Adam Fudeh, Storata Founder (backrow, 9th from left), with James Saunders and Manny Metaxotos, alongside Microsoft CTO Dean Corcoran (front, 3rd from left) and fellow participants atthe Microsoft Agent Hackathon, Sydney HQ, 2026.

Credit: Storata

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When Microsoft's judges announced the winner of the inauguralAgent Hackathon at their Sydney headquarters, they did not just read out aname. They called Storata ‘the stand-out winners’.

These words mattered. It was unprompted, unscripted, and camefrom Microsoft's own technical and commercial leadership. And it was a directconsequence of something Storata has always believed: that understanding aproblem deeply is more valuable than solving it quickly.

What Storata Built in One Day

The challenge: design, build, and present a deployable AI agentin a single day. Storata chose a problem every organisation recognises — sharedmailbox overload.

The team built an intelligent email triage agent using Microsoft Copilot Studio that performed four functions automatically:

•    Routing — classifying every inbound email and directing it to theright team based on content.

•    Priority scoring — assigning urgency based on sender identity, sentiment, andkeywords — with rules to prevent false positives.

•    Draft responses — generating review-ready replies a human could approve andsend instantly.

•    Audit log — recording every decision the agent made so operators couldreview, learn, and improve over time.

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Using Microsoft Copilot Studio,the Storata team of only 3 engineers on the day were able to build the emailtriage agent on first-party Microsoft components for governance andauditability. Copilot Studio is synonymous with Storata client delivery value

Photo credit; Microsoft

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“By using first-party Microsoft connectors exclusively,  every component could be tied back and monitored through a single pane of  glass when governance was needed.”

James  Saunders, Lead Engineer, Storata

The Difference Was Preparation

By 10am — before presentations began — James Saunders had aclear sense of how the day would end. Not because of the technology. Because ofthe process.

Storata applied the same methodology to the hackathon that itapplies to every client engagement: understand the problem before writing asingle line of code. The team arrived with a defined scenario, a clear solutionapproach, and answers already prepared for the questions judges would ask.

In a world where technology  changes daily, our process is the constant. We had a documented plan we could  test, validate, and implement — whatever the tech stack.

The result was a solution the judges described as the mostproduction-ready, most business-grounded, and most clearly articulated of theday.

What Happened After the Win

Winning was the headline. What followed was the signal.

Microsoft Solution Architects approached Storata after the event— not to congratulate them, but to discuss productising the solution andbringing it to market. That conversation was initiated by Microsoft. It wasgrounded in solution quality, not in a partner program or a prior commercialrelationship.

When Microsoft's own people  approach you to ask how they can help bring your solution to market — that is  not a partner benefit. That is a market signal.

“Most questions after the presentation were about how  the agent could be expanded. We could answer in depth because we had already  planned for that.”

James  Saunders, Storata

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Microsoft Australian Headquarters hosted some of the Industry’sbest talent, among them the Storata team presenting their email triage agent toMicrosoft judges at the Agent Build-A-Thon, Microsoft Sydney HQ and taking outthe APAC award, March 2026

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What It Meansfor Australian Businesses

The email triage agent is not a demonstration. It is aproduction-ready solution for any knowledge-intensive organisation managinghigh-volume shared mailboxes — financial services firms, legal practices,healthcare organisations, commercial property managers.

Built entirely on Microsoft's platform. Governed by design.Audit-ready from day one. That is not incidental — it is the point. Thegovernance layer is what makes the solution deployable in a regulatedenvironment rather than just impressive in a presentation.

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Storata was named the stand-out  winner. Not by Storata. By Microsoft.

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