The University of Ballarat has been engaged by the City of Ballarat to undertake the study and to conduct research with Ballarat's ICT firms, to identify their capabilities, size, relationships and needs. Information has also been gathered from Ballarat's 'traditional' business community to discover trends in areas such as current utilisation of ICT, relationships with local firms and to identify any evident needs and/or opportunities for generating ICT synergies within and between different industries.

The Ballarat ICT Cluster Consultancy is being conducted in three phases. This report presents the Phase 1 outputs of the Ballarat ICT Cluster Consultancy. A key objective of this stage is to further define the Ballarat ICT cluster – its firms; forms of inter-firm collaboration and support structures. Regional Development Victoria utilise the following definition for a cluster (Regional Development Victoria Office of Science and Technology 2004, p. 3):

The key objective for Phase 1 is to establish a profile of the potential members of the Ballarat ICT Cluster. The research methodologies that have been utilised in the Cluster Profile Study are outlined in the body of the report. They have included a review of secondary resources; an ICT Panel facilitated by Professor Julian Lowe during the Ballarat Innovation Festival; an ICT cluster survey and a business community survey and consultation with key organisations and stakeholders.