Law firm believes NBN promises competitive edge

Beverley Head
Tuesday, 09 August 2011 17:38

Business IT - Networking

The head of IT at one of Australia's leading law firms has provided the most compelling reason yet as to why enterprises need to start planning immediately for the services they will offer as the national broadband network is rolled out across the country. It's all about a resurgence of IT driven competitive advantage.

Speaking at a Trans-Tasman Business Circle event in Sydney today Peter Westerveld, chief information officer for Minter Ellison said; 'If the technology makes it easier for us to connect to clients, so it will be easier for competitors to connect to clients.' Organisations which failed to start planning now for the services they might offer in the future would miss out on the competitive advantage accruing from being an NBN early adopter he warned.

Mr Westerveld said that once the network was rolled out the way that law firms interacted with clients would be quite different. He said that law firms competed both for clients and for talent, and innovative, fast IT systems were seen as offering a competitive advantage that organisations could not afford to ignore.

Glenn Archer, first assistant secretary of AGIMO, (the Australian Government Information Management Office) meanwhile said that the increased speeds and reach offered by the NBN would 'Open enormous opportunities to build service delivery platforms for citizens.' He made the unsubstantiated claim that the 'Internet is now the preferred channel' for citizens to do business with Government, but acknowledged that the services which government could deliver at present were 'constrained by the lowest common denominator' in terms of the technology platform and internet speeds available to Australians.

This he said led to 'Often skinny, basic websites,' being developed because 'Most citizens are limited to dial up speeds.'

He also said that a fast ubiquitous broadband network was essential to deliver the promised benefits of cloud computing. Cloud computing he said 'Will be as much of a game changer as the internet. But if you don't have high speed internet you don't have cloud.'

Sharing the platform was Jim Hassell, head of product development and sales at NBN Co. He said that organisations with early access to the NBN in Tasmania were now starting to see benefits.