Australia’s digital economy.
With IT at the heart of Australia’s digital economy, Avocado Consulting outline the top three IT Federal Budget measures on our wish list to drive economic prosperity.
The Federal Budget will be handed down by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on Tuesday March 29, 2022. This is earlier than usual due to the upcoming Federal election which is predicted to be held in May. With IT at the heart of Australia’s digital economy, Avocado Consulting outline the top three IT Federal Budget measures on our wish list to drive economic prosperity, including:
- A focus on helping SMEs with their digital transformation
- Addressing the IT skills shortage and access to talent
- Continued focus on critical government infrastructure and the digital economy, to boost Australia’s economy and safety.
1. A focus on helping SMEs with digital transformation
The Pandemic propelled technology transformation into the spotlight – highlighting how those quickly adapting to technological challenges had better business outcomes. This responsiveness had a flow-on effect on Australia’s economy resulting in better expected economic performance.
Notably though, it uncovered the vulnerabilities for many businesses – particularly for SMEs – due to the diaspora of remote workers and continued effects of isolation. Cybersecurity, skills shortages, and supply chains all came under the spotlight. These challenges often require complex change that most businesses will not have planned or budgeted for. In our experience, business owners need the capability to drive transformation in their business, including training and knowledge sharing – particularly around cybersecurity and data privacy.
As a market leader in providing complex IT transformation to businesses, we understand that teams can feel overwhelmed by the upfront investment and the challenge presented by legacy systems in starting their IT transformation. However, the resulting ROI for a Business undertaking transformation – like moving to the cloud and improving the customer experience – can be transformational for their brand and revenue.
We would like to see incentives for SMEs in the Federal Budget 22′ to help drive digital transformation, including continued support via R&D grants to drive innovation and investment in emerging technologies. We see e-commerce being a priority and an overall effect of equipping all Businesses for the future and improving Australia’s competitiveness on the global stage.
2. Addressing the IT skills shortage and access to talent
Avocado Consulting understands better than most that IT skills aren’t evergreen. We are seeing an increased demand for our IT services and consultants with businesses requiring assistance to move to cloud, adopt cybersecurity, implement automation and data analytics and more. There is currently unprecedented demand for a range of skills like full stack engineers, cloud engineers, data analysts and project managers.
To remain competitive, Australia needs a strong ICT workforce with skills in software development, monitoring, and testing to build better businesses, and a better tomorrow for Australia.
Companies like Avocado are continually investing in their people to stay ahead of the rapid changes and emergence of new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain. We have a comprehensive two-year graduate program and work with Gartner quadrant leading partners to ensure our knowledge is current. We are committed to sharing our experience and IP with our clients to transfer knowledge and deliver incremental or transformational change.
Australia is currently facing a major technology skills shortage – we need a holistic approach to how business, academic institutions and the government tackle this issue. We would like to see in the Federal Budget funding in the following areas:
- Significant focus on training – we would like to see better programs to attract undergraduates into STEM including economic incentives. While there’s been several measures to boost STEM in previous Budget’s, future needs are disparate to the amount of people undertaking a career in STEM
- Better representation of what a career path looks like in this area supported by the Australian Government
- More women in IT, who are currently underrepresented
- A skilled migration ramp-up.
3. Increased funding on critical government infrastructure for a digital economy to boost our prosperity and safety
The Government’s already large investment into the digital economy has enabled the beginning of transformation for key sectors and the way Australians access critical services – ensuring Australia keeps running efficiently, our economy is strengthened and our future secured.
With early Budget leaks emphasising national and economic security at the forefront of this year’s Budget, Avocado supports these measures and the investment in key government digital infrastructure, cybersecurity, and monitoring to ensure our nation’s data and privacy are not compromised.
At the same time, continued support of core programs such as Consumer Data Right (CDR) now rolling out in telecommunications, and the New Payments Platform (NPP) will provide positive changes to the way all Australians not only do business in the 24/7 digital economy but empower individuals to have more choice and transparency in the goods and services they pay for.
As a leader in providing IT solutions to corporate clients and government agencies, we’ve seen first-hand how digital infrastructure and the policies that support initiatives such as the CDR and NPP are bringing the Financial Services sector into a new era and levelling the playing field for new competitors. We’ve also been part of the changes rolled out by government in response to the pandemic with key support services and initiatives impacting the lives of all Australians. That’s why, we believe that these three measures coupled with IT transformation will deliver certainty for Australia’s economic future.
Avocado Consulting is a professional services company supporting Australia’s largest corporate entities and government agencies on complex IT projects. If you would like to know more about how Avocado can help you, contact us.
