Public Policy Adrift – The Case for a Business Case Approach – IPAA Howard

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3rd April 2012. The public policy making process in Australia is adrift, notwithstanding regular affirmations by governments at all levels to an evidence and consultation-based approach.This paper commissioned from Howard Partners by the IPAA advocates that Public Policy Making adopt a ‘business case’ approach. 

Click here to read/download the report

The paper makes two key recommendations:

  • All future policy initiatives should pass the test of a sound evidence base and a foundation in a demonstrable business case that can be put to the public before the policy is finalised.
  • Further and ongoing investments should be made by Government in building policymaking capability.

An analysis of 18 recent major policies has shown that too few adequately satisfy the standards we should expect. The policies below may be considered to have failed

Continue reading →

How Digital Media are Invigorating Australia – a report by the Boston Consulting Group

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Australians now spend close to 22 hours a week on the internet, and the way in which Australians consume media is evolving at a rapid pace. Consumers now have a greater range of media options available to them and can exert a greater degree of control over the media that they wish to consume. From the creator’s perspective, there is an increased possibility of success as they are able to reach targeted audiences on a global level.

This report shows that the Australian media and content industry is in a healthy state, with growth, driven primarily by Internet media, expected over the next four years. 86% of Australian online-video content is consumed outside of Australia, showing that Australians are taking advantage of the internet as a means of reaching global audiences. The report also shows that the demand for Australian content at a domestic level continues to exceed quotas. The costs and benefits of online media should not only be measured in monetary terms. The rise of online media has enhanced the content and capabilities of organisations such as the School of the Air.

It in inevitable that, as the use of the internet continues to grow, so will the adpotion of other applications, such as those pertaining to health, education, business and government services. This will only help to improve outcomes for society on many levels.

To read the report in full click here

Cloud as a driver of business model innovation – IBM report

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To determine how organisations use currently use cloud, and how they plan to use it in the future, IBM and the Economist Intelligence Unit surveyed 572 businesses and technology executives across the globe. The survey showed that relatively few
organisations are actively embracing the benefits of the cloud to drive
business model innovation. There is great potential for this to change in the
next few years, as more organisations look to the cloud to drive new business
and to transform industries. In IT circles, the survey found that cloud has
almost become mainstream, with nearly half of the respondents indicating that
they evaluate cloud options before looking at traditional IT approaches.

Click here to read the report in full

When cloud capabilities are utilised effectively they offer numerous opportunities to drive business innovation. The report identifies six key cloud attributes that have
been dubbed ‘business enablers’ – these are cost flexibility, business
scalability, market adaptability, masked complexity, context-driven variability
and ecosystem connectivity. All of these enablers are discussed in depth, and
provide a good insight into the many benefits offered through a shift to the
cloud.

 

Global Cloud Computing Score Card Released – Business Software Alliance (BSA)

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7th March 2012. In small and large enterprises as well as government offices around the world, one thing has become perfectly clear: Cloud computing marks the next contribution that software and computing technologies will make toward greater productivity and expanded economic growth.

Click here to read/download the report.

Australia scores second highest, at 79.2, after Japan, on 83.3

The BSA Global Cloud Computing Scorecard provides a roadmap for the initiatives and policies that countries can — and should — take to ensure that they reap the full economic and growth benefits. It is well established that each of the individual elements of the scorecard is critical to economic growth and job creation. They are especially critical in the context of Continue reading →

Smart Digital Connected – Business Participation in the Digital Economy Neilsen Alcatel Lucent Report

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20th Feb 2012. Smart.Digital.Connected provides a benchmark for how Australian organisations are engaging in the future digital economy, harnessing emerging communications tools.

On behalf of Alcatel-Lucent, Australia, Nielsen surveyed 275 medium (20-200 staff) to large organisations (200 staff and greater) from a wide range of industry sectors. The report highlights the broad influence of digital technologies across the business and makes a strong case that digital strategy become a priority at the very highest levels of executive responsibility and strategy.

