New Government Initiative to get more Australian organisations online

Yesterday saw the Australian Government announce a new program designed to assist small-to-medium enterprises and not-for-profits understand how to make the most of the NBN. Senator Conroy, the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, announced the new program when he launched the National Digital Economy Strategy.

National Digital Economy Strategy outlines a vision for Australia to become one of the world’s leading digital economies by 2020. As part of achieving that vision, we need to make sure that more Australian small and medium businesses and not for profit organisations are online. 

A recent study released by McKinsey found that small to medium enterprises with a strong web presence grew more than twice as quickly as those that had minimal or no presence and that those that took advantage of the internet reported the share of total revenue that they earned from exports was more than twice as large as others and they created twice number of jobs.

That’s pretty compelling data! The Government’s new Digital Enterprise program is designed to make sure that Australian small and medium businesses and not-for-profit organisations in the first 40 communities to benefit from the NBN enjoy this growth too.

Called the “Digital Enterprise” program it will see funding of $12.4 million provided over three years to deliver training and advice to small-to-medium enterprise and not-for-profits in the first 40 communities to benefit from the NBN on how they can use the NBN to make greater use of online opportunities. More details are available in this fact sheet.

What does this mean for you? If you are a small or medium sized business or a not-for-profit in one of the early release sites, you don’t just have to rely on this website. You can get hands-on, free training through this program (when it is up and running, which we are planning to be before the end of this year). Initial topics will include many of the topics covered in this site like cloud computing, online marketing, teleworking and e-commerce.   In addition, you can then get up to four hours of one-on-one professional advice on how to integrate what you learn in the initial sessions in your specific day to day operations.

Data suggests that we have a long way to go. At the moment, it seems that Australian businesses are lagging behind international competitors such as the UK, Canada, South Korea and France in terms of the number that have a website and the percentage of their total turnover from e-commerce. ABS data suggests that only 41.5 per cent of Australian businesses have a web presence and only 27.1 per cent of Australian businesses take orders via the internet.

A recent report by the Allen Consulting Group found that small business and community organisations in the NBN first release sites have high expectations of the NBN, and see great potential to develop new products and access markets.

They see it will help foster innovation, but believe it is up to businesses themselves to use the technology in innovative ways.

A key reason cited for not being connected online is a lack of skills or a perceived need for an online presence.

But when small businesses do go online the gains can be immediate.

A Tasmanian sign writer, David Jones, has described the change in capability since connecting to the NBN last year as going from “walking around in sandshoes to driving a Ferrari”. His newfound ability to transfer large files that previously had to be couriered has opened business opportunities that didn’t exist for him before the NBN.

The Digital Enterprise program is designed to ensure that we have more people like David in these early stages of NBN rollout. We’d love to hear about how you use the internet in your business and the kind of training that would be useful to you.  Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Clare, DBCDE