Digital industries
Australia’s geographic location within the growing Asia-Pacific region will see its software market continue to grow. Whilst the commodity booms are driving the mining and resource sectors, Gartner predicts that Australia will continue to be a major software growth market in the Asia-Pacific region behind China, India and South Korea.
Business Monitor International forecast the Australian domestic information technology (IT) market will grow from US$20.2 billion in 2011 to US$25.5 billion in 2015 . Driven by a strong recovery in 2010, the Australian IT market should continue to provide opportunities in consumer, government and business sectors in 2011, while Gartner predict that the compound annual growth rate of the Australian software market will be 9.8 per cent over the next five years . Growth opportunities exist within virtualisation, security, data integration and IT operations management.
Also driving change within Australia’s digital industries is the delivery of the National Broadband Network (NBN). In 2007, the Australian Government announced the development of the NBN for Australia, allocating up to $43 billion (AUD) for its delivery, providing fibre to the premises (FTTP) for 93 per cent of Australian homes and businesses with speeds of up to 100Mbps. This represents a significant upgrade of speed, capacity, geographical reach and quality of internet services in Australia.
Queensland IT industry
The Queensland information and communications technology industry (2006/07) directly employs more than 77,000 people in over 5,600 businesses, with estimated revenues in excess of $23.6 billion (AUD) ($2.5 billion (AUD) increase since 2004 figures), including $1.3 billion (AUD) in exports ($437 million (AUD) increase since 2004) . Brisbane and the South-East Queensland region is the base for over 80 per cent of these companies, with over 70 per cent of the Queensland industry directly involved in either software development or the provision of ICT services.
Many ICT multinationals are located in Brisbane including:
• Boeing – Brisbane is Boeing Australia’s headquarters as well as home to a global research and development facility (formerly PhantomWorks), a systems analysis laboratory and flight training centre.
• IBM – IBM established its Asia-Pacific Technical Support Centre to service personal computer customers in Brisbane in 1999. The Centre currently employs more than 250 multilingual IT professionals.
• Red Hat – Red Hat’s largest centre in the Asia-Pacific is based in Brisbane and is focused on engineering, research and development and multilingual technical support.
• SAP – Brisbane’s CEC Centre is SAP’s first research centre in the Asia-Pacific region and has the mission to leverage Australian and Asia-Pacific expertise in applied technology research and make it available to SAP worldwide.
Sub-sectors
Interactive entertainment and digital content
The interactive entertainment and digital content industry is experiencing significant growth in Brisbane via new collaborative endeavours, new digital distribution platforms, expertise in design and visualisation and the opportunities arising from a growing interactive entertainment sector, multimedia industry, simulation and e-learning industry.
The interactive entertainment industry in Brisbane is diverse with companies producing games for a range of platforms including Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3 as well as digital and handheld platforms. The majority of this production is sold internationally. There is also a growing focus on social gaming, casual gaming and e-learning products, due to Brisbane’s proximity to the growing Asia market. Leading international games development companies including SEGA and THQ have established development studios in Brisbane. They have capitalised and helped develop the pool of creative talent that exists in Brisbane today.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Australia and New Zealand is the largest regional Software as a Service (SaaS) market in the Asia-Pacific region . SaaS is gaining momentum in Australia because of the similarities it has with the North American market, benefitting from better broadband penetration, availability of applications delivered in SaaS mode and overall greater adoption of IT in relation to other countries within the Asia-Pacific.
Information technology spending in 2011 should receive a boost from the opportunities presented by cloud computing. In 2010 a wide range of leading Australian private and public sector organisations launched cloud initiatives. The National Broadband Network will provide the infrastructure that will allow wholesale and retail service providers to deliver advanced broadband services to homes, schools and businesses.
E-health
As broadband penetration and speed increases as a result of the NBN, there will be increasing opportunities for businesses providing solutions to the healthcare industry. As a result of the National E-Health Transition Authority delivering a blueprint for e-health adoption in Australia, the foundations have been put in place for wider adoption.
