DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

New Queensland Government’s Economic Hopes Rely on Small Business Digital Transformation Efforts

The unite and recover moniker adopted by the Queensland Labor government prior to the recent state election provided a boost to election pundits but failed to answer the question about how businesses would recover?

The reality is somewhat different and, if anything, will not be government led but business led as the unstoppable and rapidly evolving digitisation of the way businesses operate within the state and national economy, is  set dominate the business cycle for the next decade.

For tourism and exports dependent Queensland, the need to be a leader in technology is critical given a large source of revenue will come from highly educated tertiary students from Asia coming into Queensland schools and technology.

The state’s export sector will seek to gain greater efficiencies within the supply chain across resources, tourism, and agriculture.

Mobility and the ability to scale up and down depending on the economic conditions has been a direct result of the COVID pandemic has accelerated processes in a way that has educated the consumer in a way that only necessity can.

The credit card which has been the mainstay of the consumer purse is being phased out by the buy-now, pay-later phenomenon while plastic is being pushed to the side by the phone.

Payments now vary between buy-now pay-later, cryptocurrency, traditional and cash.

According to the Fujitsu Digital Transformation Centre, dealing with suppliers and indeed customers will require a tailored solution meaning the end of physical cash has come a lot sooner than many expected.

Additionally, movement of good and services now coalesce around a thematic of choice and businesses being mobile.

The physical workspace has shifted to phones and tablets, while the office is a hybrid of home and office space that maybe can be shared with many different companies.

Accounting and legal functions are templated to the point that the preparation time is greatly reduced. Interestingly the technology-enhanced ways of conducting business is happening at a pace where the entity, that perhaps needs to evolve, is the service delivery of government.

So while a glossy brochure with a title or unite and recover provides a nice prop, it is instructive for the politicians to perhaps catch up first before uniting and recovering.