Microsoft Australia, in collaboration with the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) and the Government of South Australia, has launched the SouthAustralia.NET (SA.NET) Industry Development Cluster to an audience of over 170 representatives from Adelaide’s ICT community. SA.NET is designed to bring together local ICT organisations and promote South Australia as a world class location for software development.
The .NET program has been specifically created for ICT businesses that innovate, develop and resell products and services on Microsoft’s .NET technology platform. This new Development Cluster will enable South Australia’s ICT businesses to combine their capabilities, work collaboratively with Microsoft and the Government of South Australia, and compete more effectively on a local and global scale.
The philosophy behind SA.NET is simple: that ICT small businesses can work with complementary companies to overcome limitations, generate new ideas, new ways of doing business and ultimately expand their market reach and penetration.
Peter Watson, Microsoft Australia’s Manager of Platform Strategy, said that the new cluster initiative provided South Australian software companies with an opportunity to pool their expertise, experience and resources to scale-up their businesses and tap into new market opportunities.
“SA.NET is really underpinned by a ‘better together’ philosophy, and could help IT businesses, for example, work together on a project that combines their individual areas of expertise,” said Mr Watson.
“This is an excellent initiative for the South Australian industry and an important platform for the development of local SMEs,” said AIIA CEO Ian Birks. “Since registrations opened earlier this week, the value of .NET projects being undertaken by cluster members in South Australia has already topped $20 million dollars. This value will rise significantly as membership increases over the coming weeks.”
SA.NET has already signed up 42 member organisations employing 605 .NET specialists across 356 active programs.
SA.NET provides companies with access to potential partnerships and new markets, joint tender opportunities, business intelligence, shared knowledge and co-operative trade show participation. The SouthAustralia.NET brand gives members the opportunity to raise their profile, gain visibility with potential customers, showcase their achievements, create alliances with multi-national companies and develop a single voice for the industry to communicate with vendors, Microsoft and Government.
Small-to-medium businesses are a vital part of the ICT industry – making up nearly 80 per cent of all ICT businesses in Australia. In turn, the ICT industry is a driving force behind productivity growth in the Australian economy. Traditionally strong innovators, SMEs will be critical to the development of successful knowledge-based economies at both state and national levels into the future.
SA.NET is the sixth .NET cluster launched in Australia and follows the establishment of successful clusters in Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales, ACT and the Northern Territory. The collaboration on SA.NET is another example of the commitment by AIIA and Microsoft to the development of SMEs across the industry, underscoring last week’s announcement of AIIA as a network partner in the Microsoft BizSpark program.
More information on the SA.NET Industry Development Cluster can be found at www.sadotnet.com.au
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