Brisbane is positioned to capitalise on the future opportunities from the e-health sector, with the increased talent and knowledge base developed via the Australian e-Health Research Centre, based in Brisbane. Its research program integrates technologies and expertise from across the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) ICT Centre, covering information acquisition (sensor devices and networks, and human factors), information analysis (image and multimedia processing, presentation and visualisation, and pattern recognition) and information management (data integration, information retrieval, and processing).
Smart infrastructure and mining technology
Brisbane sits in the centre of the fastest-growing region in Australia. With the largest public infrastructure spending program in Australia’s history ($134 billion (AUD) as highlighted in the South East Queensland Infrastructure Plan and Program 2010–2031) there is a significant market opportunity for organisations that can deliver innovative technology or solutions to support the infrastructure sector.
Investments into the development of new transport, water, energy and social infrastructure, coupled with a willingness for this infrastructure to be delivered in more efficient and future-proofed ways suggests Brisbane will be the focal point for Australia’s infrastructure sector for many years.
The Queensland mining technology and services industry had revenues of $1.7 billion (AUD) in 2010, accounting for 23 per cent of the total industry turnover in Australia. Queensland is a world-leader in mining technology, with 60 per cent of all mining software used globally being developed in Australia.
Competitive advantages
Brisbane is recognised for its fundamental strengths in advanced research facilities, strong educational infrastructure, technology incubators, nurturing venture capital industry and research and development environment, proximity to the Asia-Pacific markets and a pro-business government. Queensland’s robust and dynamic industry has more than 300 local firms exporting products and services to the Asia-Pacific, United Kingdom and United States of America.
Located on the eastern coastline of Australia, Brisbane bridges three time zones (Asia, Europe and the United States of America). This allows companies to exploit a 24-hour development and support cycle encompassing the Asian time zone, and tapping into the closing of the American and opening of the European business day. Direct flights to many Asian, European and United States destinations means Brisbane presents easy access to a range of markets and sits as the closest Australian eastern capital city to Asia.
2010 saw Australia’s 18th consecutive year of economic expansion. When many other countries were slowly emerging from the global financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was predicting growth for the Australian economy in 2010 at 3 per cent. Recent figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show Australia’s gross domestic product was in fact 3.3 per cent for 2009/10.
In a 2010 working paper, the IMF also praised the strength of the Australian economy among major advanced countries, saying Australia’s growth potential over the medium-term clearly stands out as the best. The paper states Australia’s growth potential over the medium-term is around 3 per cent, higher than most other advanced economies, and attributes the positive outlook to its close ties with fast-growing Asia.
The Brisbane population is young and skilled (the largest demographic group is the 25 to 54 age bracket), well-educated (14 per cent have bachelor degrees) and culturally-diverse (16 per cent of Brisbane households speak a foreign language at home). Thanks to a high level of skilled migration and record numbers of international students, Brisbane has embraced an international sophistication and attracted an exceptional and multilingual talent pool.
Brisbane has a deep pool of digital talent and this is augmented by the major universities in Brisbane. Local universities have cooperated with international firms, leading to the development of a number of research institutes including the SAP Research CEC, Microsoft QUT e-Research Centre, Information Security Institute and the Smart Services Cooperative Research Centre. Other research centres include the Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation and the Information Security Institute. Coupled with significant investment from both the Australian and State Governments, Brisbane also has a number of public research centres including the Australian E-health Research Centre, a NICTA Laboratory, the Queensland Centre of Advanced Technologies and a node of the CSIRO ICT Centre.
With more daily hours of sunshine than any other capital city in Australia, Brisbane represents a unique environment that is both relaxed and cosmopolitan. Brisbane offers an excellent quality of life, lower living costs and a safe community environment. Australian cities are affordable destinations for international expatriates and Brisbane’s cost of living proves to be a drawcard for multinational organisations seeking to contain the costs of a mobile workforce in tight economic conditions. Brisbane is ranked as one of Australia’s most affordable cities – more competitive than other Asia-Pacific locations such as Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney and Melbourne .