IT Gold Coast cannot remain silent regarding the appalling state of IT student enrolments in our universities and colleges.

Our governments’ seeds of doubt are now coming into harvest.

Headlines about outsourcing to India have made their impact. Governments at all levels have sent the message to our young that IT does not matter. Through their purchasing policies, no Australian IT companies have their technology as an integral part of the Government IT infrastructure. Our young are naively smart. They see beyond the rhetoric and see that while our Governments says nice things about IT, they do very little to foster Australian companies. If they did, they would be doing business "IP" with the local industry, not just using our services to implement foreign technologies and grow foreign companies in competition with the local industry.

The Australian IT Industry is young. Governments are averse to taking risks. They see adopting brilliant technologies created here in Australia as a risk. They believe buying technology created overseas must be better. This is despite the evidence to the contrary with many projects using foreign software failing.

Look at the latest debacle in Queensland. The Queensland Government bought a content management system called Hummingbird. This is a Canadian import competing directly with equally as good Australian developed products such as Avand’s DataWorks, Objective and Tower Technology's TRIM. Now OpenText Corporation, another Canadian company, has bought out Hummingbird and there is every chance that there will be no further development of this technology.  A company in Canada created this product, a country that is not dissimilar in size to Australia but a country that supports its local IT companies.

What a farce! This is exactly what happens when you buy international solutions not tailored to our needs, creating a sole supplier arrangement for many years and by the very tender process make local companies unable to compete.

Government controls the major share of the IT spend in Australia. However Australia represents less then 2% of the world market. An opportunity to promote the local industry to become an international money earner for Australia is wasted. What do we have in return? - A software package decreed to be used across the whole of Queensland government for many years that may not be properly supported into the future. This will not grow our intellectual property and competitive position; rather it will dissuade our young from following careers in the largest emerging industry, an industry that despite Government policy is a major export earner for this State.

The young are seeing how our government treats our very best. They see Mincom located across the road from Queensland Rail. They know Mincom provides the technology to run the London Underground. They know that Queensland Rail uses international technology in preference to using a world proven leader that could give local support rather then from around the world. This is sending a clear message to all Australians that have their eyes open - Australian Governments do not buy Australian technology. Therefore, IT is not a worthwhile option.

Put yourself in a potential graduates shoes. “What will I do -a career in IT - no thank you - the jobs are being outsourced to India and our government does not believe in our ability. Rather, they would prefer to grow the IP of multinational companies.”

I could go on with the instance of Technology One being shunned and many others. Complain and you will be told that the government has processes and Australian companies are not good enough to get all the ticks in the boxes. Australian Governments are driven by process not outcomes!

Yes, our young potential IT graduates are astute and the Government has succeeded completely in delivering this message to them. With future chronic labour shortages it is imperative we support enabling industries. The most enabling industry is the IT industry.

The time to wake up is past. Mr Prime minister, Mr Premier, we call upon you both to take leadership in action, not rhetoric. Do not put another process in place – THAT IS NOT THE ANSWER. Actions speak! Your most precious people, the potential IT professionals of Australia, are listening for loud and clear encouragement.

--------------------------------
Neil Pentland
Chairman of ITGC

Phone 0411472002    Email neil@golden-orb.com

About ITGC:  http://www.itgoldcoast.com

IT Gold Coast is the voice of the local Gold Coast IT industry. For ten years we have been supporting the development of the IT industry, we are a catalyst for growth, focusing attention on the industry, lobbying on its behalf and facilitating co-operation. ITGC also provides a vital link between industry, government, and the Council.

Our Vision
To maximize the value that the ICT industry can contribute to the Gold Coast economy.

Our Mission:
Create and maintain a capability registry of ICT companies that is promoted locally, state wide, nationally and internationally.
Attain a strong ICT membership by delivering real value to our members and the Gold Coast.
Undertake projects that will raise the profile of the industry, enhance the business acumen of the industry and increase the profitability of the industry.

Having the ability to filter my contacts database and send very targeted newsletters is great. Having the ability to see who actually looks at them and clicks on any link is exactly what I needed - now it is all here in Ovosuite.

