IPG - Growing Companies

Special Report: Growing Companies

Australia’s Nobel Laureates Vol

State of Our Innovation Nation: 2022 and Beyond

Applying digital technology to the strategic challenges

INTRODUCTION

Growing companies were presented with a rich combination of risks and opportunities over recent years, with some hit with massive demand, some devasting reductions in activity, some finding success through pivoting and some facing all three. All have likely navigated the most challenging period of their business careers with digital technology playing an ever more important role in that period. This selection of articles is targeted at leading executives and owners navigating their organisations towards what's next, now you have come through the other side of the pandemic.

Mark Nicholls, CEO, Information Professionals Group.

Mark is at the forefront of digital technology transformation, known for his ability to engage people at every level, and honing in on client priorities to find the right formula for organisations to grow their way. He is a passionate advocate for the benefits that effective digital technology brings to industry, community, and the country, and has seen first-hand the challenges around digital technology that organisations face today.

Mark’s passion is contributed through IPG and its clients and his active role across industry and government with the AIIA, the peak industry association for the digital economy, where he serves as National Deputy Chair. https://www.linkedin.com/in/markdnicholls/

CONTENTS

Page 3 - Digital Services – A new level asked from regional providers

How did digital adoption manage to accelerate so significantly through the pandemic? I look back at the dynamics of what happened to create the conditions for this to be achieved, and whether there is some common traits that allow for these to be repeated, by all organisations, with these phenomenon particularly noticeable in smaller and regional organisations.

Page 5 - Digital services post pandemic: Agility still counts for Growing Companies

How well positioned are Growing Companies after the last few years of rapid change? Are there lessons, has there been a strong legacy created, are there some hangovers that will require addressing due to the speed with which some change happened, and are there some leading examples out there? This articles unpacks that question for leaders of Growing Companies.

Page 8 - A new way forward

The adoption of innovation by scaling companies, and embracing risk at all levels of the organisation is the basis of many insights here by TechnologyOne founder Adrian DeMarco. There are some good lessons for all growing and aspirational companies in this article, and digital technology adoption is about risk, innovation and success for many. Full disclosure: Many of our clients use TechnologyOne, we have helped our clients through procurement processes and implementations of TechnologyOne products, and we have worked directly with TechnologyOne.

Page 11 - Cooperation key to Australia’s digital transformation

Written by Australia’s Nobel Laureates Volume III, they introduce the benefits of finding common ground between parties so that greater value can be captured resulting in quicker digital innovation.

Page 12 - Technology: The lifeblood of a stronger SMB community

Small Medium sized Businesses (SMBs) support almost 50% of the Australian workforce, according to Matt Codrington, Managing Director, Lenovo ANZ, and a fellow AIIA Board member. SMBs have accelerated digital adoption through the pandemic, like many other sectors, with particular focus on flexible working arrangements, and new reach into new markets, as Matt highlights here.

DIGITAL SERVICES - A NEW LEVEL ASKED FROM REGIONAL PROVIDERS

In my experience in the ICT industry, I have witnessed many significant changes surrounding mainstream adoption of technologies and have become familiar with the various factors that play a role in the speed of technology adoption, having been engaged in technology adoption for over 3 decades.

Around 9 years ago, I published a series of articles and delivered several presentations on the topic “The Pressure for Change”. In these talks, I set out to describe the tension created among three parties, namely digital innovators trying to gain traction for new products and services, the community’s ability to change and adopt these innovations and become customers, and government’s ability to either de-regulate or regulate to support the change that innovation brings.

My proposition was that government is generally the slower of these three, and so those innovations that rely on regulatory change will gain traction late. Next slowest was the community. People need a compelling argument to change their habits, and many innovations simply don’t stack up.

Those that did stack up initially, were those where the product or service could be digitalised readily, creating convenience and improved utility for customers. Thus, banking, entertainment (TV/ movies/music), information and knowledge (newspapers, magazines, books and directories) were all “first movers”, as governments had a minimal role to play here and therefore weren’t slowing the process by “getting in the way” (or failing to “get out of the way”).

Other innovations were either digitalising aspects

of existing physical services, or creating new physical services with the help of various digital solutions. This included ride-sharing services like Uber; food and grocery delivery services; and a number of other improvements when it came to researching and buying products and services, even if the final sale and delivery was done in a non-digital way. In fact, house, car, and many other types of purchases are now performed partly online and partly offline, with some providers having moved (or moving into) fully digital sales models.

