A variety of organisation types are represented within the sample. However, the majority of organisations (57%) are privately owned companies or partnerships.

Figure 14 - Type of organisation

Base - Total respondents (n=21)

Just under half (47%) of the organisations represented within the sample have been established for more than 20 years.

Figure 15 - How long has your organisation been established?

Base - Total respondents (n=21)

As demonstrated by Figure 16, nearly half (45%) of respondents to the Ballarat ICT users survey employed more than 100 staff. In addition, an equivalent proportion of respondents (45%) employed less than ten staff.

Figure 16 - Number of staff employed

Base - Total respondents (n=21)

As indicated in Table 10, organisations within the sample derive from a variety of industries. The majority of respondents are from the education, manufacturing and wholesale trade industries.

Table 10 - Industry classification of respondents

*Other industry classifications of respondents:

As demonstrated by Figure 17, respondents' annual expenditure on hardware was generally greater than that on either software or consultancy. Over a third of respondents (35%) annually spend more than $50,000 on hardware, while a smaller proportion spend the equivalent amount on software (25%) or consultancy services (12%). Furthermore, the majority of respondents annually spend less than $10,000 on software (55%) or consultancy services (67%).

Figure 17 - Average annual spending on ICT goods and services

Base - Total respondents (n=21)

As demonstrated by Figure 18, a relatively high proportion of respondents' employees possessed information technology (IT) skills. The majority of respondents (63%) indicated that more than half of their workforce was proficient or qualified in the use of IT. Furthermore, over two-fifths of respondents (42%) indicated that more than three-quarters of their workforce had skills in this area.

The proportion of staff working in IT dedicated positions was significantly less than those with IT skills. The clear majority of respondents (90%) indicated that less than a quarter of their workforce was employed in IT dedicated positions. Accordingly, only a small proportion of respondents (5%) indicated that the majority of their workforce in such positions.

Figure 18 - Proportion of staff with IT skills & in IT dedicated positions (%)

Base - Total respondents (n=21)

Respondents nominated a variety of IT uses within their organisations (refer Table 11). This diversity of IT uses highlights the range of opportunities for local ICT firms to provide services to local users. The highest uses of IT amongst respondents, however, were for accounting and finance systems (76% of respondents) and business-to-business services (67%).

Table 11 - What are the main uses of information technology within your organisation?

*Other Skills contained by respondents

Respondents identified reputation, ICT to the future of the enterprise and access to skilled labour as the most important success factors for their organisation. In contrast, access to Ballarat facilities, public funding and assistance, and low cost were generally considered the least important success factors (refer Figure 19).

Figure 19 - Importance of organisational success factors

Rating scale: (1 = not very important, 2 = not important, 3 = not sure, 4 = important, and 5 = very important)

As indicated in Table 12, the highest priority areas for expanding IT usage, nominated by respondents, were for intranet applications and websites (60% of respondents), business-to-business services (55%) and e-commerce (55%).

Table 12 - Priority areas for expanding IT usage

Figure 20 demonstrates that respondents were most like to source hardware and consultancy services from within the Ballarat region. Respondents did indicate, however, that they were most likely to purchase software from elsewhere in Victoria. This finding suggests that the Ballarat ICT industry competes strongly with other regions in terms of hardware and consultancy services; however, its share of the software market is relatively low.

Figure 20 - Geographic source of ICT requirements

Figure 21 highlights a lack of collaboration between respondents and Ballarat ICT organisations. The majority of respondents indicated that they do not have long-term supply relationships with local ICT firms (62%), engage local ICT firms to develop specific products or solutions (67%) or engage in either joint research (67%) or joint ventures (81%) with local users or suppliers.

Figure 21 - Collaboration with Ballarat ICT organisations

Base - Total respondents (n=21)

Table 13 indicates that respondents had some level of agreement with the notion that working relationships with Ballarat ICT firms were important to the development of new products, services and processes in their organisation. Respondents were generally neutral, however, in their agreement with statements relating to their networking and relationships with local ICT firms.

Table 13 - Attitudes towards collaboration with Ballarat ICT organisations

The following table details a general level of disagreement with statements relating to the level that respondents learn from and benchmark against other ICT users. In particular, respondents generally disagreed with the notion that they recognise and adopt human resource management improvements made by other local ICT users and that they are influenced by what other ICT users do.

Table 14 - Prevalence of learning and benchmarking activities

Table 15 indicates that respondents generally demonstrated a level of agreement with the suggestion that Ballarat educational institutions are important to us and help us with our ICT requirements and that the Ballarat region is an important source of ICT skilled labour. There was a level of disagreement, however, with the statement concerning awareness of ICT innovations and developments made by other Ballarat organisations.

Table 15 - Attitudes towards the region's labour, research and other ICT resources