Sydney-based Microsoft specialist Barhead Solutions has appointed Doug Maloney as its first head of product and intellectual property.
Maloney joins the 2018 CRN Fast50 winner from chatbot company Alphaindigo, which he founded in 2017. Barhead is also a partner of Alphaindigo which will continue to operate as an independent entity.
Prior to this he spent a decade in senior roles in the telco industry including Vodafone, Three and Optus.
“He will now lead us into an exciting chapter of growth as his team develops industry aligned IP
leveraging the full range of capabilities of Microsoft’s Digital Transformation Platform,” the company said in a statement.
Barhead added that Maloney’s credentials in user experience, user interface design, software development and product management would be beneficial to the company.
“This will be a significant part of the business because it takes Barhead into a very different space, particularly with Microsoft. It opens up different discussions about common problems to solve for businesses and their industries,” said Maloney.
“In some of my previous roles in innovation, I learned how to take raw ideas and develop them into something that could become part of the business – generating new products and business lines.
“These experiences were across many different units within large companies, so I am able to bring that broad industry exposure to Barhead.”
Since joining, Maloney started working on a re-launch of the company’s workforce management app, Clearspace. The solution is designed to help individuals and employers with the transition back to the office post-COVID lockdowns.
“The conditions during 2020 were so different than anything any of us had experienced before.
Clearspace was a great way to solve a common problem that affected every different company,” he said.
“We are working in some familiar Barhead territories such as financial services, and starting to
explore some new spaces such as the big unaddressed IT market for frontline workers.
“There are some very different ideas in the pipeline. We want to build unique products that we can be proud of and address some of those very pointed issues that companies are experiencing.”
“The vision is to quickly expand our portfolio – generating unique products and IP which will realise value for our customers, for Barhead and for Microsoft.
“This will ultimately lead to a customer-driven group that has a firm connection with the users of
our products, which will open more doors and continue important conversations with customers.”
Source: