Published on the 08/01/2014 | Written by Rob Stummer

Filling in Australia’s broadband black spots would boost productivity says Rob Stummer…

With all the talk of speeds and feeds for homes and businesses surrounding the National Broadband Network during the recent Australian federal election campaign, not enough attention was paid to the issue of filling in broadband black spots. Yet addressing this will potentially add more to national productivity than any other communications issue.

With the mining and resources industries currently in slow-down mode, a major challenge and focus for companies’ management teams is to continually review their operations and establish how they can improve them to boost productivity and remain competitive. This is particularly critical for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services firms that have grown so spectacularly in recent years but are now bearing the brunt of the slowdown.

The value of resource projects (based on total project cost at completion) is poised to peak in 2015. According to the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE), new project commitments are not keeping pace with completions. However, the value of committed projects remains high, reflecting rising costs. BREE estimates that higher costs account for about 11 percent of the value of committed projects. Projects at the feasibility stage are being cancelled or deferred due to concerns over construction costs, uncertainty relating to demand and lower prices. BREE estimates that projects worth about $150 billion have been delayed or cancelled over the past year.

As a supplier of ERP software to the mining and resources sectors, we are talking to a number of companies about how technology can support better productivity. What we are trying to do is stimulate continued and sustained investment into these projects, by promoting the use of agile technology to work smarter in Australia and make it attractive for the big companies to invest in projects here, rather than, say, Africa or South America.

The number one way they can do this is by more effectively capturing and sharing information throughout the enterprise to better use both assets and workforces. And we’re not just talking about head office operations in the capital cities. A critical part of this is better capturing and provision of data in the field using mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

We have several customers that are itching to deploy mobile solutions to give them the productivity they need to win or maximise projects. Mobile devices with inbuilt GPS can now run business apps for things like work orders, fault reports, confirmation of delivery routes, even workforce scheduling and optimisation. Being able to capture data and access information wherever you are, including a remote mine site, is key to managing operations in real time.

Systems that can talk in real time to head office from these remote locations will significantly benefit the bottom line. It will improve decision making around when assets need to be repaired or replaced, for example, or whether there are too many people on-site that could be redeployed elsewhere. Field workers can take photos and attach diagrams and upload them to someone in another location to make decisions on the spot, rather than lose days or even weeks in some cases before returning to head office.

Right now, however, many companies are hampered in their ability to share information because of the poor quality, limited capacity or complete lack of communications infrastructure. Communications services exist at selected remote locations – using satellite connectivity to mine sites, for example. But many remote locations in Australia – including major transport routes – remain broadband black spots for mobile devices.

Providing connectivity to these black spots would allow companies to use technology to save hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars in their operations. Given that broadband connectivity in places like Africa and South America is far less sophisticated, the improved productivity it facilitates will be a major factor in bringing construction and overall operational costs down to a competitive level in Australia, therefore supporting a much more robust business case to ensure that projects go ahead.

ABOUT ROB STUMMER//

Rob Stummer is managing director, Australia & New Zealand, for global enterprise applications company IFS, achieving significant growth over the last five years. He holds a Masters in Information Technology from Melbourne University and has consulted to many of Australia’s Top 500 companies.