Some of these generated more interest from Government than others, especially where they conflicted with existing regulation. Ride-sharing is the most notable example here. To their credit, Uber (and others) adopted a “crash or crash through” approach to that problem. It is unlikely they ever would have gained sufficient patience from their

By Mark Nicholls

New community expectations have all organisations trying to keep up with digital transformation.

investors and achieved success if they waited for every government to go about due consideration and change. They created a problem and forced governments to address it. It worked, but was not without damage. A number of legacy license holders were big losers and various governments, even today, are still taking rearguard action.

How has the pandemic affected this dynamic? Firstly, community priorities have changed. The general public needed better ways of going about their lives due to enforced lockdowns or self-imposed restrictions on movement. Industry (and Government) service providers needed new ways of delivering services to customers, citizens, staff and students. And Government, in their regulatory role, wanted to facilitate many of these as it helped to minimise the impact of restrictions on physical movement by supporting as much economic and community activity as possible.

As a result, the interests of all parties aligned, and we gained massive acceleration in digital adoption across so many sectors.

Many of the technologies adopted have been around for many years, even decades, so it was not a question of whether these were new, but whether they were being newly adopted. These technologies created the enablers, the pre-existing capability that could be scaled. This included cloud technologies - allowing services and systems to be accessible anywhere and scaled immediately – as well as video conferencing, which was already gaining wider adoption with Zoom making the services provided by Cisco and others more accessible. Microsoft was already well advanced on its Teams solutions, although they did accelerate their development through the pandemic, as did many technology providers. Even QR codes, first used by millions through the pandemic, have been around for over 25 years - it was defined as an ISO (International Standards Organisation) standard 22 years ago.

As we move slowly (hopefully) out of the COVID-19 pandemic and into an endemic phase, what have we learned in digital innovation adoption and where are the opportunities today/tomorrow?

In many cases, community expectations for digital services are moving faster than some organisations can provide. Those organisations most challenged are smaller organisations, those that operate in regulated environments with restrictions on revenue growth, and this also tends to be regulated service providers in the non-metropolitan regions of Australia. This may include local government, utilities, healthcare, community, and aged care providers. Furthermore, skills are a big challenge generally,

and in regional areas this is an even bigger issue. What is the solution to all this unfulfilled digital transformation ambition?

One answer lies in the lesson of the pandemic. As stated above, “the interests of all parties aligned and we gained massive acceleration in digital adoption across so many sectors.”

If we align the interests of regional service providers, how can they better collaborate, and potentially create economies of scale to digitise more quickly? And with their customers geographically distributed more than most, they have an even more compelling argument to provide digitised services.

Sharing technology platforms, digital skills, and internal technology capabilities all offer accelerators for regional providers. Cloud technologies offer capabilities that support this. Commonwealth and state governments have been quietly adopting various forms of shared technology provision for some years now. This lowers the cost of digital service delivery, allowing scarce funds to be redirected into improving services. That investment in improvements also goes further with shared use of the same capability.

While traditional “shared services” delivered some unfulfilled promises over a decade ago, the new shared models supported by new technologies are now generating many benefits for the clusters, consortiums, and alliances that adopt them.

Our building body of case studies are increasingly reflective of the quiet promise that is delivering results across Australia.

Mark Nicholls is a partner and CEO of Information Professionals Group (IPG), as well as National Deputy Chair of the Australian Information Industry Association.

DIGITAL SERVICES POST PANDEMIC: AGILITY STILL COUNTS FOR GROWING COMPANIES

Building on the article series inspired from that published in Australia’s Nobel Laureates Volume III, we highlighted the amazing speed of technology adoption through the pandemic and then considered the sectors that we work with at IPG including Growing Companies.

The phenomenon put forward previously and well unpacked by Scott Galloway (Author of Post Corona: From Crisis to Opportunity (2020)), Professor, NYU Stern School of Business, is also very true of Growing Companies. The pandemic accelerated pre-existing trends, underway prior to the pandemic.

This is clear in the acceleration of online shopping, work-from-home or hybrid working, remote delivery of services, and home delivery of products, and the resulting increase in valuation in some firms, especially the biggest tech firms. Some that have now since reversed or returned to mean as things return to normal.

