Arinco taps Dean Oelkers to lead QLD sales team

As demand for AI services grows, new hire will help Arinco deliver integrated solutions with discipline on the fundamentals.

Arinco has appointed Dean Oelkers as Queensland sales manager with a remit to strengthen existing customer relationships and drive growth in the region, capitalising on demand for AI services.

Oelkers’ previously served as ThoughtWorks’ enterprise account manager and spent two decades at Microsoft partner, Avanade, leading digital transformation initiatives across government, healthcare and commercial sectors.

Oelkers sees enormous opportunity in the market and the business wants to capitalise on its local presence to become the trusted partner for customers and Microsoft across the state.

“For me, it’s about expanding Arinco’s footprint in Queensland and building deeper partnerships with the great local organisations here,” he said.

With a team of approximately 20 consultants in Queensland, Arinco is finding demand is growing for AI, cloud and security services across both public and private sectors.

“Copilot is front of mind for many organisations, and we’re already helping customers explore how it can accelerate productivity,” he said.

In government, Arinco is finding there’s a real appetite for responsible AI adoption.

“Step one is getting their data estate clean and tidy. With Microsoft’s platform, we can help them do that quickly and securely,” he explained.

Helping organisations scale AI to deliver value

AI initiatives are starting to evolve, with organisations moving past the novelty of chatbots and exploring how it can be used to transform end-to-end processes, according to Oelkers.

“Most of the demand today is still anchored in customer service and process automation, but the conversation is shifting,” he told CRN Australia.

Arinco’s approach is to educate organisations about the right foundations — secure cloud, modern data platforms, integration frameworks — so projects deliver tangible results.

“We talk to customers about the big vision, but we always bring it back to the basics: is the data platform fit for purpose? Is security baked in? Do they have the right landing zones in Azure? Getting those foundations right today sets them up for sustainable success tomorrow,” he said.

One of the challenges, however, is that with so many AI consulting and software players now in the market, organisations risk getting lost in niche, point-solutions when they need end-to-end capability.

“It’s not uncommon for businesses to suffer from the ‘where do I start’ paralysis,” he said.

Oelkers believes the key is providing integrated solutions across data integration, security, cloud and modern apps in one package.

With its AI Build Centre, Arinco is focused on helping organisations think about what their own AI centre of excellence looks like, what capabilities they’ll need internally and how they can build responsibly and securely.

“The team has been delivering successful outcomes for years, and it means customers don’t just get pilots and proof-of-concepts, they get scalable solutions that actually improve their business,” he said.