As sure as day turns to night somewhere in the halls of Australian government a moan escapes - WE HAVE A PRODUCTIVITY CRISIS!
Do I subscribe to the government moaning on productivity - well, yes, sort of, maybe a bit! Being in tech for over half my life I have seen the rise and fall of the next great thing more times than I care to think. What HASN'T changed is the eagerness to embrace technology even before the problem that needs to be solved is addressed! (Carts do NEED to go AFTER horses).
The result of this article may be viewed as self-serving dribble - so be it - but what I explore below is the crux of the productivity crisis. Productivity improvement requires change - change comes from a new way of approaching things, often involving technology. This change doesn't need to be revolutionary - but it does need to address a problem and fix it.
Technology isn't just a support function for the majority of businesses—it's the backbone that determines whether your organisation grows, dies or merely survives. As businesses across Australia grapple with increasing operational complexities and competitive pressures, one truth has become crystal clear: comprehensive IT support agreements aren't an expense; they're an investment in productivity transformation.
Having spent over three decades observing and enabling digital transformation across Australian enterprises, I've witnessed firsthand how strategic IT partnerships can eliminate the technological friction that holds businesses back. The difference between organisations that struggle with technology and those that leverage it for competitive advantage often comes down to one critical factor: having the right IT support framework in place.
Consider this scenario: your front-line staff member encounters a system issue that prevents them from accessing customer data. In a traditional reactive IT environment, this employee faces a choice—spend valuable time troubleshooting the problem themselves, call the boss (who is either in a critical meeting, or --rarely -- enjoying a day off), wait for an IT response that might take hours or days, or find workarounds that compromise data integrity and service quality. This single incident ripples through your organisation, affecting customer satisfaction, employee morale, and ultimately, your bottom line.
Australian businesses lose an estimated $6.2 billion annually to IT downtime and inefficiencies. Yet this staggering figure only captures the direct costs. The indirect impacts—lost opportunities, damaged client relationships, and staff frustration—often prove far more damaging to long-term business sustainability.
The most progressive Australian organisations have recognised that technology barriers don't just slow down operations; they fundamentally limit what their teams can achieve. When your people spend their time fighting with technology instead of focusing on value-creation activities, you're not just losing productivity—you're losing competitive edge.
The Australian Aged Care sector faces a multitude of operational pressures. When Sapphire Coast Community Aged Care first approached Microsolve, they had no formal IT support structure in place. Staff were continually hamstrung by PC's that failed to operate as expected, had varying versions of applications and no observable security software in place. Couple this with a network that had no documentation and Internet delivered via a WiFi repeater that failed everytime it rained and you have a perfect storm of productivity impacted by technology.
The digital transformation undertaken across the two regional locations has gone far beyond just addressing the PC issues. Sapphire Coast Community Aged Care staff now have access to technical IT support at anytime. Unscheduled service outages have been eliminated and a program of IT capital works is progressively, and within budget constraints, addressing underlying infrastructure needs.
The results achieved speak volumes of the relationship between client and IT partner - staff have confidence in the technology, know who to call when issues do strike and the business executives are now able to plan for the future, rather than fire fight IT issues.
The most effective IT support agreements share common characteristics that directly address the productivity challenges Australian businesses face. These frameworks recognise that technology should be invisible to end-users—enabling, rather than constraining, their staff and capabilities.
Each service considered needs to add value. The following are key aspects requiring consideration for IT support:
Australia is increasingly facing a critical technology skills shortage, with 84% of business leaders actively seeking to adopt new technologies while struggling to find qualified personnel. Comprehensive IT support agreements provide access to specialist expertise that would be prohibitively expensive for most organisations to maintain in-house.
The breadth of modern technology requirements—from cybersecurity and cloud computing to data analytics and automation—demands diverse skill sets that extend far beyond traditional IT support. Australian businesses partnering with comprehensive IT providers gain access to teams with specialised knowledge in areas such as:
This expertise access enables organisations to implement advanced technologies that drive productivity improvements without the overhead of building internal capabilities.
Local research consistently demonstrates the productivity benefits of strategic IT investments -- studies by the Productivity Commission show that businesses leveraging advanced IT support see productivity improvements ranging from 2% to 8% annually. These gains compound over time, creating significant competitive advantages (this is not me feathering my nest, these are REAL results).
Frontline employees particularly benefit from comprehensive IT support. Research indicates that 74% of Australian frontline workers believe technology plays a critical role in delivery of customer service, yet only 28% feel their workplace technology is advanced. Addressing this gap through comprehensive IT support directly improves both employee satisfaction and customer service quality.
The productivity improvements extend beyond efficiency gains to include:
As we advance through 2025, Australian businesses face increasing pressure to digitalise operations while managing cost constraints. The businesses that thrive will be those that view comprehensive IT support not as an operational expense, but as a strategic enabler of business transformation.
The choice isn't whether to invest in IT support—it's whether to continue accepting the productivity limitations imposed by inadequate technology frameworks or to embrace the competitive advantages that comprehensive IT partnerships provide.
For Australian business leaders, the message is clear:
in an environment where technology determines operational capability, comprehensive IT support agreements aren't just beneficial—they're essential for sustainable success.
The organisations that recognise this reality today will be the ones setting the pace for their industries tomorrow.