IT Industry in Australia - Research Paper Example

IT industry in Australia Research questions How has the IT industry in Australia grown? 2. Why is the IT industry in Australia ranked one of the best, compared to other countries that are also said to be technologically advanced? 3. How has technological advancement in the world impacted the IT industry in Australia? IT industry in Australia Information Technology (IT) is a discipline related with technology and how information is treated. The term first appeared in an editorial published in the Harvard Business Review in 1958, whereby Whisler and Leavitt who were the authors commented that the recent technology had no name, and they thought they would refer to it as information technology. The main fields in IT are computing and telecommunication. Moreover, some of the recently emerging fields of IT include cloud computing, large scale knowledge bases, bio informatics, and next generation web technologies. All these developing fields are vastly connected to the field of computer science. This article will research and review literature that has useful information about the IT industry in Australia and include an analysis about the researched literature. IT is a study linked with managing technology by considering a wide variety of areas like computer hardware and software, programming languages and information systems. Therefore, anything that provides information in any visual format through any multimedia distribution mechanism is regarded as part of the IT domain. Moreover, IT provides businesses with core services that enable the business to execute its business strategy. IT professionals perform a variety of functions ranging from installing mere applications to designing complex information databases and computer networks. Other tasks that can be performed by such specialists include networking, data management, engineering, and computer hardware and software design. Information technology has vastly spread compared to the network technologies and the convectional computer. This arises from integration of technologies such as use of the cell phones, automobiles, and televisions which significantly employ information technology. In the recent past, the Association for Computing Machinery and the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology have joined forces to form a curriculum for degree standards in Information Technology. The Special Interest Group for IT Education (SIGITE) is the Association for Computing Machinery that defines these standards in the IT discipline. In total, the global IT revenue totaled to $763 billion in 2009. According to a report from the Economist Intelligence Unit, the Australian IT industry is among the most competitive and advanced in the world (Australian Technical and Management College 2010). The report entitled “The means to compete: Benchmarking IT industry competitiveness” has ranked Australia 5th globally, and 3rd in the Asian-Pacific region in terms of its competitiveness in the IT industry. Among the countries that have vanquished Australia in terms of IT infrastructure include Sweden, Canada, Switzerland, Taiwan and Denmark. Australia’s infrastructure is built on dependable internet security, high broadband penetration, extensive PC ownership, and substantial spending on IT which is a vital factor in the robust Information Technology sector. This report also noted that the broadband penetration of Australia is 33% compared to 20% in most OECD countries. The countries that have beaten Australia in the broadband penetration are South Korea and Netherlands only. The phone penetration of Australia also hit the 94.5% mark, hence, revealing that the Australian IT industry has tremendously grown. In addition, the difference in time between Australia and Asia is approximately two to three hours. Therefore, the ability of companies to service their clients from the Asian countries is a striking competitive advantage. Australia provides a time zone that bridges the opening of European markets and closing of the United States (Australian Technical and Management College 2010). According to the report, the technological advancement in Australia made a British internet security firm called Sophos to establish an office in Australia to capitalize on the location’s time zone. As an outcome, the company is competent in providing a 24 hour customer support globally. An advantage of the company’s location in Sydney, Australia is its proximity to the international dateline. The Managing Director of the firm named Rob, explains that if they get a virus that is date-based in Australia, they will get its identity even before its branch in Europe is aware about the same virus. This is significant to the company over its competitors in the internet security industry. Research based on the Information Technology industry shows that Australia has been ranked 4th in the world in terms of providing skilled IT personnel in the industry (Australian Technical and Management College 2010). Australia is preceded by Singapore, UK and the United States. The report also states that Australia has a renowned educational system, which includes an adjusted training curriculum that is enhanced to meet the skills requirements in the IT industry. Additionally, in terms of productivity, Australia is ranked 5th globally and 4th in the Asia-Pacific region. This category singles out on hardware and software output per industry employee. In other categories of awards like the legal environment in IT competitiveness, Australia was ranked 6th, ahead of Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, France, Germany, Sweden and Japan. This reflects the Australian business environment as one which is well-regulated. According to IT experts, regulation is regarded as the best practice for any IT firm to prosper. This presents the Australian business environment as an attractive testing ground for IT companies without any management and financial risks. The Australian workforce is highly-skilled in comparison to labor costs in other developed