Technology: areas identified for significant change
Despite encouraging acknowledgements of the value technology can bring to productivity, it appears Australian businesses are yet to fully embrace the IT revolution.
Interestingly, out of the four areas we identified as having the biggest effect on productivity, only 8% of respondents cited technology as a key influence.
Despite encouraging acknowledgements of the value technology can bring to productivity, it appears Australian businesses are yet to fully embrace the IT revolution.
Technology: an enabler of productivity
Arguably there has always been a performance gap between organisations that embrace technology and those who resist it. While the gap has been fairly steady for decades, it is now starting to widen dramatically.
Leading organisations are capitalising on technology advances to pioneer a whole new innovation paradigm based on the ways they measure, experiment with, share and replicate information.
The Pulse shows:
- Sixty-two per cent of respondents feel technology is important to their role
- Forty per cent say technology has increased productivity levels
- Sixty-five per cent recognise additional, new or improved technology would make their organisation more productive over the long term
Not fully embracing the IT revolution
Despite these positive trends, it appears Australian businesses have still not fully embraced the value IT can add.
- Thirty—nine per cent don’t agree they have access to the right technology
- Forty-two percent don’t agree they have the right training to apply technology effectively
Workers believe improvements are needed in the public sector
Unsurprisingly, results show the professional, scientific and technical sectors fare the best on the technology front, with 55% acknowledging technology has increased productivity levels over the past 12 months.
This is a contrast to the 36% figure in the public sector, and reinforces that the recent Federal budget announcement of an additional $1.03 billion of IT spending in the public sector is highly needed3. However, despite the government’s ambition to drive public-sector productivity through the provision of top—notch IT, the key will be in its implementation.
Only 48% of respondents from the public sector acknowledge their organisation has a successful history of implementing new technology and is progressive in its application.
Usage vs wastage
When it comes to technology wastage, the construction and resources; and retail and wholesale trade sectors rank the highest, showing approximately 10% downtime per week.
This level of wastage may be tolerable for the booming resource sector, however given the challenging outlook for retail as the sector continues to grapple with issues such as online, competition and declining consumer spending, 10% wastage associated with technology equivalent to two hours per person per week, could be detrimental.
Ares identified for significant change
Technology: areas identified
for significant change
The Pulse shows significant technology changes are needed in computer software and applications, integration of systems and the way in which businesses collect and use information.
This is particularly true in the retail sector. Businesses should be harnessing technological tools and strategies to more effectively collect and use consumer data to tackle online competitors head on. Smart retailers will look to enhance the in—store experience by leveraging technology to employ targeted marketing campaigns to boost sales, provide an enhanced customer experience and realise operational cost savings.
3 The Australian, $1bn budget boost for public sector projects, May 2011
« Previous