We are working to deliver this newsletter capability as a SAAS. Keep watching this space It is now part of Ovosuite -but we will be delivering this as a stand along service called OVONewsletter. You will be bale to create the whole thing in a wysiwyg editor and mail merge it to your contacts to send personal newsletters.  If you want to have a developer create a web page and email that -you will be able to.

Keep watching our site -Beta test available very soon!

I have now been using our minute management system in a number of associations. This is fabulous. It takes only moments to configure, invite attendies automatically and then creating the minutes is a breeze.

The ability to assign tasks and to follow them through is making huge inroads into the efficiency and responsibilties being achieved.

You will be interested because you care about your company and want to contribute to the success of your company. Yourr time is important. I want to share some examples of haw many of us may not optimally use our time.

Have you ever attended a series of meetings where it seems you are constantly reinventing the same wheel?

Or spent 20 minutes of frustration trying to track down a document.

Has a salesperson out in the field ever quoted a customer the wrong price?

Has internal information gotten into the hands of the wrong people?

Most likely one or more of these has occurred to you.

What is the common element of all of these examples? Inadequate management of internal information.

Why?

The relevant information may have been created by many stakeholders, some of whom would not normally talk to each other. For example, they work in different departments or locations;

The information is isolated in different formats, like Word or Excel or Power Point;

Topic specific content is created over long periods of time, and some of the content may have been created by people no longer with the organization.

What is the solution? Ovosuite – the on line virtual office suite.

Reinventing the same wheel in meetings? Ovosuite’s Minutes Manager is the solution.

Trying to find a specific documents? Ovosuite Document Search.

Worried about security and getting the right information to the right people at the right time? Oversuite Profiling and Ovosuite Security.

You, your staff , clients and customers have secure access 24x7 anywhere in the world to Ovosuites’ range of services. If you can access the Internet, you can securely access your company’s knowledge

This is not an IT challenge. You know how to use a browser! You are comfortable with Word and Excel. You do not have to install any new software. Your existing staff will successfully manage and administer this service.

One of our current customers has 200 regular users scattered in 9 locations with information and knowledge that is stored and securely accessible from anywhere in the world. This is administered entirely as a part time task by a secretary in her 50s who willingly admits she is not tech-savvy. The CEOs and others within the organisation securely access and exchange vital information when they need, from offices in Australia, Singapore and New Zealand.

Ovosuite is a service that is easy to understand and easy to use: your people will quickly start to access and understand and exploit your company knowledge as your competitive advantage. This efficiency and cost savings will flow directly into your bottom line.

This service is scaleable from a small 1-person office to 10,000-person organisation. Cost start from as little as $20 per month.

Ovosuite is your entry into benefiting from the new knowledge economy. We would like to talk with you.

Today we all hear that we live in the Information/knowledge Economy

Your existing tools (word excel etc) capture this information as documents and content.. Turning that information into reusable knowledge is still a problem for most of us.

The content of these documents is the unstructured knowledge of most companies – a huge resource for IP and competitive advantage.

The issue is that while we live in this new economy – most companies do not exploit their competitive advantage that resides within their existing business documents and processes.

Ovosuite is the answer.

Ovosuite organises your business knowledge to be accessible by your staff and clients, as you deem appropriate.

Ovosuite allows you to Profile staff and customers to give them a sense of control and the ability to transact business in confidence within the scope of how you determine your business wants to operate.

You, your staff and clients/customers have secure access 24x7 anywhere in the world

This is not an IT nightmare. You know how to use a browser! There is no software to set up. Your existing staff will be able to manage this service with minimal training from us.

Our largest customer at the moment is the Place Leaders Association. That is an organisation of 9 authorities, such as South Bank, Sydney Foreshore Authority, and Melbourne Port Authority. There are 200 regular users and 500 MB of information and knowledge that is stored and securely accessible from anywhere in the world. This is administered entirely by a secretary in her 50s – with the CEOs of these organisations accessing and exchanging vital information when they need, from offices as disparate as Singapore, New Zealand and Perth.

This service is easy to understand and easy to use: your business will quickly start to access and understand and exploit your business knowledge as your competitive advantage. This efficiency and cost savings will flow directly into your bottom line.