Neil Templeman (Sovtech)
IT industry veteran Neil Templeman has embarked on a new venture to create Australia's first technology procurement platform with a social conscience.
Known as Sovtech, the new company will repurpose profit from technology or cyber spend to a charity of the customer's choice or from its selected partnerships.
Led by Templeman, alongside advisors in Bobby Jafari and Amit Chaubey, Sovtech’s offerings include penetration testing, governance, risk and compliance (GRC), technology platforms and data security.
Templeman said he identified a considerable gap in the market to ‘give back’ in creating the social procurement platform.
"I had a good nine to 12 months to think about launching Sovtech," he told ARN. "I had the network, connections and experience and I wanted to do something that would create an impact, with not just one, but a group of charities," he said.
“Sovtech will be converging cyber security and technology spending budgets with social impact and so far, we’ve had a positive response from customers. There’s a good opportunity in the market to disrupt procurement models that don’t really provide value to customers,” Templeman added.
Prior to embarking on his latest venture, Templeman was the co-founder and national sales director of First Nations ICT company Baidam Solutions.
His advisor Jafari has accrued more than two decades of IT industry experience and founded his own company, nForceIT in 2020. Meanwhile, Chaubey’s career spans more than 22 years holding a number of security roles in Australia and throughout the Asia region and is currently the NSW chair for Australian Information Security Association (AISA).
Upon its launch, Sovtech has partnered up with three charity organisations including Women Up North, Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Foundation (QATSIF) and one that he has a current close affiliation with in Butterfly Foundation.
Customers can choose one of those three charities for the donation to be directed towards, or their own charity of choice.
“I’ll be very candid on putting a spotlight on the good work I’m doing with these charities,” he said.
At the moment, Sovtech has carefully selected partnerships with Varonis, SOC Prime, Soft Iron, Abnormal, Phriendly Phising, Akamai and MicroSec.
Templeman said he was keen to grow the business organically, projecting a strong outlook within the next six months and bringing in more charity partnerships, along with bringing the concept and tech into a digital platform, so customers can view their budget and spend through Sovtech.
“The impact of our approach is transformative. Firstly, we are redefining technology and cyber spend with a ‘procurement with purpose’ model in Australia, specifically tailored to support health and educational outcomes,” Templeman said.
“Secondly, the organisation's commitment to social impact is magnified through our partnership, benefiting both their specific objectives and the broader societal goals of advancing equity and opportunity.”