One thing that is clear across all sectors we work with is that the organisations that have proven their ability to adapt and adopt these solutions are those with culture, capability and technology that is able to support shifts in business strategy. This adaptability, includes the technology platforms, the capability to leverage and adapt those technology platforms with sound architecture, and the culture to drive and accommodate change.

Growing companies were presented with a rich combination of risks and opportunities over recent years, with some hit with massive demand, some

devasting reductions in activity, some finding success through pivoting and some facing any combination of all three. Leaders in these organisations have likely navigated the most challenging period of their business careers with digital technology playing an ever more important role in that period.

Growing companies had any combination of the following three strategies they had to employ through the pandemic:

• Batten down the hatches. Demand dried up or restrictions prevented trading, making it impossible or close to impossible, to earn any revenue. Cost savings were paramount to survival.

• Run as fast as you can. Demand accelerated significantly, and there was opportunity, if you could deliver and deliver profitably.

• Pivot quickly for opportunity. Demand for your current service or product lines dried up, but your capabilities could support the delivery of alternatives that were in demand. So you could win, if you could pivot your focus.

Some companies had to encounter each of these, perhaps at the same time (across different parts of their organisation) or at different times, over the 2+ years of the pandemic.

As we emerged out of the pandemic, some pandemic inspired impacts have continued. Supply chain challenges were one of those, with access to some products, services or people becoming very

By Mark Nicholls

The pandemic created some of the most challenging periods in most CEOs and owners’ lives. So, what next?

difficult. Then when you could get them, prices had escalated significantly. These price escalations have now become systemic, with inflation being dealt with as best as Governments can across the globe.

So, we have had or currently have demand side volatility, supply side volatility, sometimes in different directions and all at the same time. I don’t know if there has ever been a time when there is a greater need for agility and adaptability than now.

With more and more of business necessarily relying on digital technology, the technology you have either aids that agility and adaptability or it just becomes another constraint to being able to respond.

The technology alone is not enough. After all, it doesn’t change on its own. It gives you the capability to change and volve or the constraints to stop you. The culture and capability goes along with the technology to support that growth.

Zoomo was one example through the pandemic, that relied on adapting their technology capabilities to support the multiple needs of an expanding market as they grew their e-bike business internationally, with partners (Doordash, Uber Eats), catering for business partner

needs and new delivery driver needs as the boom in home food delivery took off.

There are many other examples.

This adaptability includes the technology platforms, the capability to leverage and adapt those technology platforms with sound architecture, and the culture to drive and accommodate change.

These attributes could be established through the pandemic but are more likely to have been there prior to the pandemic, or not. This set some organisations up for success while some had more challenges.

Some differentiators include the following.

APPLICATION PLATFORMS

Those with ageing legacy systems found that they could not be easily changed to accommodate new needs, and in some cases, they couldn’t be sufficiently protected from cybersecurity threats. There was a need to remediate what they already had, moving sideways, before they could move forward.

Those with more contemporary applications, particularly those that were cloud based, were highly

configurable, and required less custom software development, were able to respond more quickly to emergent needs.

CLOUD PLATFORMS

Cloud is a generally accepted way of running your technology now. But that doesn’t mean that everyone is going in this direction, or have moved their current on-premise systems into the cloud. Those that have, have gained these benefits, that were pivotal through the pandemic and since:

• Scalability – the ability to scale up demand or down without needing capital investment and supply chain delays. This could be increases or decreases in users, in customers, in traffic, transactions, volume, storage, or most other business metrics.

• Pervasiveness – cloud based solutions are available pretty well wherever you need them providing global accessibility. You may be able to set up your own on-premise systems this way too, but in doing so, can expose you to cybersecurity risks that your own systems may not be able to manage.

• Expandability – most cloud based solutions will have capabilities that extend beyond what you are using. So you can expand their use, and take advantage of capabilities that are resident. And these capabilities are already integrated and available alongside the features you are already using. And in many cases, this can be at no or negligible incremental costs.

• Adaptability – the above features mean that you can adapt more quickly to new needs as you can scale, provide access, and add new capabilities more quickly than before. However, this doesn’t mean it is cheaper. In some cases, it may be higher cost. And transition timing can be material, depending on current asset values and asset lifecycle stage. Each organisation needs to make their own mind up on this. But when it comes to capability enhancement, you will be much better off.

