Fuse Technology's director for WA joins board of defence-focused organisation for SMEs

Fuse Technology’s director for WA, Phil Aldridge, has been appointed to the board of the Henderson Alliance, a WA-based organisation to promote small businesses looking to get involved in the defence sector.

Established in 2017 and boasting over 300 members, Aldridge said that the idea of the Alliance is to educate WA-based SMBs about what they need to do to get involved in the defence sector and assist them in making sure that they are governed properly.

“The Alliance also exists to get the small businesses involved with the larger Primes that are the main defence contractors,” he said.

“A small business probably isn't going to get a direct contract with the Department of Defence - it's going to be through an upstream supply chain - and the Alliance is really there to support that supply chain in all levels.”

Aldridge first came across the Alliance back in 2023, after moving to Australia from Hong Kong, where he served as COO of MSP FunctionEight.

"I didn't really see anybody at the Alliance who was focused on being able to assist members on the educational perspective around cyber security, so I approached the board and put my application in,” he said.

As well as holding workshops, training sessions and monthly events, the Alliance advocates for SMEs by representing the industry on various government boards and forums.

A good segue into defence

One way an IT firm may get involved with the defence sector, Aldridge explained, is by being an MSP for a law firm that was dealing with a contractor looking to procure a defence contract.

“The law firm is getting confidential contracts from the contractor; the law firm's IT firm may have access to the law firm's IT environment and therefore potentially access to the same contracts - all three of them need to be secure,” he explained to techpartner.news.

“If an IT firm wants to get involved in the defence contractor supply chain, they probably need to get Essential8 compliant and apply for Defence Industry Security Program (DISP) accreditation.

“Even for a normal small business, security can be quite complicated. In the defence sector, it’s even more complicated, [so] what I would like to achieve is to educate all the members on what the requirements are to be part of this supply chain.”

Aldridge said that those IT firms that deal with clients in a regulated space are “probably well positioned” to get involved in the Henderson Alliance community. 

“A lot of the IT firms in WA are in mining already, so they’re used to high-security environments, so it's a good segue into defence,” he told techpartner.news.

“There’s a lot of professional services involved in the Henderson Alliance too, because all of the contractors require professional services firms to support them, whether it's accountants, lawyers, recruitment firms etc. 

“The government recently announced $12 billion towards delivering a Defence Precinct at Henderson [in Henderson, WA] to deliver continuous naval shipbuilding and AUKUS in Western Australia and the overall AUKUS contract is over $300 billion over the next 30 years - there's a lot of investment in defence in Australia and it’s a good time to get involved.”