a scalable AWS and Snowflake architecture capable of processing billions of annual transactions — with optimised storage and compute separation for cost efficiency.

Environment isolation

Data model harmonisation

Provisioned dedicated, independent environments for Development, Test, Migration, SIT, UAT and Production — supporting repeatable, auditable deployments across the full delivery lifecycle.

Developed a high-fidelity mobile prototype featuring predictive ML spending insights, Gen-AI chat support, and dynamic UI modules.

Automated CI/CD

Secure data sharing

All deployments — including provisioning and data migration — were automated via Azure DevOps pipelines, supporting CI/CD and ensuring repeatable, reliable dry runs before production release.

Validated the AI-driven features through extensive qualitative user testing, ensuring the algorithms felt helpful rather than intrusive.

TOOL STACK

Platforms & APIs Used

Microsoft Azure

Dataverse

Power Platform

Azure Functions

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