TECH SAVVY
Tasmanian businesses are starting to realise the great advantages that come with the latest IT developments
More businesses across the state are moving to take advantage of new communications technology.
Lucy Given of Salamanca boutique Luc Design is not one to rest on her laurels. When she returned to Tasmania from Chicago after winning a national retailer of the year award last year, she was quick to address a judge’s criticism of her work. “I had a link on my website that took me to my online store, which was slightly clunky,” Given says. “It nearly lost me the award. “That was the first thing I fixed when I got home. You are judged by how you present ... Having a website is an expense retailers can’t afford not to do, but I think a lot of people would rather put [that money] into stock. It still surprises me that some retailers don’t have a website.”
Given is among a growing number of Tasmanians using new technologies for business. But tech commentators say they are the exception to the rule. Many of Tasmania’s 37,000 small businesses (companies with fewer than 20 employees) — about 97 per cent of all businesses in the state, have old technology systems.
While business confidence is high (Sensis Business Index March 2018 quarter results show Tasmania’s small and mediumsize businesses are the most confident in the nation) it’s a different story when it comes to ICT and cyber security. Some businesses pay multiple service providers, yet don’t know whether they get value for money. They don’t know who to call when their website or phone system crashes. “It would be fair to say that in relation to most other states, probably all other states, Tasmania is way behind in its development of its ICT industry and culture,” says TasICT chief executive Phil Pyke, who with Katy Cooper of DisruptiveCo is organising a week-long FutureFest technology festival starting on Monday. “As a result of us not having a technology-focused culture, [business owners] don’t understand what they are going to need for the future.”
Nirmala Gunadasa, managing director of Hobart-based IT consulting firm Tempus Innovative Solutions, agrees: “Tasmanian businesses are hampered by their technology infrastructure. There’s a big education gap about what’s possible with technology ... [and there’s the issue of] businesses not knowing what they need to do to take their business to the next level. Some are under the impression they are up to date and others are simply unaware. That’s really the pinch point. They know technology could help their business in some way, but how do you go about doing that — and which technology is right for you.”
Craig Farrer, co-owner of the Ball and Chain restaurant at Salamanca, admits he’s “not a tech-savvy person at all”. But that didn’t deter him from overhauling the restaurant’s ICT systems, with his wife Meredith’s encouragement. He’s worked at the restaurant for 25 years — starting back “when orders were taken
with pen and paper” — and became co-owner with Matt Davis four-and-a-half years ago. With advice and support from Tempus, which also assists the Tasmanian Small Business Council and its members, the restaurant website has been rejigged, cloud computing has been set up for remote data storage, and there’s now one point of contact for the website, internet, phones, and IT hardware support.
“Now we have a cloud-based set up to do orders, so I don’t have to be physically on site. It’s the same when people are inquiring about set menus. We can send them off without being at the restaurant,” Farrer says.
“My wife Meredith is 14 years younger than me and she has been instrumental in this. Her background is in marketing.
“Our aim was to streamline and be more efficient in what we were doing, and to create business drive as well through the website. We get a lot of traffic and inquiries through the website and emails.
“Technology nowadays is pretty crazy and I’ll be interested to see where we will be in 10 years. People can certainly use it to their benefit. We’ve definitely saved money, but I couldn’t quantify how much. I don’t need someone ordering stock. I can do it myself, and at any time. Once upon a time you had to ring up at a certain time of the day. There’s flexibility now.”
Chief executive of TasChard (Tasmanian Council on AIDS Hepatitis & Related Diseases) Cameron Brown has revamped the ICT capabilities of his not-for-profit business, likewise with the help of Tempus, since he started in the role 13 months ago.
To gain efficiency, provide greater transparency and accountability to his primary funders (government) and rebrand to gain fresh market presence, he’s overseen the redevelopment of the web portal to provide access to click-to-chat functionality and secure video conferencing for people with HIV.
He has introduced a cloud-based finance system (xero) and customer relationship management (CRM) system.
