Analysis: Impacts on the IT business

For international IT&T companies, Australia is strategically located for doing business

in the Asia Pacific region. Its major advantage is its highly cost competitive location

with a technically skilled workforce. Australia's workforce is identified as advanced users

of IT&T and is also recognized as having an outstanding record of creativity, innovation

and research and development. Established laws and institutions and a creative,

open society make a very supportive environment for ICT industries. Australia has

a strong record on consumer protection, corporate regulation, adherence to appropriate

standards for accounts and company records. The environment is also characterized by

lack of corruption, low crime, and personal freedom. All these factors make Australia

an ideal target for investors and entrepreneurs to set up businesses. Over 400

international companies have set up regional headquarters and operation centers

in Australia, representing $6.9 billion in new investment. Some of these companies

include AOL, Bluegum, BMC, Canon, Cisco, Dascom, ERG, Ericsson, Fujitsu,

Hewlett Packard, Lexmark, Lucent, Motorola, NEC, Nortel Networks, Oracle etc.

Some of the areas in which Australia provides promising

venues are listed below:

Australia’s geography and environment give it a unique place in the global information

economy. It is an ideal location for setting up call centers. A growing number of

multinational firms are using Australia as the base for their regional call centers,

attracted by the advantages of a skilled, multilingual workforce, good communications

and competitive business costs. Australia has close business links with adjacent

emerging Asian markets.

With a different time zone to Europe and North America, an Australian base allows

firms, servicing markets in two hemispheres, a global continuity of workflows and

efficient handover of activities. Furthermore, Australia has developed world class

IT systems for managing telecommunications networks and billing and servicing

telecommunications customers. With the existence of well developed

telecommunication structure and networks, Australia proves to be a good location

for developing call centers.

Australia has a great potential for software design and programming. Main reasons

associated with this fact are a highly educated and technologically skilled workforce,

which is English speaking. Public is also enthusiastic about new information products

and services and very technology savvy. Although, Australia does not have very good

capabilities for home grown software development, the presence of multinational ITC and

consultancy firms give it a comparative advantage. Development of effective partnerships

with international collaborators, agents, customers and investors is therefore essential for

new and prospective investors.

With respect to hardware manufacturing and design, Australia does not seem to project a

very good picture. It is not seen very optimistically as a viable computer and

telecommunications manufacturing industry. According to new figures from the

Australian Bureau of Statistics(ABS), production of information technology and

telecommunications (IT&T) equipment has fallen by 27 per cent during the past three years,

from $4.8 billion worth of products in 1995-96 to $3.5 billion in 1998-99. Businesses

are mostly outsourcing their hardware demands.