CULTURE, CAPABILITY AND SKILLS

Those with limited digital skills did not have the knowhow to know what was holding them back and what solutions could be available to better support their organisations, customers, and staff. Those that do have this know how, do have the ability to support their organisations, customers and staff. It is that simple.

BUSINESS MODELS

With the culture and capability to adopt new ways of working, and the digital technology that can respond to and support these new ways, that opens the opportunity for new business models, new services and products and new ways of creating and extracting value. Zoomo demonstrated that.

Summary

Where to now for Growing Companies. If you haven't remediated core systems, then now is the time. There are ample options available, the cloud based models will create improved adaptability, will support remote working for your staff, and may reduce the need for larger scale future investments.

If you have done this already or have that in hand, what next? That comes down to your industry sector, client profiles, business model and strategy. And incorporating digital innovation, customer experience, data and analytics, and automation should all be candidates in that strategy.

We would welcome your views and input on all aspects of this article, so please get in touch to share your views.

A NEW WAY FORWARD

TechnologyOne made a bold move 10 years ago to move to cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS), and has reaped the benefits since .

By Adrian Di Marco

TechnologyOne started 32 years ago, and was one of Australia’s first innovation-led startups.

TechnologyOne is today a top-150 ASX-listed company, with one of the largest software R&D centres in Australia. We have been one of the strongest performing companies on the ASX since we listed in 1999, with a market capitalisation now approaching $3bn. Our success has been driven by our aggressive innovation agenda.

When TechnologyOne started, we took a very different direction to the other software companies at that time. Up until then, software companies were focused on providing services. The products that existed either came from large multinationals such as MSA, McCormack and Dodge or IBM, or originated locally from custom software built for a specific customer, that was then ‘onsold’ to another customer. In all cases the software needed to be heavily modified to meet the specific requirements of each new customer. This was costly, time consuming and inherently risky.

TechnologyOne’s idea was to undertake deep research and use this to build a new generation of software products, that did not need to be customised to meet a specific customer’s requirements. All customers would use the exact same code line, which would provide significant advantages, such as quicker implementations and reduced costs, and enable the customer to take new releases of the software product without costly re-implementations.

To achieve this, TechnologyOne pioneered a concept called "configuration not customisation", in which the configuration sat outside the software code, in a repository, which told the software how to behave for a specific customer. The code wasn’t changed for each customer, but instead the configuration, which specified the accounting rules, workflows, policies, procedures, themes, etc. It was a revolutionary idea, that has underpinned the company’s long-term success.

Companies need to rethink the risk/reward equation for the digital future, and shed ways of thinking born in the industrial era.

Adrian Di Marco

To make this happen, we had to identify new and emerging technologies, such as a new way of storing and retrieving data based on a mathematical model, which subsequently became relational database technology.

When TechnologyOne started 32 years ago, there was no venture capital industry, and banks would not lend to a startup with no assets, trying to pioneer a new idea of building software products that did not need to be customised, using unproven state-ofthe-art technology. The fact that the company was based on undertaking deep research, which would need to be subsequently commercialised, was not something the banks understood.

To fund TechnologyOne’s innovation agenda, I approached a past customer, Dugald Mactaggart, who owned a hides processing plant. Dugald was one of the first venture capitalists in Australia, and provided both the initial funding, as well as a shelf company from a previous venture called ‘Rent-aBull’, which was renamed to TechnologyOne. This would eventually become a partnership that lasted more than 32 years. It’s quite ironic that one of Australia’s leading software R&D companies started life as Rent-a-Bull.

TechnologyOne’s success, as well as our continuing strong growth over 32 years, is due to our aggressive innovation agenda. The company has consistently invested +20% of revenue each year in R&D, making it a global leader in R&D.

Over that period of time TechnologyOne has reinvented itself, and rebuilt our software products many times. Our first-generation products were green screen based on relational database technology; our second generation was Client/Server with a Graphical User Interface; our third generation was Internetbased; and our newest generation is Software as a Service.

We have been continually at the cutting edge of new technologies, ideas and concepts. By rebuilding the company and our products every eight years, it has freed our thinking from the past and allowed us to bring in new ideas, new talent and new concepts.