“The website is showcasing what we do, in particular our care and support services and our health promotion services,” Brown says. “We provide education relating to blood-borne viruses. We get out and talk about risks and mitigating those risks. Part of our role is to break down stigma.”
He says the website and CRM system, one by Salesforce specifically designed for nonprofits, work “hand-in-hand”.
“It will enable us to capture all the information about the different people we are interacting with and provides us with a very secure platform to manage client data,” he says.
The new cloud-based finance system is paying off.
“It has saved us money on business management and accounting-type services. Through technology we have picked up efficiency, doubled our care and support services, and significantly increased our health promotion and training services,” he says.
“It provided visibility to me and the board about what money we had and where we were spending it. Because these systems are so intuitive, it meant a lot of the functions we used to do manually now happen automatically. Every bank transaction feeds directly back into zero. I can see it and reconcile it against my bank statement. Technology delivers efficiency. I want to be able to help other organisations to come along with us. I can see the benefits of what we’ve done over the past 13 months.”
Gunadasa and his partners say most people pay more than they should for old technology.
“There have been a lot of fundamental changes to technology in recent times, in particular getting more features for less money but in general people aren’t aware of these market changes,” he says. “Take cloud software for example. Programs like Microsoft Office365 costs $17 a month for the entire office suite and yet for the same money you can save all your files to the cloud in that package — plus get email accounts, backups, and security with Microsoft enterprise technology infrastructure to house everything.” he says. “Businesses can spend $30,000 buying a server and then $400 a month just to look after the server, when you can pay just $17 a month for Office365 and the whole thing is in the cloud and there’s no physical asset to look after. “That is an example of a simple operational tweak that has suddenly made businesses more efficient. With the latest technology, more features can be accessed, together with the added benefits of accessing all your information whenever you want it, together with connectivity between home and the office,” he says.
According to Pyke and Cooper of DisruptiveCo, Tasmania does ICT well. The infrastructure is in place to support specialist ICT businesses — as well as the more general technology needs of businesses — and agricultural and aquaculture companies are already at the top of their game in terms of tech innovation.
The rollout of the NBN in the state is 99 per cent complete, and we have “the fastest internet in Australia”, says Cooper.
“The enterprise hubs in Hobart and Launceston both have Gigabit connections [also available elsewhere in the state, on a user-pays basis], which is phenomenally fast. They are government-funded start-up hubs so we have gaming development companies here that are working in that space purely because they can upload and download at a rapid pace.”
Pyke says there are around 6,700 employed in Tasmania’s ICT sector, which is worth about $1.4b based on figures from Australia’s Digital Pulse 2018 report by Deloitte for the Australian Computer Society. The aim of Futurefest is to bring visibility to the many different pockets of the state’s ICT industry.
“Businesses in agriculture and aquaculture are just really moving ahead because of the cost of production, labour and energy,” he says. “Those costs have led to a lot of automation in the pack houses and in harvesting... There’s a lot more flexibility now for businesses. But they need help, and we have businesses here to help them. All the larger international players are here, there’s the Chinese company, Huawei, Amazon, and there’s a Russian company [called Kaspersky]. These are large service providers.
“We also have Tasmanian organisations like Tempus and Tasmanian IT and Intuit Technologies. These are service providers that can help Tasmanian businesses digitise and transform their businesses.”
Pyke says there needs to be more support for high-achieving ICT companies in the state, and greater commitment by federal and state governments to nurture start-ups. “We have the brains and people here and the innovation. We just have to connect it into opportunities. It’s a matter of working with the State Government,” he says. ”We need to understand what the baseline is and establish a road-map for the industry to 2030.”
At the coalface, entrepreneurs such as Lucy Given know the value of ICT, and will upgrade their capabilities to keep pace with the fast rate of change. She’s just bought a new software retail program, which will connect the various elements of her business, including her website and Instagram account. “It feels very grown up, and like you have real control over your business,” she says. “I don’t think I’m at the edge of technology but I’m in a business that is constantly affected by technology.”