What challenges did Australian Government face before AI implementation?

Exporters faced a complex web of regulations, quotas, and eligibility criteria. Legacy on-premise systems were slow to adapt to modern digital service delivery requirements. Exporters could not manage compliance or access quota usage information in real-time. Developing and deploying new exporter services was slow and inflexible due to traditional IT release cycles.

What was the impact of the AI solution?

Reduced time to market for digital service delivery. Improved security and availability of export certification systems. Streamlined compliance management for exporters. Supports government's goal to grow agricultural exports to $100 billion by 2030.

Source

MicrosoftExpandedEvidence: Low40/100

Australian Government modernizes agricultural export services

Use case typePublic sector automationUpdated Jun 13, 2026

The Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) has overhauled its digital export certification systems to make Australian agricultural exports more competitive globally. Facing complex regulatory and compliance requirements, DAFF needed to provide exporters with streamlined, secure, and flexible access to critical digital services. To address these needs, DAFF partnered with LAB3, leveraging Microsoft Azure cloud technologies and automation tools (including Terraform) to create Azure Platform One (APO), a cloud-first, automated provisioning environment. This platform enables DAFF teams to rapidly develop, test, and deploy digital export applications and migrate legacy systems securely and efficiently. The APO provides exporters with real-time quota management, improved application development speed, and enhanced service reliability. The program supports Australia’s target to grow agricultural exports to $100 billion by 2030. Migration to APO began in 2021, with legacy and new applications now running on highly secure, available Azure infrastructure, compliant with government requirements. The transformation empowers exporters through better traceability, seamless regulatory management, and future readiness, establishing a world-leading model for government digital services.

Organization: Australian Government
Industry: Agriculture
Location: Australia
Published: October 2022

Reported outcomes

Strategic outcomes

Speed & agilityReduced time to market for digital servicesCustomer experience & trustProvided self-serve compliance and quota accessRisk & complianceImproved security and compliance readinessCustomer experience & trustEnabled seamless regulatory management for exporters

Why do we believe this deployment?Customer identity, provider attribution, maturity, and source checks

Customer: Australian Government
Provider: Microsoft
Maturity: Unknown
Linked source: news.microsoft.com

No explicit deployment-stage evidence found.

Customer identity supportedSource describes one deploymentMaturity evidence evaluated

Primary read

Use case focus

Showing 3 of 3

1Automated Digital Export Certification System
2Real-time Compliance Manager for Agricultural Exporters
3Legacy Application Migration to Cloud Platform

Exporters faced a complex web of regulations, quotas, and eligibility criteria.
Legacy on-premise systems were slow to adapt to modern digital service delivery requirements.
Exporters could not manage compliance or access quota usage information in real-time.
Developing and deploying new exporter services was slow and inflexible due to traditional IT release cycles.

Developed cloud-first, automated platform Azure Platform One (APO) on Microsoft Azure with LAB3.
Used Terraform for infrastructure as code, ensuring scalability and repeatable secure deployments.
Provided exporters a self-serve portal for digital identity, compliance management, and real-time quota information.
Migrated legacy applications and built new digital applications on a unified, highly secure cloud platform.

Technologies

Azure Terraform

Reduced time to market for digital service delivery.
Improved security and availability of export certification systems.
Streamlined compliance management for exporters.
Supports government's goal to grow agricultural exports to $100 billion by 2030.

Architecture

LAB3 implemented Azure Platform One (APO) for DAFF using LAB3 Bedrock and Terraform to automate the provisioning of Microsoft Azure infrastructure. The platform allows DAFF digital teams to quickly stand up development, testing, pre-production, and production environments with built-in security compliant with Infosec Registered Assessors Program and ISO 27001. New and legacy apps are run in the secure Azure environment, integrating compliance, traceability, and real-time data feeds for exporters.

Sources & evidence1

Evidence: Low40/100Evidence strength