Click here to view or download the report

Amongst its conclusions, the report reveals:

Consumer Data Privacy in a Networked World: A US framework for the global Digital Economy

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In order to maximise the social and economic benefits offered by networked technologies, public trust is essential. When the public is confident that companies will handle personal information responsibly, they will turn to the internet to express their creativity, join political movements, form and maintain friendships, and engage in commerce. In the United States, a strong consumer data privacy framework exists. However, this current framework lacks a clear statement of basic privacy principles to apply to the commercial world, as well as a sustained commitment of all stakeholders to address consumer data privacy issues as they arise from advances in technologies and business models.

Click here to read the report in full

To combat these shortfalls, the White House Administration has produced this report, including discussion on a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights. The US aims to engage with international partners to create a system of interoperability among respective privacy frameworks. In the age of the global digital economy, this report is an interesting read on how another jurisdiction is working to protect the privacy rights of its citizens.

 

National CEO Survey on New Technology Business Investment – Deloittes AiGroup

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29th Jan 2012. This report explores business investment in new technologies. It is based on a survey of 540 Chief Executive Officers of Australian businesses in the manufacturing, services and construction sectors.
The survey focused on business investment in new technologies over the past three years; on business use of R&D tax incentives and on expectations about the new approach to business R&D incentives introduced by the Federal Government in the middle of 2011. The survey also examines how businesses are placed to take advantage of a national broadband network and online technologies more generally.

Click here to view or download the report

Conclusions of the report include:

  • Just over 70 per cent of businesses that invested in new technologies did so in order to improve productivity levels. This investment in new technologies is reported to have accounted for an average of 16 per cent of the productivity gains achieved by these businesses over the past three years. Continue reading →

Free Legal Agreements for Entrepreneurs

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1st Jan 2012. In conjunction with law firm DLA Piper, Sydney incubator Startmate has made available a free series of legal agreements suited to entrepreneurs.

These can be downloaded below.

Startmate says “The documents were kindly prepared by DLA Piper and a special thanks goes to Richard Horton, who Continue reading →

Convergence Review – Interim Report

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The DBCDE has released its interim review of convergent media in Australia. The final report is due to be completed by the end of March 2012. The Interim Report has met with some concern from those parties who stand to be affected by regulatory changes in a converged media environment.

Among the concerns are a lack of clarity surrounding the establishment of ‘content service enterprises’, which have been suggested to create regulatory parity across media platforms. Further, there is discussion in the report that a new regulator be established, an idea which has been met with some criticism and confusion. Many submissions since the report’s publication have suggested that the market failures that the report is trying to address cannot yet be perceived, and that premature regulation may stifle innovation.

Click  here to read the interim report in full.

NBN enabled telework will mean businesses reap benefits: A Telework Literature review

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7th Nov 2011. On releasing this review, Senator Conroy reiterates his government’s aim, as set out in the National Digital Economy Strategy, that by the year 2020 the number of people working from home would double to at least 12 per cent. This review of international academic papers and other high-quality research establishes the current worldwide uptake of telework, its benefits and its challenges.

Click here to read the Literature Review in full

The review is a follow-up to the 2010 report from Deloitte Access Economics on the impact of teleworking under the NBN. The literature review establishes that Continue reading →

The great transformer : The impact of the Internet on economic growth and prosperity. A report from the McKinsey Global Institute

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7th Nov 2011. In a paper prepared for the Foreign Commonwealth Office International Cyber Conference, MGI examines what more can be done to fully capture the benefits of the Internet. The Internet has already asserted itself as a disruptive force that is shaping both the society and the economy of the 21st century, however we are still in the early stages of the transformations it will unleash and the opportunities it will foster.

Click here to read the full report

The Internet can be a positive disruptor – supplying engines of growth to regions of the world that have been disadvantaged in the past, creating new industries and Continue reading →

The Potential for Cloud Computing Services in Australia – Lateral Economics and Macquarie Telecom

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12th Oct 2011. This report, by Nicholas Gruen from Lateral Economics and commissioned by Macquarie Telecom looks into the Australian cloud computing services environment. According to the report, ‘Australia’s opportunity is to develop a world-leading regime – a better, not equal, cloud ecosystem.’

