Nudging Australia into deeper offshore waters
Australia has dipped its feet into the outsourcing waters, but has yet to catch up, what more keep abreast of its Asia-Pacific neighbors. Faltering leadership and failing vision have held back Australia’s ICT industry from propelling the country to the ranks of top offshoring destination.
Australian Computer Society NSW chairman Kumar Parakala rues that the country despite its capacity, it fails to deliver. Parakala, who also chairs the organizing committee for September’s East Asian Regional Computer Confederation 2005 (SEARCC), is confident that Australia has bright prospects especially in the area of analytics, in the niche market areas of IT risk management, project management and IT governance. He holds this up as a good opportunity to specialize in core competencies.
Parakala cites the need to address gaps in understanding mutual strengths not just of the country, but of its fellow South East Asian IT workers as well. This is among the main issues the SEARCC 2005 conference aims to address.
Phil Hassey, associate director for services of IDC Asia Pacific, agrees on the need to strengthen leadership, but pinpoints the federal government’s failure to maximize Australia’s stable political climate and highly-skilled and educated worker pool.
"Can Australia become a low-cost centre for processing data? Of course not. But we can pitch ourselves as a high-end country providing key capabilities to other markets," Hassey said. He adds, "We cannot be an India, but we can exploit the fact that more languages are spoken here than in any other part of the world.”
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