SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS OF IT USE IN AUSTRALIAN BUSINESS

IT Support

All businesses were asked who provided them with IT support during the year ended 30 June 2014. Businesses could identify more than one source of IT support.

Source of IT support, by employment size(a)(b), 2013-14
		0-4 persons	5-19 persons	20-199 persons	200 or more persons	Total
		%	%	%	%	%
Person(s) working for the business who are:
	IT specialists	11.9	17.7	31.8	71.0	15.6
	not IT specialists	13.4	17.0	18.2	14.1	14.9
Suppliers of software or hardware(c)		14.3	23.1	31.6	50.0	18.5
Contractors or consultants		30.2	44.5	57.2	71.1	36.9
Other sources of IT Support		2.4	1.9	2.0	2.2	2.2
No IT support		27.4	13.6	5.6	0.2	21.3
(a) Proportions are of all businesses in each output category.
(b) Businesses could identify more than one source of IT support.
(c) Software or hardware suppliers are only included where IT support was part of the purchase, lease or warranty for the software or hardware.

More than a third of all businesses reported that IT support was provided by contractors or consultants (37%).

The use of IT support increased with each successive employment size range for person(s) working for the business who are IT specialists, suppliers of software or hardware and contractors or consultants. Businesses with 0-4 persons employed were the most likely to report no IT support (27%).

Businesses with 200 or more persons employed were almost six times more likely to report that IT specialists working for the business provided IT support (71%), than businesses with 0-4 persons employed (12%).

Overall, a third of businesses in the Agriculture, forestry and fishing industry had no IT support (34%), followed by businesses in Transport, postal and warehousing (31%). Businesses in the Mining and Financial and insurance service industries were the most likely to report that IT support was provided by contractors or consultants (both 54%).

Further statistics relating to IT support can be accessed via the Downloads tab.


Extent of IT Use in Business Processes

All businesses with IT use were asked to identify the extent to which IT was used in selected business processes during the year ended 30 June 2014.

Overall, more than half of these businesses used IT to a high extent in accounting (60%) and invoicing (55%) business processes.

Extent of IT use in business processes, by business process(a), by extent, 2013-14
		Low to moderate extent	High extent	Any extent	Not at all or Not applicable(b)
		%	%	%	%
	Accounting	24.8	60.3	85.1	14.9
	Production/service operations	23.7	29.6	53.3	46.7
	Invoicing	21.0	55.3	76.3	23.7
	Stock control	15.4	15.7	31.0	69.0
	Marketing	26.0	26.1	52.1	47.9
	Human resources including payroll	21.6	42.6	64.3	35.7
	Business planning	28.8	20.0	48.7	51.3
(a) Proportions are of all businesses with IT use.
(b) This value is derived from two response options Not at all and Not applicable, which have been combined for quality purposes.

Businesses in the Mining industry recorded the greatest proportion of businesses using IT to a high extent to undertake accounting (73%), human resources (56%) and business planning (31%), whilst Information media and telecommunications recorded the greatest proportion of business using IT to a high extent to undertake production/service operations (67%), marketing (43%) and business planning (31%).

Further statistics relating to extent of IT use in business processes can be accessed via the Downloads tab.