Friday, March 29, 2024

DAWE builds on digital infrastructure

The Australian Department of Agriculture and Water and Environment (DAWE) is using new digital infrastructure in a bid to drive efficiencies across the import and export of primary industries.

DAWE is the first ‘tier one’ Federal Government agency to transition its core financial systems to software-as-a-service, setting the platform for a planned transformative modernisation program to support local producers and staff, and driving economic growth.

Ed Chung, CEO of TechnologyOne – the Australian ERP company partnering with DAWE on project – said new economic modelling by IBRS and Insight Economics independently quantified the potential significant savings that could be available to the nation by modernising and upgrading to SaaS.

“If all government agencies followed DAWE’s lead and upgraded their systems to software as a service (SaaS), Australia would be looking at $62 billion in savings over 10 years, which could be re-invested into front line services such as roads, biosecurity and regional healthcare and education.”

“Importantly, the research showed the experience of departments and agencies that had already made the transition was that much of these savings came from productivity improvements, not just lower operating costs,” Mr Chung said.

“If other major sectors* also upgraded their old legacy IT systems to SaaS, the Australian economy would be $224B better off over the next 10 years not accounting for inflation – and this would be even higher if it Australian tech talent was chosen to deliver the work.

“As Australia ‘builds back better’ in 2022, the partnership between government, business and industry will continue to be critical, with technology and innovation at the core of ongoing economic growth.

“All organisations will need to upgrade their IT to SaaS eventually, and this economic modelling shows the potential for the nation if we fast track these transformation projects,” Mr Chung said.

DAWE’s new finance solution has been deployed into TechnologyOne’s IRAP assessed PROTECTED SaaS solution. TechnologyOne has transitioned all agencies in its Federal GovCloud to this solution, which it says provides materially higher cyber security posture at no additional cost.

For more information on the IBRS, Insight Economics report ‘’The Economic Impact of SaaS”, visit www.toobigtoignore.com.au.

*(State and Local Government, higher education, health and community services and asset intensive industries)

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