We build the machine that turns
chaos into clarity.
Give yourself and your team more time for the work that matters. We bring software, automation and AI into the way your business works — clearing repetitive tasks, connecting information and helping you make better decisions sooner. We work out where the benefit is, build what's needed, and offer ongoing support when you need it.
Out of broadcast & post-production · Victoria, Australia
Most consultants hand you a report.
Most developers hand you software.
38South does both. We sit down and work out what your business actually needs — sometimes that's a hard conversation about the numbers — then we build it: software, websites, automation, AI assistants, and the writing that goes with them. Ongoing support is available when you need it.
Thirty-five years in small business, here and overseas, and a career spent in technically demanding places where things have to work the first time.
The quickest way to know what we do is to look at what we ship.
Before we build for you, look at what we've built for ourselves — our own products, live in the world, and the websites they run on. The same work we'd do on yours, already done.
- Righto The voicemail that texts back — wins Australian tradies the jobs a missed call would have lost.
- SEO Easy Multi-site AI SEO: audit, generate and publish metadata across WordPress, Shopify, Ghost, Webflow and Strapi from one dashboard.
- Channel Labs YouTube packaging intelligence — reads your video and writes the titles, thumbnails and tags that get it found.
- Helm A private AI chief-of-staff for tasks, calendar, email and follow-ups — on a server that's yours.
- Jedd Social AI social on autopilot: plan, write and schedule posts across your accounts.
And the websites: this site, every product site above, plus MedHeads, Meducate and client sites like Bassine Specialty Cheeses — built fast, owned by you, and editable by the people who run them. Where we came from is broadcast and post-production, an authorised Iconik reseller, so the integration and media-pipeline work is proven, not theoretical.
See all of it on our products page →We meet you where the spreadsheets stop.
The work we do, turned into things you own — designed, built and kept sharp by one team that understands your business. Every one is something we've already built and run ourselves, not a capability we're promising.
Software that fits how you work
Practical tools built around your actual process — not your business bent to fit someone else's template.
e.g. the bespoke system behind Helm — built around one business at a time.
Websites you own and can edit
Fast, modern sites that stay yours — with a plain visual editor, so your team changes words, prices and pages without waiting on a developer or paying for every tweak.
e.g. this site, our product sites, and client sites their owners edit themselves.
Automation that clears the busywork
The repetitive steps, the copy-paste between tools, the chasing — handled. So your people spend their time on the work that needs a person.
e.g. Righto texts back every call a tradie misses, under their business name.
AI that helps your team
AI built into everyday work: finding answers, preparing drafts and bringing information together, so your people can act sooner and use their judgement where it counts.
e.g. Helm helps organise tasks, email and follow-ups in one workspace.
Integration & strategy
A clear map of your stack and a plan to connect it — so every tool, team and dataset points the same way, and you know what to build first.
e.g. your booking, job and accounting systems finally talking.
Media & post-production
The messy middle of a media pipeline — ingest, storage, media management, transcode, review and delivery — wired together and back into the systems that run the business.
We're an authorised reseller of Iconik — the cloud media-management platform broadcasters and studios run on.
Storage & cloud, sorted
Files where your team can actually find them, joined up across your NAS and cloud buckets — so nobody has to care where the material physically lives.
e.g. existing storage pulled into one searchable place.
Support when you need it
Need help keeping things running? We can host, maintain and improve what we build. Choose the support that suits your business, or manage it with your own team.
e.g. the servers behind Helm and the sites we keep running.
More capacity.
Same good people.
Whether you work for yourself or run a team, you know the customers, the jobs and the judgement calls. Too much of the day gets swallowed by chasing information, repeating steps and pulling reports together. We help you put AI to work in those processes, so you can get more done with the knowledge already in your business.
Better tools for your team. More room to grow.
The aim is to support the people you have, not cut staff. That could mean preparing quotes faster, spotting a problem earlier, or bringing the right information together before a decision. Your people stay in charge, with more time and better information to work with.
And it has to earn its keep. We weigh the likely benefit against the cost of building, running and using it, then check the results. If AI won't deliver a worthwhile return, we'll say so.
We build from the bottom of the map.
Named for the parallel that runs through home. Practical engineering with a clear sense of direction — and a fixed point you can navigate by.
38.27° S · Victoria, AUStart with the work.
Measure the difference.
Map
We sit with your team, trace the workflow and establish what the delays, repetitive work and errors cost you.
Design
We agree what a worthwhile improvement looks like, weigh it against the cost, and show you a practical plan and prototype.
Build
We build in small steps, connect your existing tools and test with your people on real work, so the change fits their day.
Run
We help you put it to use and check the results against what we agreed. Ongoing hosting, maintenance and improvements are available if you need them.
Good to know.
Both, and that is the whole point. We set the strategy and then build the system that delivers it. One accountable team from the first workshop to the live product, so nothing falls through the gap between a consultancy and a separate dev shop.
Established small to mid-size businesses and operations teams, usually 1 to 200 people, who have outgrown spreadsheets and a patchwork of disconnected apps but are not ready to stand up an in-house engineering team.
A focused automation or integration can ship in 2 to 4 weeks. A full custom platform usually runs 8 to 16 weeks, delivered in increments so you get working software early and often.
Yes. You own the code and the data, full stop. We can host and maintain it as an ongoing partner, or hand it over fully documented for your own team. Your call, no lock-in.
We put AI into specific, bounded jobs like triage, drafting, search and summarising, always with a person in the loop and guardrails around your data. No black boxes making calls you cannot see or override.
We start with a specific job and what it costs today — in time, errors or delays. Together we agree what improvement would justify the investment, including setup, ongoing costs and the time your team needs to learn it. Then we test on real work and check the results. Sometimes a simpler process or ordinary automation is the better answer. We'll tell you when that's the case.
Our focus is helping the people you already have achieve more. We work with your team to reduce repetitive work, make information easier to find and support better decisions. Their experience and judgement remain central; the tools give them more time to use both.
Yes, this is core to what we do. We come from broadcast and post-production, so we connect the messy middle of a media pipeline: ingest and storage, media asset management, transcoding, review and approval, and delivery, then tie it back to the project and finance systems that run the business. Built for production companies, agencies and in-house content teams buried in large files and manual handling.
Yes. We are an authorised Iconik reseller and integration partner, so we supply the licences and build the system around them. That gives you one point of contact for both the software and the wiring. We design the storage and transcoding setup, connect your existing NAS and cloud buckets, and configure it so your team can find and move material without caring where it physically lives.
Our sweet spot is operations-heavy businesses: media and post-production, professional services, trades and field operations, and anyone running on spreadsheets plus a stack of apps that do not talk to each other. We are tool-agnostic and build around what you already use. Iconik is the one platform we also resell and are certified to integrate.
Let's find what's
slowing you down.
Pick a time that suits. Bring the part of your business that frustrates you most — we'll take it from there.