Click here to view/download the report

The report ties in with the launch of a new Macquarie Telecom led industry coalition to build Australian consumer and business confidence in cloud computing, OzHub. Other members include Fujitsu, VMware and Infoplex. OzHub is working to develop a self-regulating framework and a set of protocols for cloud computing in Australia.

This paper discusses the benefits and economic drivers for users of cloud computing services as well as the competitiveness factors Continue reading →

Strategic Serendipity – Northern Sydney Technology Clustering Study

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23rd Sept 2011. The Australian Business Foundation with support from Macquarie University and NSW Trade and Investment, has released an updated research piece on successful industry clustering in Australia. The study focused on the Northern Sydney Technology Corridor.

Click here to download the report.

“Look at the big glass boxes on Waterloo Road,” says author Roy Green. “That’s really what it is — a row of glass boxes. People drive to their office, park in the company car park, have a coffee in their own cafeteria, go to their desk and call New York, Seattle, or Berlin, do a day’s work, then go back to their car and drive home. At no time do they interact with Continue reading →

Online Retail in Australia 2007-2011 Ewing CCI

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15th Sept 2011. This report provides an excellent overview of Online Retailing in Australia.

Click here to download the report.

The report summarises online buying information gathered from surveys of 1000 Australians aged eighteen years or over were conducted in 2007, 2009 and 2011.

It was prepared as part of the World Internet Project by the Creative Industries and Innovation centre (CCI) at Swinburne University, and is a submission to the Productivity Commission’s inquiry into the economic structure and performance of the Australian retail industry.

The Digital Revolution and Higher Education – The value of online learning

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Over the last decade, online course enrollment at US colleges and universities has grown at a faster rate than overall education enrollment.To reach its findings on the value of online learning, this report has sourced a pair of Pew Research Centre surveys conducted in the US in early 2011. Among the findings is the prediction that in ten years most students will take university classes online, and that more than half of the textbooks used by undergraduate students will be entirely digital. The contribution of the internet to plagiarism is discussed, with most college/university staff interviewed believing that plagiarism has increased in the last ten years.

Click here to read the report in full

Productivity – The Lost Decade – Grattan Eslake Discussion Paper

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16th Aug 2011. Although Australia’s economic performance during the 2000s has been impressive on many dimensions, especially by comparison with that of other ‘advanced’ economies, productivity is not among them. Australia’s productivity performance over the past decade has been, to put it mildly, poor − both by Australia’s own historical standards, and by contemporary international standards.

Click here to view/download the report

Areas for focus in this report by Saul Eslake for the Grattan Institute include:

  • Regulatory Reform
  • Taxation Reform
  • Skills and Infrastructure
  • Innovation

Australian workers increased their productivity far less in the past decade than Continue reading →

The Connected Continent – How the Internet is Changing The Australian Economy – Google Access Economics

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10th Aug 2011. The internet has transformed the Australian economy over the last 10 years, and is poised to play an even greater role in our daily
lives and businesses as Australia positions itself to become a leading digital economy.

Click here to read the report

The direct contribution of the internet to the Australian economy is worth approximately $50 billion or 3.6% of Australia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2010. This contribution is of similar value to the retail sector or Australia’s iron ore exports.

But, just as the roll out of electricity Continue reading →

NBN – Broadening the Debate – House of Reps Inquiry into the Impact of the National Broadband Network

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10th Aug 2011. This report, from the Australian government House of Representatives Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications, examines the impact of the proposed National Broadband Network being implemented by the Australian Government.

This report seeks to contribute significantly to the national conversation by broadening the debate and the Committee greatly valued the many considered
submissions made by many individuals, organisations and communities across the nation.

Click here to download the report
Click here to download the dissenting (Liberals) report

This report looks at the ways various sectors of government service delivery, economic and regional development and social and community activity can be
enhanced Continue reading →

US study – search and email still the most popular online activities

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9th Aug 2011. A new Internet Survey conducted in the US has shown that search and email remain the two online activities that are nearly universal among adult internet users, as 92% of online adults use search engines to find information on the Web, and a similar number (92%) use email.

