Singapore and Hong Kong, March 26, 2014 – IDC Government Insights expects Australian governments (State and Federal) to be pursuing more conservative fiscal policies and wider socioeconomic initiatives. Notably, government ICT investments will be guided by three strategic principles: Deliver better services, improve the efficiency of government operations and open engagement.
IDC Government Insights expects Australian public sector agencies to be investing in ICT that promotes enhanced and streamlined service simplification, overall operational costs reduction as well as government ICT modernization opportunities.
Spending Patterns Signify Potential Growth in Cloud Storage and Business Analytics
IDC Government Insights forecasts Australia’s government ICT spending to reach A$5,610.26 million in 2014, and will grow to A$5,876.84 million by 2017 with a 1.3% five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR). In addition, there is notable growth in government ICT spend within storage hardware (6.9% five-year CAGR) and software overall (5.7% five-year CAGR), signifying a potentially growing cloud, and big data and analytics movement.
Nonetheless, these forecasts reflect a relative slowdown in government ICT investments growth across the Australian government sector. This is most likely due to a number of macro-level economic factors in the domestic market which led to constrained budgets for Federal and State governments, a sharp slowdown in spending during the last six months of the Federal Labor Government, and a priority of shifting to ICT investments that deliver tighter consolidation and enhanced efficiency capabilities.
Looking Ahead: 3rd Platform Technologies, Particularly Mobility as a Transformative Indicator
Australian government organizations need to gain greater clarity of the way 3rd Platform technologies (cloud, Big Data and analytics, social business, and mobility) drive organizational efficiency, citizen engagement, and improvements in service delivery. Consequently, new engagement and business models will start to emerge as a result.
With these new ICT capabilities, gradual change in business model innovations will take place (e.g., new operational cost models). IDC Government Insights believes that new ROI benchmarks (e.g., for customer engagements, e-government service excellence and service-levels) will have to be put in place to ensure careful planning and methodical implementation efforts so as to meet national productivity objectives.
IDC’s Annual ANZ CIO Survey 2013 showed that the continued drive for government mobility will feature as a critical area of investment growth and opportunity focus for vendors seeking opportunities with the Australian Government in 2014. This applies to both utilization of mobile as a channel by government organizations involved in service delivery, engaging through citizens in the mobile channel and building out mobility capabilities for government staff in order to drive more flexible working practices and greater staff productivity.
Gerald Wang, Research Manager, IDC Government Insights, says, “The Australian government sector is on a transitional track towards Whole-of-Government (WOG) citizen–focused services through the smarter use of ICT. Federal and State governments continue the investment focus on driving productivity through the adoption of new technologies to achieve cost savings whilst improving services.”
He adds that growing interests in Government Mobility will feature as a critical ICT market growth and opportunity for the Australian Government in 2014.
“The Australian government ICT market will continue to be defined by budgetary constraint. Technologies that are able to support real productivity improvement on the one hand and those that can support new models for citizen engagement and service delivery will continue to receive focus of government investment,” says Emilie Ditton, Head Vertical Markets, IDC Asia/Pacific.
Ditton explains that outside of anticipated mobility and cloud investments, another important area of investment the industry is going to see will be associated with the government’s increasing realization of the importance of citizen data, and particularly the use of analytics for the delivery of intelligent services and more targeted policy development.
About IDC Government Insights
IDC Government Insights assists government policy, program, and IT leaders, as well as the suppliers who serve them, in making more effective technology decisions by providing accurate, timely, and insightful fact-based research and consulting services. Staffed by senior analysts with decades of government and IT industry experience, our global research analyzes and advises on business and technology issues facing the Federal/Central and local/provincial Governments. International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology market. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world’s leading technology, media, research, and events company. For more information, please visit www.idc-gi.com, email info@idc-gi.com, or call 571.296.8060. Visit the IDC Government Insights Community at http://idc-insights-community.com/government.
About IDC
International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1,000 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. For more than 48 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world’s leading technology media, research, and events company. You can learn more about IDC by visiting www.idc.com