Our aggressive innovation agenda is underpinned by a set of guiding principles:

• New and emerging technologies – To create new opportunities

• Simplicity – To make life simple for customers using new technologies, coupled with new ideas and concepts

• Leadership – Setting ambitious goals for R&D teams, and to work with them to navigate the

"unknown path" to a new destination that no one has ever been to before

• Failure – Accepting and learning from failures, which are inevitable when you are at the ‘cutting edge’, exploring uncharted domains. Having built an innovation-based company over 32 years, it is clear the Australian economy must move from its industrial past to a digital future; and we need to accelerate the creation of more innovation-led companies that can capitalise on the opportunities that lie ahead. To do this, the older traditional approaches that worked in the industrial past will not work going forward. We need to break through the past, and find a new way forward that is appropriate for the digital future. TechnologyOne has already made this leap.

We decided 10 years ago to become a cloud company, rebuild all our products, and commit to seamlessly and easily moving all our on-premise customers to the cloud. When we announced this, as a public company, there was a lot of angst, as investors questioned why our customers, which are large government departments, councils and universities, would trust a software vendor to run their mission critical ERP software, as well as put their data into our cloud. They were concerned that we had no experience or track record building a cloud business, and we were committing hundreds of millions of dollars on this new direction.

These were all valid concerns, yet as an innovation-led company we knew we could succeed because of our rigorous R&D-led approach. Today our global SaaS ERP solution is used by 500+ large government departments, councils and universities, and our SaaS revenues are growing by 40% per annum. There were significant challenges we had to overcome, significant risks we had to manage, and many mistakes made along the way, but today we have successfully delivered our global SaaS ERP solution, which is driving our growth going forward.

Key to our success as an innovation-led company has been to think and operate differently, and to have a board of directors that can effectively oversee and nurture such a culture. Ours is not a typical ASX-150 board, in both constitution and how it operates. It is not a board scared of technological change, of moving fast, and heading into an unknown and ill-defined direction, nor of making mistakes. What we have is a board that clearly understands how to manage the risk and reward equation that is inherent in a true innovation-led company.

Unfortunately, being an innovation-led company in the publicly listed arena is becoming increasingly more difficult, because of the risk averse approach enforced on public companies by the mandated "one size fits all" model of corporate governance. Public companies have been forced to embrace a common, unified and risk averse approach including:

• majority of independent directors

• independent chair

• limitation on director tenure

• propensity to recruit from the pool of existing listed company directors

• segregation of CEO and chair roles

• restrictive guidelines for executive remuneration

Companies that do not comply to this mandated "one size fits all" model are identified and punished at AGMs by proxy advisors. Boards have been forced to embrace this mandated risk averse approach, limiting their ability to be different and to innovate.

Clearly there are arguments that could be made both for and against this mandated approach. That is not the issue here.

Public companies come in all shapes and sizes, across a myriad of industries, with each company facing its own unique challenges, while at the same time having their own unique opportunities in the new digital world. To push

all companies into a single mandated model will by definition push all companies to a standard "norm" and remove out performance. If there is one thing that nature has shown us, it is that diversity and evolution are among the most powerful forces in the universe. We should be embracing diversity and evolution in our public company space. We should not be afraid that companies will make mistakes, that some will fail, as this is part of the process for the survival of the strongest. We should encourage diversity of approach between companies, just like there is diversity in nature. Only through diversity do we find new, better ways, and create out performance.

What is important going forward is transparency. Companies must be open and transparent about how they operate, and clearly identify to their investors if they differ from the "one size fits all" model, explaining why they are different. Investors can then make an informed decision on whether to invest or not.

If we are to encourage more and more innovation-led companies in Australia’s publicly listed space, and if we to allow them to truly succeed, they cannot be hobbled by this risk averse, mandated model currently being promoted.

Adrian Di Marco is Founder and Executive chairman of TechnologyOne.

COOPERATION KEY TO AUSTRALIA’S DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

A pandemic has required Australian industry

While the coronavirus may not be as “novel” as it once was, the remarkable advancements in applied digital innovation during the pandemic are. Several technologies and processes, for example, QR codes, online shopping, at home video conferencing and eLearning, have become part and parcel in the daily lives of so many Australians.

Time travel back to 2019 and anyone invested in digital transformation, whether in the private or public sector, would have suggested that these examples were marginally useful additions to the lives of Australians, and perhaps some years away from becoming mainstream.

We have seen the government’s ability to pool and direct resources, industry’s ability to deliver at scale and quite often at pace, and lastly, we see the community’s ability to adapt and adopt, if there is a sufficient reason for them to do so.