Click here to read the full report

Since the Pew Internet Project began measuring adults’ online activities in the last decade, these two behaviours have consistently ranked as the most popular, even as new platforms, broadband and mobile devices continue to reshape the way Americans use the internet and web. Even as early as 2002, more than eight Continue reading →

Australian Government Releases 2011 Annual Innovation Review

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1st Aug 2011. The 2011 Australian Innovation System Review, published by the government, is the second in an annual series of reports, starting in 2010, on the performance of Australia’s national innovation system.

Click here to download the report

The Innovation System Reports are created as part of the governments response to the landmark 2008 Innovation Review undertaken by Terry Cutler, resulting in Continue reading →

Media Convergence – ACMA Occasional Paper on Converged Legislative Frameworks

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30th July 2011. Over the last few months, the Australian government has been seeking submissions on the issue of convergence. Legislative convergence – the amalgamation of communications, internet and media legislation under a single, converged legislative framework – has often been viewed as a best practice response to convergence issues.

Click here to download the paper

To date, several jurisdictions have integrated their media and communications laws into a converged legislative framework – Malaysia; the EU and its member states of the UK, Finland, Sweden and Italy; and South Africa. A common feature of these converged frameworks is Continue reading →

Performance of Private Equity-backed IPOs in Australia

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17th July 2010. This report, by the the Australian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCAL) examines how Australian Private Equity -backed IPOs perform relative to non-PE-backed IPOs. The evidence presented in this study suggests that, contrary to many anecdotal reports, PE-backed stocks do not consistently underperform compared to the non-PE-backed stocks, but in fact perform better, on average, over longer horizons.

Click here to view the report.

A statistical analysis of initial public offerings (IPOs) shows that private equity backed IPOs have historically recorded higher average returns than non-private equity backed listings.

The study found that Continue reading →

Insead’s Global Innovation Report 2011 – Australia Fails to Advance – 21st Position

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30 June 2011 – INSEAD, the leading international business school, today announced the findings of The Global Innovation Index (GII) 2011 edition. Switzerland, Sweden and Singapore topped the list; however Australia’s performance has slipped from 18th in 2010 to 21st in 2011. In 2009 it was 22nd.

Click here to view the report

See page 126 for Australia’s performance:

- 1st in Regulatory Envrionment
- 4th in Infrastructure
- 70th in Knowledge Diffusion
- 81st in Creative Good Exports

Why is innovation important? Continue reading →

Cloud and the Future of Business: From Costs to Innovation

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During 2010 and 2011, academics from The Outsourcing Unit, Department of Management at the London School of Economics and Political Science undertook research to review the key features of cloud computing and its likely short and long term developmental trends. Over 1000 business and IT executives were surveyed, representing cloud providers, system integrators and users of cloud services.

The research was divided into five key areas.

  1. Promise –This introductory report provides a commentary on the likely size and direction of the technological changes implicated by cloud
  2. Challenges – looks at the real and perceived challenges that cloud brings for business, IT and supplier executives.
  3. Impacts – What does cloud mean for IT suppliers, IT functions and businesses?  ocuses on three areas of impact: service performance, cloud as a business service and radical changes in the supply industry.
  4. Innovation – The real strength and excitement of cloud computing is that it is a catalyst for more innovation. As cloud computing continues to become cheaper and more ubiquitous, the opportunities for innovation will grow.
  5. Management – Cloud technologies have a broad range of implications for client and supplier skills and capabilities, and also for the roles of senior executives and business managers in harnessing the potential of cloud for future business advantages.

Internet matters – a report by McKinsey Global Institute

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2nd May 2011. Two billion people worldwide are now connected to the internet, and this number continues to grow by about 200 million people per year. This paper highlights the gaps in knowledge that currently exist surrounding the magnitude of the economic impact of internet-related activities and seeks to assist leaders in the commercial, public and social sectors to develop a deeper understanding of the evolution of the global economy.

Click here to read the full report

The report finds that the internet has delivered substantial economic growth and has created jobs on a large scale. A correlation exists with internet maturity and wealth creation. The internet is Continue reading →