economies. The Digital Planet comprehends that the ICT market in Australia is worth approximately $55 billion dollars, which is quite a colossal amount of money. This ranks Australia 5th in the Asia-Pacific location. Likewise, in the global market the ICT industry has earned expertise respect in niche fields such as digital content, smart cards, e-commerce, systems integration, intelligent transport systems, software development, and wireless networking. Australia is named home to marketing and sales operations for practically all the prominent ICT companies (Australian Technical and Management College 2010). Australia is frequently chosen as a location for software development, technical support centers, and international business operations support functions. The ICT Company is also supported by Invent Australia. Invent Australia is an inward investment agency in Australia that helps the IT firms in Australia to boost their business and offers the investors a confidential, comprehensive and free service. Statistics show that between July 2002 and June 2007, Invest Australia played a vital role in attracting and facilitating about 387 projects worth 55.8 billion Australian dollars. This created more than 28,000 job opportunities which generated approximately 12.6 billion Australian dollars in export earnings. Information and communication technology is an extended synonym of Information Technology (IT). This term was first used in the United Kingdom in a report presented by Dennis Stevenson in the year 1997 (Australian Technical and Management College 2010). This was also enhanced by the latest National Curriculum documents for the United Kingdom in 2000. ICT is also used to refer to the union of telephone networks and audio-visual with computer networks via a single link and cabling system. However, there are dangers that are also related to Information Technology, including cyber bullying and masquerading. In October 2005, the Australian Government established a task force that was mandated to address the challenges faced by the Australian Public Service in order to attract and retain professionals in the information communication technology sector. There are hefty financial incentives developed to merge the telephone network, audio-visual, and building management with the computer network. This has spurred growth of organizations, indicating their specialization in the merging process of different network systems. Many companies have come up with campaigns that promote ICT and in turn protecting nature (Australian Technical and Management College 2010). For example, Wipro is a leading company which organized Earthian; a campaign that empowers students to develop ideas of how to use technology and at the same time benefit the society. Likewise, UNESCO’s Information for All Program (IFAP) provides a discussion platform on legal, ethical, and societal consequences of developments in the ICT industry. Under the task force plan, entitled Whole-of-government ICT strategic workforce strategy 2010-2013, the Australian government required newly graduated IT workers to hire professionals and cadetship programs through correlations with the Australian Computer Society. The joint effort was required to re-access the ICT workforce plans annually. A report presented by the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) proved that 34% of the total government agencies presented a shortage of ICT professionals. Moreover, only a mere 5% of these agencies had a task force strategy competent to combat this issue. The report urges such agencies to implement workforce strategies to curb this demerit. Recently, a recruitment firm referred to as ‘People bank’ researched about Australia’s job index and found that although most institutions had been facing a shortage of ICT workers in the past three months, the salaries for such full-time workers is still standard, and the IT professional pool is likely to face a dwindle throughout this year. However, some of the advancements made in the Information Technology industry of Australia include the invention of a controversial tracking device and the cloud computing technology (Australian Technical and Management College 2010). The controversial tracking device is a new model that was developed and used in Perth, Australia. The device has the ability to keep tabs on children, hence, keeping a track of their whereabouts. In conclusion, Jeff Knowles, the chief executive officer of ‘People bank’ told Computerworld Australia that they have experienced a boost in the number of stable IT roles in the prior year. However, this growth is not the same compared to the private sector which is stagnant in terms of growth. According to a survey carried out by the company, growth in the Australian Capital Territory has revolved largely around software and project management developers who are familiar with Java and .NET platforms (Australian Technical and Management College 2010). Moreover, reduction in IT course enrolments in universities and other tertiary learning institutions are prone to impact on the number of IT professionals. Therefore, individuals are advised to enroll for IT courses since they are vastly marketable. References Adelman, C 2000, A parallel post-secondary universe: The certification system in Information Technology, US Education Department, Washington D.C. Allen, T & Morton, M 1994, Information technology and the corporation of the 1990s, Oxford University Press, New York. Australian Technical and Management College 2010, IT industry in Australia, University of Ballarat, Australia. Claude, R 2009, IT’s hidden face: Everything you always wanted to know about Information Technology, CreateSpace press, Europe. Dennis, L & Michael, S 2012, Dictionary of Information Technology, 2nd edn., Macmillan press, Macmillan. Hilbert, M & Lopez, P 2011, The world’s technological capacity to store, communicate, and compute information, Science journal, 332(6025), 60-65; viewed 20 November 2011, martinhilbert.net/WorldInfoCapacity.html. 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