News

An IT-enabled economy: visions for Australia’s future

Media Release, Friday 27 June 2003

The University of Melbourne will host Australia’s leading experts in IT and business in a forum to map out the path and identify the pitfalls Australia will need to negotiate if it is to thrive in an IT-enabled world.

Australia's $77.5 billion information technology sector and its potential for becoming a world leader have generated significant political comment and public discussion. The forum will be facilitated by multi-award winning television science and medical journalist and current affairs presenter, Dr Gael Jennings.

The forum panel are Australia’s leaders in IT, IT business/management, and economics. Their concerns and ideas span education, business, IT research and development and their implications for Australia’s future prosperity. They will scrutinise the roles governments, industry and our educational system must play to ensure Australia can be an IT-enabled economy and capitalise on any investment in this area. They will investigate the future of such things as on-line technology and what infrastructure Australia will need to succeed.

Other questions they will pursue and propose answers for include:
• What are the key technology developments we can expect in the future to realise the vision of an IT enabled economy?
• What are the technological and economic impediments to realising the vision of an IT enabled economy?
• What will an IT enabled economy look like (eg, from a competition, marketing, pricing and/or service perspective)?
• Will these changes be realised by evolution or revolution?
• What is Australia’s role in an IT enabled global economy?
• What skills will be valued in an IT enabled economy?
• What is e-democracy?

IBM Australia's CEO Philip Bullock, and one of the panelists, says "Technology is integrated into our lives and yet we have barely scratched the surface of what new technology will mean for business, science and engineering, let alone education.

"We are under increasing pressure to be agile and responsive to changes in the world around us and educational institutions will find themselves under this same pressure to adapt as well,” he says.

When choosing between novel and emerging IT technologies, how do you decide what is a good investment? University of Melbourne panelist, Associate Professor Michael Davern says there is a significant risk in both investing and not investing.

“Information technologies don’t always deliver the promised value, a problem often exacerbated by the rapid pace of technological change and the dynamic marketplaces of the digital economy,” he says.

“But risky investments can also exhibit high potential for gain and the cost of late entry to a market can be lethal for your business.”

The forum panelists are the following:

Mr Philip Bullock - Chief Executive Officer, IBM Australia and New Zealand
Mr Bullock has worked across the IT business with management experience in technology, sales and client management, product and brand management, industry solutions and equity joint ventures. He is on the Board of the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA), IBM Australia Limited and the Victorian Schools Innovation Commission. He is also a member of the Business Council of Australia and sits on their Education and Training Task Force.

Ms Melanie Kontze, General Manager, (Victoria) TMP/Hudson Global Resourcing
Melanie has eighteen years of sales, marketing and business management experience in the competitive Information Technology environment. She has developed and implemented strategic business plans for the sector in Australia and New Zealand.

Assoc Prof Michael Davern, Economics and Commerce, University of Melbourne
Professor Davern spent 10 years in the USA, most recently at the Stern School of Business, New York University where he led research projects with the Centre for Digital Economy Research.

Randall Straw, Executive Director – Multimedia Victoria
Randall Straw has worked closely with the ICT industry, community groups, education and training providers, government agencies and the wider business community to deliver the Government’s Connecting Victoria policy.