When combined, these newly adopted technologies illustrate how governments, industry and the community can work together to innovate, adapt, adopt and ultimately make everyone's lives better by solving common challenges. It has been good to see what can happen when these three forces collaborate to the extent we have experienced.

New South Wales, Victoria and ACT governments vie for being the leading jurisdiction in the country when it comes to digitising everyday interactions between citizens and their government. This is according to the recent history of Telstra’s Digital Inclusion Index, Cisco’s Digital Readiness Index and Intermedium’s digital government report card. The Federal Government is also moving quickly and has set its plan to be one of the top three digital governments in the world by 2025. Meanwhile, industry is getting on with the job of continually improving and refining their digital capabilities for their clients, their staff and other stakeholders.

As we manoeuvre out of this pandemic (albeit there may still be a way to go), the best legacy seems to be the continued collaboration for the greater public good. This

working together in harmony is vital when considering the number of other significant challenges Australia is facing (not limited to climate change and growing external geo-political threats as two examples) that require the country’s best and brightest minds to work together.

For more than 20 years, Information Professionals Group has supported growing companies, councils, government,

utilities and health and community organisations, to navigate the complexities and sensitivities associated with implementing change in challenging environments. The company’s leadership has always informed its work by asking “How does the customer benefit?”

While we hope it is a long time before the next crisis of pandemic proportions, we know that this spirit of collaboration can undoubtedly go a long way to tackling other complex challenges. It is in this vein that we should collaborate: understand the strengths and constraints of each other and, in concert, devise and implement solutions accordingly – for the betterment of the country and for the life of each citizen.

and governments to work in concert like never before, with better community outcomes.

TECHNOLOGY: THE LIFEBLOOD OF A STRONGER SMB COMMUNITY

By Matt Codrington, Managing Director, Lenovo ANZ

For a long time now, Australia’s economy has enjoyed an enviable track record, thanks to the industries we are best known for: mining, agriculture, services and manufacturing. Amidst our economic progress, innovation and technology may appear to have taken a backseat. The coronavirus pandemic, however, has shown that this is hardly the case.

While many Australians have unquestionably faced hardship amidst the uncertainty and challenges wrought by the pandemic, we have also seen first-hand the resilience and adaptability of our country – particularly the small and medium businesses (SMBs) who form the backbone of Australia’s economy.

Much of this is thanks to latest advancements in technology in an environment that has forced the almost immediate digitization of many aspects of our everyday lives. Business and Government roadmaps and strategies calling for 2 to 3 year timelines to implement the modernization of the workplace have been completed, almost overnight. This inflexion point has accelerated collaboration like never before. Prior to COVID-19, SMBs would often be hesitant to adopt new technologies or working arrangements, fearing loss of control. Now we see we flexibility actually promoting productivity.

Today, we are seeing far more willingness and an almost ardent desire by SMBs to explore technology and the value it can bring. The discovery that working remotely from our homes is entirely possible, and the ease and joy offered by modern technologies, have given rise to the realization that a job is a thing you do, not necessarily a place you go to.

In fact, research has shown that many workers find workfrom-home enjoyable and effective when given the tools they need. Video conferencing software, for example, has facilitated easy face-to-face interaction amongst all employees, irrespective of locations or timezones.

To ensure SMBs continue to benefit both economically and socially from what is a potent enabler, this foundation,

including how SMBs ought to view and work with technology, must be built on. SMBs are facing an ever-more competitive landscape from this digitization of the marketplace. Borders have largely been removed – hence opening up the potential for competition in a global landscape. At the same time, SMBs’ exposure and access to a massive international market today is unprecedented. SMBs will continue to face constant pressure to drive better productivity and manage costs, but now and perhaps even more importantly, they must innovate with new business models, challenge contemporary thinking and be ready to change direction in the blink of an eye.

To maintain a strong SMB community in the nation’s digital future, Australia must invest even further into this pillar of our society that accounts for 45.7% of the total Australian workforce. This means engaging with our SMBs by listening to and understanding their challenges, unlocking their ideas and helping them optimize their scarce time, resources and limited budgets. And SMBs themselves need to be working on, as well as in, their businesses at the same time.

The good news is that much of this work is already underway, as Australia embarks on a cohesive, long-term national strategy to strengthen its technology and innovation capabilities. While the government will play a critical role in effecting change, however, it is equally important that the world’s technology providers are exercising their expertise in designing and creating the right products and services that will help SMBs thrive.