3. Major Findings

The majority of respondents (82%) to the Ballarat ICT firms survey were either a privately owned company or a partnership.

Table 2 - Type of Organisation

Over two-fifths (43%) of organisations represented within the sample were established between 1995 and 1999. A further third (33%) were established within the last five years (between 2000 and 2004). Furthermore, the average years in operation of all participating organisations was 7.7 years.

Figure 1 - Year of establishment

Base - Total respondents (n=33)

As demonstrated by Figure 2, nearly half (49%) of respondents employed between two to four staff. Only a small proportion of respondents (12%) employed more than fifty people.

Figure 2 - Number of staff employed

Base - Total respondents (n=34)

Similarly to total staff numbers (Figure 2), the majority of respondents (76%) employed less than five ICT staff.

Figure 3 - Number of ICT staff employed

Base - Total respondents (n=32)

As demonstrated by Figure 4, all staff within nearly two-thirds (62%) of organisations were employed in ICT related positions. In contrast, only a small proportion (9%) did not have the majority of their employees working in positions that were ICT related.

Figure 4 - ICT staff proportion of total staff

Base - Total respondents (n=32)

Figure 5 demonstrates that a very high proportion of respondents (79%) devote over three-quarters (76%-100%) of their inputs to ICT activities and products.

Figure 5 - Proportion of inputs devoted to ICT activities

Base - Total respondents (n=33)

Supporting the high resource allocation to ICT activities, the majority of respondents (85%) indicated that over three-quarters of their organisation's products or services were IT related (refer Figure 6).

Figure 6 - Proportion of products or services that are ICT related

Base - Total respondents (n=34)

As indicated by Figure 7, the majority of organisation's (69%) turnover was less than $500,000. However, nearly a fifth of respondents (18%) did indicate that their organisation's turnover exceeded $5 million.

Figure 7 - Revenue distribution of respondents (%)

Base - Total respondents (n=33)

A high proportion of respondents indicated that the main areas of their business activity were within business-to-business (74%) and/or development (71%).

Figure 8 - Main areas of business activity (%)

Base - Total respondents (n=34)

*Other business activities nominated by respondents:

As indicated by Table 3, Ballarat's ICT Firms serve a wide variety of industries. In particular, a high proportion of organisations (71%) serve the business services industry, with accommodation, cafes and restaurants being the next highest served industry. Interestingly, just over a third of respondents provided services to either local or state government.

Table 3 - Industries served by respondents

*Other business activities nominated by respondents:

The two most common geographic areas served by respondents were Ballarat and regional Victoria. However, the majority of respondents also provided services to metropolitan Victorian and interstate based organisations. Furthermore, nearly two-fifths (38%) of respondents delivered services internationally.

Figure 9 - Geographical areas served by respondents (%)

Base - Total respondents (n=34)

Although nearly two-fifths of respondents (38%) delivered services internationally, nearly a quarter (24%) of respondents suggested that they were considering exporting in the future.

Figure 10 - Proportion of respondents delivering services internationally (%)

Base - Total respondents (n=34)

As indicated in Table 4, Ballarat's ICT firms possess a variety of skills within their organisations. In particular, project management, programming and systems development were the most prevalent skills nominated by respondents.

Table 4 - Skills contained by respondents

*Other skills contained by respondents:

Figure 11 demonstrates that the majority of respondents undertake ad hoc working relationships and sharing and/or alliances or joint ventures on an occasional or regular basis. More strategic collaborative activities such as joint research and marketing, and supply chain partnerships, however, were not undertaken by the majority of respondents. Nevertheless, interest in strengthening collaboration through such activities was relatively high.

Figure 11 - Networking and collaboration activities undertaken by respondents (%)

Base - Total respondents (n=34)

Respondents were asked to indicate their level of agreement with a number of statements relating to collaboration with other Ballarat ICT firms. As indicated in Table 5, respondents generally agreed that:

In contrast, there was a level of disagreement with statements relating to the nature of existing collaborations with other local ICT businesses (i.e. joint research & innovation, close working relationships).

Table 5 – Prevalence of collaboration with other Ballarat ICT firms

As indicated in Table 6, there was a degree of disagreement with all statements relating to learning from and benchmarking against other ICT organisations. In general, respondents disagreed that they recognise and adopt business improvements made by other Ballarat ICT organisations, particularly in the areas of logistics and supply, operations and human resource management.

Table 6 - Prevalence of learning and benchmarking activities

Table 7 indicates that respondents generally agreed that Ballarat is a good place to develop ICT products and processes. However, respondents were generally neutral in their opinions relating to the region being an important source of skilled labour, new ideas and new product/service improvements. Furthermore, there was some level of disagreement with the statement the local banks and financial institutions understand our specific needs.

Table 7 - Attitudes towards the region's labour, research and other ICT resource

Respondents indicated that generally, their most significant business relationships were with other companies in their industry and Ballarat hardware suppliers (refer Figure 12. In contrast, the least nominated business relationships where with other companies in their group and through contact made via the internet.

Figure 12 - Most significant business relationships

Base - Total respondents (n=31)

As indicated in Table 8, respondents generally considered reputation, innovation and ICT to the future of the enterprise as the most important success factors for their organisation. In contrast, public funding and assistance, and access to capital and local facilities were generally considered the least important success factors.

Table 8 - Importance of organisational success factors

Business/consumer confidence, insufficient domestic demand and competition from other operators were generally considered by respondents as the most constraining factors on business growth (refer Table 9). These factors, however, were only considered moderate constraints. Furthermore, insufficient international demand, government regulation and skills shortages were generally only considered as mild constraints on business growth.

Table 9 - Key constraints on business growth

As demonstrated by Figure 13, over two-thirds (69%) of respondents nominated marketing as a major skill deficiency within their current workforce. Business planning (41%) and commercialisation (34%) were the next most common skill deficiencies experienced by respondents. In contrast, only a small proportion of respondents nominated research, education and training or quality assurance skills as a deficiency.

Figure 13 - Skill deficiencies in current workforce

Base - Total respondents (n=29)

*Other skill deficiencies nominated by respondents:

Participants were given the opportunity to comment on needs and priorities for the ICT industry in the Ballarat region. As the following statements attest, a major theme arising from these comments was a lack of perceived support provided to the industry by local government and larger ICT users:

The second major theme arising from these comments concerned the need to improve the local industry's marketing activities: