Digital Hume a digital strategy for a smart region

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1 Digital Hume a digital strategy for a smart region

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3 i Contents Executive Summary...ii Introduction... ii Future Connectivity...iii Why the digital economy?... v Research base for Digital Hume... vi Strategic Focus One: Maximising the impact of the NBN... vi Strategic Focus Two: Striving to get all online by vi Strategic Focus Three: Working towards transforming public services and community engagement...vii Strategic Focus Four: Encouraging digitally enabled business... viii Strategic Focus Five: Marketing Digital Hume... ix Digital Hume: Introduction...4 A game-changing opportunity...4 Towards a digital economy...5 Our vision of broader service, community and regional transformation...5 Welcoming the NBN as part of our broader digital strategy...5 Opportunities to rebalance the attractions of regional Australia in the digital era...5 Not a manual for IT specialists: a core strategy for broader transformation...6 Two key enablers of the strategy: partnership across the region and initiatives by individual partners...6 What regional partners are already doing...7 Diverse economic drivers and communities working together in a growing region...8 An innovative region already...10 Even more innovation, partnership and leadership required as the economy restructures: the need for a strategy...10 Informing the strategy: the research base and stakeholder engagement...11 Structure of Digital Hume...11 Strategic Focus One: Maximising the impact of the NBN Key issues Conclusion Conclusion The opportunity and challenge...25 The strategy and actions...25 Strategic Focus Two: Striving to get all online by Key issues The opportunity and challenge...33 The strategy and actions...33 Strategic Focus Three: Working towards transforming of public services and community engagement...34 Key Issues The opportunity and the challenge...35 The strategy and actions...36 Strategic Focus Four: Encouraging digitally enabled business Key issues The opportunity and the challenge...38 The strategy and actions...39 Strategic Focus Five: Marketing Digital Hume Key Issues The opportunity and the challenge...41 The strategy and actions...41 Key Enablers and Partners...42 Key Enabler One:...42 Key Enabler Two:...45 Conclusion...48 Appendices...49 What are broadband technologies?...49

4 ii Digital Hume: a digital strategy for a smart region Executive Summary Introduction As the National Broadband Network (NBN) arrives in the Hume Region there is an opportunity, a challenge and a duty. The opportunity is to exploit this potential game-changing infrastructure for regional Australia, and the new digital economy for which it is a catalyst. The challenge is to overcome all barriers to good telecommunications access and to ensure all communities and businesses in the region are digitally enabled. The duty is to collaborate and innovate to secure the best results for our communities in the digital era. There is a compelling vision for the Hume Region as a smart region connected, digitally empowered and innovative with communities and enterprises at ease in the digital economy, ready for all challenges. VISION FOR DIGITAL HUME A SMART REGION Hume will be a regional leader in Australia by leveraging digital innovation and connectivity to achieve: economic growth and diversity; a strong, skilled, inclusive and engaged community able to participate in the global economy; transformed and accessible public services that exploit digital media to the full; a reputation as a connected, liveable and desirable location to live, do business and visit; and a more sustainable environment. Our target is to have all our residents and businesses in the region online, confident with using digital technologies and open to opportunities in the digital economy a fully networked community by 2017.

5 Executive Summary iii Future Connectivity The gap from early NBN release sites to full roll out of the NBN will be at least ten years. While more than 75 percent of the homes in the Hume Region will ultimately have access to the fibre optic service offering 100Mbps, this figure is lower than the 93 percent the NBN claims as the national position because of the challenges of the terrain in the region. This means that many people in Hume Region will have to rely on the NBN s wireless or satellite provision at speeds of 12Mbps+. This is a speed which is internationally competitive and significantly in advance of what is currently available throughout the region. One advantage for these consumers is that fixed wireless and satellite broadband services will generally be available ahead of fibre optic services. The NBN Co roll out plan for fibre optic work will deliver infrastructure and services to a small number of locations in the Hume Region from 2012 to Figure 1: The start of the NBN fibre optic roll out in Hume Region 2012 to 2015

6 iv Digital Hume: a digital strategy for a smart region When fibre, wireless and satellite services are considered together, a larger proportion and geographical spread of the Hume Region population will have access to broadband services by 2016 according to the NBN Co roll out plan for 2012 to Figure 2: Proportion of total telecommunications customers who will be accessing each wave of fixed broadband in different LGAs by 2016 Moira 20.8% 79.9% Indigo Wodonga 16.8% 83.6% 21.4% 60.2% Greater Shepparton Towong 36.6% 49.2% Benalla Wangaratta 17.8% 82.8% Strathbogie 19.6% 80.8% 19.3% 81.2% Alpine 21.8% 78.8% 17.8% 82.7% Mitchell 15.6% 78.4% 3.2% Murrindindi Mansfield 19.5% 81% 6% 66.4% 14.1% First wave bband Second wave fixed bband Third wave fixed bband DIGITAL HUME TELECOMMUNICATIONS CUSTOMERS BY LGA AS PERCENTAGE OF POTENTIAL, 2016 Source: Telecommunications Spend and Demand in Victoria, 2012, Deloitte The ten year NBN Co roll out plan describes a mix of fibre, wireless and satellite services to provide coverage across the Hume Region by 2022 For Hume, it is also vital to overcome the legacy of patchy mobile telecommunications service provision. As the NBN has the potential to positively impact on mobile services, it forms part of a broader, integrated digital strategy that harnesses other technologies, such as mobile towers, that are not dependent on the NBN roll out. Waiting for NBN access before targeting digital economy growth will only mean further delays to effective participation, and lost opportunities for economic diversification. Complete access to the NBN will not happen for another decade the digital economy, however, is with us now.

7 Executive Summary v Figure 3: NBN roll out in Hume Region - the published end state (circa 2022) Numurkah Wodonga Rutherglen Chiltern Tallangatta Corryong Kyabram Wangaratta Shepparton-Mooroopna Rushworth Benalla Myrtleford Nagambie Euroa Bright Seymour Mansfield Broadford Alexandra Kilmore Kinglake Optic Fibre Footprint Fixed Wireless Footprint DIGITAL HUME HUME REGION NBN COVERAGE END STATE (Circa 2022) Satellite Footprint Transit Links Source: NBNCo Map has been adapted to show Hume Region Why the digital economy? A thriving digital economy can give us powerful new tools to build a competitive and inclusive region with even greater productivity and innovation. It reduces the distances between businesses and markets with the click of a mouse. In the digital economy, small companies can be global exporters of products, services and knowledge that were never before portable across time zones or borders. Communities can access new jobs, training and economic opportunities wherever they are. In the digital era, schools everywhere can obtain the latest information, tools and teaching. Healthcare providers can connect to leading medical centres and patients to global expertise. Digitisation can reduce the costs of public services and renew community engagement in the democratic process. It can strengthen the resilience of the region in dealing with emergencies. Above all, the digital economy can ensure the region has connectivity and access to services previously only enjoyed by capital cities. It will, further enhance the attractions of the Hume Region as a place to invest, work, learn, live and visit. Digital Hume is thus an integral part of the broader Hume Strategy for Sustainable Communities (Hume Strategy) regional plan and it provides a strategic direction and tool for marketing the region. Digital Hume is also based on an essential strategic enabler for the region a best-in-class group working across all levels of government and the public, private and not-for-profit sectors.

8 vi Digital Hume: a digital strategy for a smart region Research base for Digital Hume Digital Hume s strategic direction is based on: the views of stakeholders from across the region; analysis of the needs and opportunities of the communities and sectors in the sub regions within Hume; alignment with the Hume Strategy, Hume Regional Growth Plan (to be completed in 2013) and the objectives of partners from all tiers of government; local, national and, indeed, global best practice and innovation; and lessons from the early roll out of the NBN in other regions. Local councils, federal and state governments (and agencies) and the Regional Development Australia (RDA) Committee will play a key role in delivering Digital Hume - a strategy that needs to get partners to view high-speed broadband, not as an engineering project but as an inspiration to review and change business models; becoming champions for digital innovation and online engagement. The strategy and action plan are structured under five areas of Strategic Focus and two Key Enablers. mobile and wireless services, though improving may still leave some areas with black spots, however, satellite roll out and wireless is expected to be completed by 2015; and barriers remain to wider use of existing fibre networks. The strategy: assisting the NBN roll-out but not waiting for it and taking actions now to fill supply gaps. Actions include: ensuring good working partnerships between the three tiers of government in Hume Region via the Hume Strategy partnership group, the NBN Co and other broadband and mobile providers; increasing the use of and access to existing public sector fibre networks; generating innovative solutions for improving wireless broadband supply; aggregating demand for and purchasing of high speed broadband services to reduce cost and improve quality; exploring how partners might aggregate demand for and purchasing of high speed broadband services to reduce costs and improve quality; and reviewing the creation of data centres in and for the region. Strategic Focus One: Maximising the impact of the NBN The opportunity: to ensure internationally competitive broadband speeds and bandwidth are available in the region via: the arrival of the NBN; the continuing upgrade of mobile services; and existing fibre optic networks owned by public sector agencies in the region. The challenge: there will be gaps in supply and unmet need such as: the NBN roll-out will itself take at least ten years to reach the whole region; not all areas will have access to NBN fibre offering 100Mbps services; Strategic Focus Two: Striving to get all online by 2017 The opportunity: to engage, up-skill and benefit all our communities in the digital era and to promote Hume as a networked region by: raising awareness of the roll out of the NBN, the objectives of Digital Hume and the benefits of participating in the digital economy; ensuring partners and all relevant agencies enable appropriate skills development; improving public access to digital technologies; and profiling the region as collectively engaged in creating a digital future. The challenge: to ensure no community is left behind and all can maximise the benefits of the digital era by:

9 Executive Summary vii coordinating all agencies and partners public, private and not-for-profit; identifying the key target groups and interventions required; providing the right communication and support interventions; and ensuring all relevant organisations are participating so that the burden for getting all online does not sit with only a few organisations. The strategy: a broad campaign and program of projects to raise enthusiasm, skills and digital inclusion. Actions include: setting a bold target for all online by 2017 to drive and motivate partners and the community towards the goal of a networked region; developing tools to assess broadband readiness and use of digital media; ensuring partners make digital inclusion a priority and are digital champions for their area, client or community group; ensuring best practice is shared and activities coordinated; focusing on groups at risk of digital exclusion such as over 60s, the indigenous community, people with a disability, recent migrants and refugees; focusing on businesses that historically have low take-up, such as those in agriculture and hospitality sectors; and small business enterprises; focusing on re-skilling and/or up-skilling those in work or seeking to enter the workforce; exploiting libraries and other relevant public infrastructure to act as key digital hubs for access and skills; driving up community acquisition and use of digital skills and demand for broadband through increased digitisation of services and engagement with residents via online platforms and social media; and ensuring public spaces have WI-FI connectivity/availability. Strategic Focus Three: Working towards transforming public services and community engagement The opportunity: to use new digital media to create smarter, better-designed, more accessible public services with reduced costs and higher impact, tailored to local communities and businesses by: increasing use of digital technologies and social media for engagement, services and transactions; exploring innovation such as tele-working, smart gathering, use of data and insights; identifying and spreading innovative best practice across the region, sharing experience and costs where possible; exploring opportunities to involve residents in service design and delivery; opening up online access to key data useful to local business; and enabling more efficient integration of emergency services on digital platforms. The challenge: for public sector partners to view high-speed broadband not as an engineering project but as an inspiration to review and change business models, becoming champions for digital innovation and online engagement by: creating a virtuous circle between public sector digital innovation, up-skilling of local communities and new opportunities for local business; filling any gaps in resources, skills or knowledge by sharing best practice across partners in the region; overcoming resistance to change; encouraging a culture of local engagement and the actions and technologies that support it; adapting to diverse social and economic needs of a region with multiple regional cities/centres and four distinct sub regions; and working collaboratively with local not-for-profit/ community organisations and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The strategy: stresses the importance of public service transformation via digital innovation and uses case studies to show how to achieve it in different

10 viii Digital Hume: a digital strategy for a smart region sectors and different tiers of government - health, education, local government services, transport, economic development and care of the elderly and people with disabilities. Actions include: reviewing the design and delivery of their own services in a digital era including using digital channels for engagement and transactions as well as exploring tele-working/monitoring opportunities; identifying the specific needs in terms of digital infrastructure; reviewing the digital skills of staff and their actual or potential use of smart phones, tablets and social media; reviewing the use of smart data gathering technologies and how mass insight data should be managed and utilised; establishing digital champions within organisations to promote change; reviewing how the NBN itself and other existing fibre networks might be used to deliver services going forward; committing to a regional and partner Open Data Policy; ensuring all not-for-profit organisations, companies or other partners delivering programs for the public sector have their own digital strategies and digital inclusion policies; and reviewing by emergency services of how they can share online platforms for emergency management purposes. Specific actions for individual partners are included in the Digital Hume action plan. Strategic Focus Four: Encouraging digitally enabled business The opportunity: to enhance and learn from the success of existing innovative businesses, to attract further sectors that are knowledge driven, smart and green, and to enable local business to find and form global markets and alliances by: best-in-class public private partnering supporting the digital economy, including collaborations between business, governments and TAFE/universities; ensuring all business support activity is digitally informed; promoting skills acquisition and knowledge sharing; creating direct opportunities through procurement; targeting support by local governments to promote the economic opportunities of key sectors in each sub region; and promoting Hume as the region for digitally enabled businesses in Victoria. The challenge: to ensure the strategy is relevant to the diverse subregional economies and sectors and helps upgrade the digital capacity, skills and understanding of both SMEs and larger companies by: rigorously analysing the needs of the diverse sectors and sub regions; identifying relevant case studies and examples of best-practice innovation; enabling effective partnering and knowledge sharing between the public and private sectors; encouraging new business opportunities; ensuring the right digital infrastructure is in place to grow new sectors; and ensuring the right marketing strategy is in place to promote Hume Region as the place to do digitally enabled business. The strategy, informed by best practice on digitally enabling business, focuses on the needs of SMEs, key existing sectors in the sub regions and on attracting new businesses. It identifies opportunities for the public sector, skills providers and peak business organisations to collaborate to promote the digital economy in the region. Actions include: Hume partners and business groups, as a priority, raising awareness of the benefits of high speed broadband and promoting key knowledge sharing; ensuring all business support in the region is digitally enabled; providing case studies and demonstration initiatives of SMEs finding global markets and alliances online;

11 Executive Summary ix creating a network of e-entrepreneurs to digitally coach and mentor local businesses; encouraging sector and sub-regional specific digital business support with local governments building on existing economic development initiatives and centres of excellence; using the unique strategic location of the region s relationship to the Hume transport corridor and other major transport links to develop innovative freight and logistics centres of excellence that exploit digital infrastructure and smart data gathering sensors; and ensuring TAFE, university and other skills providers work with local peak bodies and Hume partners to provide relevant training and courses to support SMEs and growth sectors. Strategic Focus Five: Marketing Digital Hume The opportunity: to use Digital Hume to strengthen the region s branding and identity as a forwardlooking and connected smart region with a great environment and a diverse, modern economy that is attractive to current and future investors and communities. The challenge: to ensure that the upgrade of the region s digital assets is paralleled and reinforced by a coordinated marketing effort within the region to its communities and businesses, and to key external audiences. The strategy: to put Digital Hume at the centre of the marketing and branding of the region. Actions include: Key Enabler One Bringing public, private and not-for-profit organisations together in a regional digital partnership/working group to develop and implement the strategy. Key Enabler Two Partners in Digital Hume will also develop and deliver their own digital and NBN-related initiatives with their own resources under the Digital Hume brand, in addition to sharing resources with partners (where appropriate) to maximise impact and reduce cost. Conclusion Digital Hume envisages and helps deliver: economic diversification and renewal with a digitally enabled SME sector; re-designed, best-in-class new models of public and commercial services available without longdistance travel; community revitalisation, wellbeing and engagement; a better demographic balance, retaining more young people and attracting families and entrepreneurs to relocate; innovative approaches to education, health and community engagement raising skill levels and enabling life-long learning; and greater environmental sustainability in the context of climate change and fire hazards. Digital Hume is a core strategy for the region, developing and promoting its viability, assets and attractions. It s that important. making Digital Hume a core part of the suite of initiatives and strategies marketing the region; using Digital Hume to reinforce the wider effort by the Hume Alliance to market the region for inward investment, lifestyle re-location and to retain key workers; ensuring digital initiatives in the region are promoted under a common Digital Hume branding whether or not the initiatives are undertaken by the Hume digital partnership or partner members; and collaborating and sharing best practice and resources amongst communication and marketing professionals of all partner organisations.

12 4 Digital Hume: a digital strategy for a smart region Digital Hume: Introduction A game-changing opportunity As the National Broadband Network (NBN) arrives in the Hume Region there is an opportunity, a challenge and a duty. The opportunity is to exploit this potential game-changing infrastructure for regional Australia and the new digital economy, for which it is a new catalyst, for the benefit of local communities and businesses, and to enhance the vitality of the region itself. The challenge is to overcome all barriers to the availability of high-speed broadband and good telecommunications access throughout the region and to ensure all communities and businesses are digitally included over time. The duty for all of us committed to the economic advancement of the Hume Region is to collaborate and innovate to secure the best results for our communities in the digital era. Together, we will meet the challenges and exploit the opportunities. This goal is the very purpose of Digital Hume and why the Hume Regional Development Australia (RDA) Committee and partners commissioned the development of this strategy. Our vision The strategy is based on a shared vision, which is of Hume Region as A Smart Region: connected, digitally empowered and innovative. Our aim is a Hume Region with confident and forward-looking communities and enterprises that are at ease in the fast-emerging digital economy, open to opportunity and ready for all challenges. VISION FOR DIGITAL HUME A SMART REGION Hume will be a regional leader in Victoria by leveraging digital innovation and connectivity to achieve: economic growth and diversity; a strong, skilled, inclusive and engaged community able to participate in the global economy; transformed and accessible public services that exploit digital media to the full; a reputation as a connected, liveable and desirable location to live, do business and visit; and a more sustainable environment. Our target is to have all our residents and businesses in the region online, confident with using digital technologies and open to opportunities in the digital economy a fully networked community by 2017.

13 Digital Hume: Introduction 5 Towards a digital economy The digital economy has been defined as the network of economic and social activities that are enabled by information and communication technologies such as the internet, mobile and sensor networks (DBCDE, 2011 ). This quote goes to the heart of the economic importance of the digital economy for the region and why participation in the digital economy must be a priority at the very highest levels of executive responsibility and strategy. The digital economy is not merely a subcategory of a business model but part and parcel of modern business itself. Whether we are talking of customer, user or community relationships, communications and participation, cost or asset management, product development, marketing or distribution, the digital economy has broken out of the IT domain to become mainstream business for all. It is an enabler of change in essential business operations and objectives. But, it can also transform local innovation capacity and competitiveness in the region. It can offer smaller communities outside metropolitan centres opportunities to move from the edge to the centre, economically. In the digital economy, small companies can be global exporters of products, skills and knowledge that were never before portable across time zones or borders. It is important for Hume to get it right. Our vision of broader service, community and regional transformation Just as digital should be a foundation for ongoing business strategy, so too must it be an integral part of future planning and delivery of all sectors across Hume private, public, not-for-profit and community development. Digitisation is bringing transformation for all far beyond what it means for economic activity and enterprises. Digitisation is re-designing public and private services as well as engagement with the community and consumers. It can ensure that schools in all parts of Victoria have access to the latest information tools and teaching. It can connect healthcare providers to leading medical centres and patients to global expertise. It will reduce the costs of public services and renew community engagement in the democratic process. From this perspective, the digital economy is not an addon to existing services and industries, but should be seen rather as a new DNA, interwoven into all aspects of life, enabling core ambitions of economic, community, civic and regional renewal. That s how we see it in this region. Welcoming the NBN as part of our broader digital strategy It is because Digital Hume is a digital strategy rather than simply an NBN strategy that we see the roll out of the NBN on a broader canvass. The NBN should be seen as a new catalyst in a much wider and highly significant process. It is supporting the digitisation and the emergence of a global digital infrastructure that is re-designing public and private services and engagement with communities and consumers. Its delivery over time of globally competitive broadband capacity and speeds can also make a significant contribution to the transformation and renewed vitality of the region. But we stress that while we will exploit the NBN we are not waiting for it. We are taking action to make our own digital future.

14 6 Digital Hume: a digital strategy for a smart region Opportunities to rebalance the attractions of regional Australia in the digital era Communities throughout the world have the same core objective to be places where people can raise their children with enough economic opportunity to enable them to stay in the region and raise children of their own. The reality is in a globalised digital economy that task is more challenging than ever. Where geography and natural resources were formerly the key shapers of a community s economic potential, it is increasingly the skills and knowledge of the workforce, as well as the capacity of business and government to adapt and innovate, that drive the economy. This maxim will be as true in the Hume Region as elsewhere. This reality goes to the very purpose of Digital Hume and why it is so important. Many of the economic and service benefits enjoyed by major city dwellers can now, in the digital era, accrue to the inhabitants of regional Australia, who also enjoy many advantages over such cities in terms of the liveability and natural assets of their areas. There is now the real potential via the emerging digital infrastructure of the NBN and other digital technologies to re-balance the relative attractions of regional Australia vis-á-vis the major cities, to reduce the perceived tyranny of distance and to connect all communities and enterprises with global markets and first-class services. A thriving digital economy can offer real improvement to this region s liveability and the basis for a more resilient Hume community one that is successful in retaining its ambitious young people, supporting an ageing population, improving productivity of existing and growing sectors of the economy, managing growth and driving new economic dynamism, and attracting others to be part of its lifestyle and momentum. That lifestyle combined with new communications infrastructure and a more digitally enabled and connected community will, we believe, make Digital Hume a brand, an economy and a place with which more and more people will wish to be associated. Not a manual for IT specialists: a core strategy for broader transformation This digital pervasiveness is why Digital Hume is not a manual for ICT specialists nor is it solely about equipping the region with advanced ICT infrastructure, important though that is. It has a broader, more transformative ambition combining civic and regional renewal and new forms of public engagement through digital media with a commitment to equipping our communities and enterprises with the tools and skills needed to flourish in a globalised era. However, to maximise the potential and to realise those benefits requires a dynamic strategy for the key challenges and opportunities facing the region. It also requires active, innovative partnership in the region between governments, business, not-for-profits and the community. Digital Hume is that strategy. Two key enablers of the strategy: partnership across the region and initiatives by individual partners A proposed regional digital partnership/working group will help coordinate partners to deliver timely and appropriate actions in the Digital Hume strategy. Active, innovative collaboration in the region between governments, business and education is vital to increase the community s innovation rate in all sectors private, public and not-for-profit. International research shows the dramatic payoffs and competitive advantage available from long-term public private academic partnerships. Digital Hume is based on such partnerships. This partnership/working group is the first Key Enabler of the strategy. Inevitably, different partner organisations in the region are at different stages of digital sophistication and investment and Digital Hume showcases some inspiration for further innovation from those digital pioneers. So, in addition to partnering and collaborating, individual partners will lead on, develop and deliver their own digital and NBN-

15 Digital Hume: Introduction 7 related initiatives and innovation to meet their own local needs. So, partners own initiatives form the second Key Enabler of the strategy. Local councils and the state government can play a vital role in the strategy through leading by example in their own domains. They will be innovators in the use of digital technology to improve service to citizens and enterprises while reducing the costs of government and increasing its effectiveness. Over time they will invest in all sorts of online services and processes delivered through the internet or smart phones. And, as government services go increasingly online in the region, this adaptation will drive the faster and wider adoption of a culture of using broadband in the community and economy. Linking the two enablers is a common determination of key partners to further develop the digital economy and exploit the potential of the NBN in the region. What regional partners are already doing The common desire to develop the digital economy and exploit the NBN is greatly assisted by the existence of robust regional strategic planning structures and relationships evident in the Hume Strategy partnership group which has membership from the Hume RDA Committee, Hume Regional Management Forum (RMF) and Hume Region Local Government Network (HRLGN). The effort to develop a digital economy strategy aligns with a much broader regional planning effort spearheaded by the Hume Strategy for Sustainable Communities (Hume Strategy) regional plan. As the diagram below shows, the digital economy strategy is one of the focus areas in this overarching framework that also complements the Hume Regional Growth Plan (to be completed in 2013). It is aligned with a number of key reports, studies and policy frameworks. The kind of collaboration required to deliver a successful regional digital strategy is already in place as is an understanding of the strategic economic, social and environmental context. What regional partners have already done: Anchors for our strategy

16 8 Digital Hume: a digital strategy for a smart region Diverse economic drivers and communities working together in a growing region Hume is a region with a growing population. By 2031 it is anticipated that there will be an additional 100,000 residents in the region, with a significant increase in the proportion of people aged over 60 years old. While the overall population is growing, in some centres significantly, there is also out-migration of university-age people and the community is ageing, particularly in the smaller, rural settlements. At the same time, the region continues to see growth from in-migration and has a great diversity of communities bringing new skills and innovation. Within the Goulburn Valley sub region there is a significant Indigenous community one of the fastest-growing in the country. This diverse region of opportunity contains four sub regions with different, if complementary, offers to the market: Central Hume: a centre of Victoria s tourism, the area also supports industrial, service and agricultural sectors based around Wangaratta, Benalla and other settlements. With the Hume transport corridor running through it, the area plays a key role in freight and passenger movements along Australia s east coast. Goulburn Valley: centred around Shepparton and supported by other settlements, it is in the food bowl of the Murray-Darling catchment, and has significant food and vegetable processing industries. Long a focus for migration, Shepparton also has one of the largest Indigenous populations in regional Victoria. Lower Hume: with its largest settlement, Seymour, strategically placed at the convergence of the Hume and Goulburn Valley transport corridors and close to Melbourne, the sub region is fast-growing with a mix of economic activity from manufacturing and timber industries to agriculture, viticulture and tourism. Upper Hume: with the Hume Freeway and Melbourne Sydney rail link running through it, there are significant opportunities for logistics and freight transport industries. Wodonga, the largest settlement, which also benefits from links to Albury, is a thriving focus of manufacturing and construction with a strong local military presence. Albury- Wodonga has been identified by the Commonwealth Government as one of eighteen national regional cities. Grazing remains strong in Towong and Indigo shires. Figure 1.0 reflects this diversity. Figure 1.0: Industry sectors in Hume Region Local Government Areas

17 Digital Hume: Introduction 9 While all sectors are experiencing what has been termed digital disruption and all are reviewing their business models and approach to their markets in the digital era, the following chart sums up the probably impact in each sector. Figure 1.1: Digital disruption by industry sector Short fuse, big bang industries expected to face both significant and imminent digital disruption include finance, retail trade, professional services, and information, media and telecommunications Long fuse, big bang industries that can expect significant disruption, but over a longer timeframe, include those where government and large business play a greater role, such as education, health, transport and government services Long fuse, smaller bang industries that have lower levels of total digital potential and that can expect to see the least additional disruption compared to the changes of recent years, such as manufacturing and mining Source: da9310vgnvcm a56f00arcrd.htm

18 10 Digital Hume: a digital strategy for a smart region The challenge for Hume is clear from this research and was stressed by partners in the workshops. The region needs to digitally enable existing sectors but also increase the higher value knowledge sectors set to benefit most from the big bang of the digital economy. In seeking to achieve this goal via this new digital strategy the region can boast not only best-in-class partnership/working group working across the sub regions but also a track record of innovation within the region and in the use of digital technologies. social care or academic services are growing in importance. Our Digital Hume website is testimony to this innovation and, like the strategy, intended to promote it further. This innovation exists in the public as well as in the private sector with certain local councils showing what can be done to develop a digitally enabled local government or to improve the digital infrastructure available to local communities and businesses. An innovative region already In seeking to create Digital Hume we start not with a blank canvas but with a firm foundation of digital entrepreneurship and exploration of new business models. Innovative partnerships to support digital delivery of tele-health have been in place in some areas for close to a decade. There are industry leaders present here who champion the advantages of tele-working and video-conferencing and, indeed, of the connectivity available to tree-changing entrepreneurs. Highly innovative advanced technology services such as remote sensing are in place across the region to improve productivity in agricultural services and transport logistics. Highend, design-based manufacturing companies are deploying world-class digital technology in the region. Knowledge workers in professional, health, Even more innovation, partnership and leadership required as the economy restructures: the need for a strategy All of the region s industries and sectors are going through change and restructuring. What they share is a growing use of digital technologies (of ICT, tablets, smart phones and high-speed broadband), a declining need for traditionally low-skilled employment and an increasing demand for basic digital literacy and information-processing skills. These trends are set to continue. Digital Hume is about meeting the challenges of these changed times and getting ahead of them CASE STUDY ONE: GREATER SHEPPARTON CITY COUNCIL S ONLINE PRESENCE Greater Shepparton City Council presents a case study of a local government seeking to become digitally enabled. It provides a clear and easy-to-use online interface for residents to interact with council services, the area and the wider community. Its website is an accessible first point of contact for visitors to the area, providing facts, maps, attractions, updates on events and a visitors guide. By connecting to Greater Shepparton s website, the local community can access a range of council s services, allowing them to input and extract information from the council online. The community can upload their comments on council documents on exhibition; arrange an appointment with the planning department online; and make a secure payment online. Just one click away from council s home page will take you to a Google Map showing council s community directory, leisure directory and business directory all online. Engaging the community and service design and delivery have been digitally enabled in a way that shows what s achievable in the region.

19 Digital Hume: Introduction 11 to succeed economically and indeed socially. We believe that the region that embraces these changes will have a competitive advantage. Our high-quality natural environment, excellent education and public services, innovative business and a record of civic leadership and participation also shape Digital Hume. It is a comprehensive strategy for a region with much to offer and a shared ambition to offer even more by becoming a smart region. Digital Hume was commissioned to enable the region to meet the challenges of and exploit the opportunities of the emerging digital economy, the momentum under way towards the digitisation of services and engagement with communities and customers, and the roll out of the NBN. The premise of the commission is that the challenges will not be met nor the opportunities for business process re-engineering and economic renewal fully realised without a strategy. The potential of the NBN itself for broader transformation will simply not be achieved without a coordinated effort to exploit it. But we stress: in the digital economy of Hume s future, we see the NBN as complementary to other digital technologies. In Digital Hume there are no false choices between mobile or fixed line, between fibre or high-speed wireless. All technologies, including satellite, are likely to have a part to play, and our strategy must be flexible enough to harness them all. Informing the strategy: the research base and stakeholder engagement Informing this strategy are the findings from other regions, RDAs and local governments who are pursuing progress in the digital economy in their areas. International experience of the application of digital technologies has also been relied upon in shaping this report. Academic research forms another basis for our findings. Finally, and crucially, partners from all sectors in the Hume Region took part in the various stakeholder meetings, which strengthened our understanding of local issues, capacity, appetite for change and, indeed, digital initiatives already under way. The stakeholder meetings also reinforced the strong sense of the reality and necessity of partnership working in this region. The very absence of a single dominant regional centre in what is a relatively dispersed pattern of settlements has made collaboration both a vital necessity and a real success. It is by working together as a multicentred region, and as public, private and not-forprofit sectors, that the Hume Region is showing leadership, taking forward the priorities of our communities, facing up to common challenges, and maximising opportunities. This reinforces the need for Key Enabler 1 of the Digital Hume strategy: to create a regional digital partnership/working group on the basis of existing partnership arrangements. The need for partnership and for a digital strategy relevant in a variety of contexts is reinforced by the diversity of the economy of the region. This partnership amidst diversity approach reflects the range of challenges and opportunities for differing parts of the region and partners as they enter the digital era. From an understanding of these issues, we then identify the strategic responses and actions required. Key Enabler 2 embraces the partnership in diversity reality by stressing that a key driver for digital transformation will be the actions of individual partners responding to the specific needs of their LGA or sub-region whilst collaborating and sharing best practice across the region and jointly marketing Digital Hume. Structure of Digital Hume Digital Hume has addressed the issues for Hume surrounding the NBN roll out and the increasingly pervasive digital economy in three key areas, as follows: Strategic Focus areas: opportunities, challenges and outlining the strategy and actions for the 5 strategic focus areas (Chapters 2 6). Key enablers and partners: RDA, local councils, federal and state government and their agencies, not-for-profit organisations and the private sector (Chapter 7). Action plan: we now turn to identify the strategic challenges and opportunities en route to Digital Hume and the equally strategic responses required to deliver it over the short to medium term. Short and longer term actions for each strategic focus and enabler have been grouped separately in the action plan. Short term actions are ones that can be taken by partners in the first 0 to 12 months. Longer term is the following 12 to 24 months and beyond.

20 12 Digital Hume: a digital strategy for a smart region Strategic Focus 1 Maximising the impact of the NBN 1.1 Key issues To maximise the impact of the NBN and the development of the digital economy, Hume partners need to understand the roll out of the NBN as an infrastructure program being implemented in different parts of the region at different times and using a range of technologies, depending on terrain, population density and engineering challenges. It is also critical that partners then share best practice from the roll out in one part of the region with other partners so they are continually learning from the experience of the roll out. In addition, partners need to understand and map what broadband supply gaps will remain to be filled during and after the NBN roll out how other technologies or initiatives might fill them. The region is served by all the major mobile phone networks. While black-spots remain a significant problem in certain areas, the region will see further upgrades in mobile capacity and performance over time and the move to 4G technology will bring new opportunities. So, understanding the mobile and wireless infrastructure issue and how the fixed-fibre backbone provided by the NBN and other sources can actually be harnessed to improve mobile services in the region is an important part of Digital Hume s strategy. As is identifying other already existing but under-utilised sources of fibre network capacity, particularly amongst public sector partners in the Hume Region, will be critical. Issue: The NBN roll out will take at least ten years The gap from early NBN release sites to full roll out of the NBN will be at least ten years. While more than 75 percent of the homes in the region will ultimately have access to the fibre optic service offering 100Mbps, this figure is lower than the 93 percent the NBN claims as the national position because of the challenges of the terrain in the region. Many people will still have to rely on the NBN s wireless or satellite provision at speeds of 12Mbps. The rollout schedule for the NBN poses its own challenges due to the geographical and temporal gap between areas served early and later in the ten-year program and between those with access to fibre and those reliant on NBN s wireless or satellite provision. Though the NBN Co argue that all their provision can, over time, be upgraded there will still be spatial, temporal and quality barriers to overcome if new digital divides are not to be created by the NBN itself. Waiting for NBN access before targeting digital economy growth will only mean further delays to effective participation, and lost opportunities for economic diversification. Complete access to the NBN will not happen for another decade the digital economy, however, is with us now. This point has been reinforced by the Federal Regional Telecommunications Review, whose report titled Regional Communications: Empowering Digital Communities says: It would be a poor outcome should regional communities decide to wait for the

21 Strategic Focus One: Maximising the impact of the NBN 13 NBN roll out in their areas before they consider participating in the digital economy, particularly if they are not part of the early roll out schedule. We agree. The NBN roll out gaps are illustrated by comparing Figure 2.1 and Figure 2.2 below. The first shows the limited impact across the region of the NBN in the first three years as compared with the published end-state NBN provision across the region by Figure 2.1: the start of the NBN roll out challenge in the region.

22 14 Digital Hume: a digital strategy for a smart region Figure 2.2: NBN roll out: the published end state (circa 2022) Numurkah Wodonga Rutherglen Chiltern Tallangatta Corryong Kyabram Wangaratta Shepparton-Mooroopna Rushworth Benalla Myrtleford Nagambie Euroa Bright Seymour Mansfield Broadford Alexandra Kilmore Kinglake Optic Fibre Footprint Fixed Wireless Footprint DIGITAL HUME HUME REGION NBN COVERAGE END STATE (Circa 2022) Satellite Footprint Transit Links Source: NBNCo Map has been adapted to show Hume Region Of the main strategic challenges for the regional digital partnership/working group, two are obvious from the maps. One is that the roll out may be underway, but it covers only a small geographic proportion in the first three years on a ten-year journey. The NBN roll out is behind schedule and it is likely to take longer than the stated ten years at the current rate of progress. The second challenge is that even when complete, the roll out will leave some areas with a better fibre coverage and capacity than other areas. Of this end-state it should be noted that although areas covered by the fixed wireless and satellite services will only have access to the NBN at speeds of 12 Mbps+ as contrasted with the NBN service of up to 100Mbps available to the premises with fibre: a) such a speed is internationally competitive and significantly in advance of what is currently available throughout the region; and b) will be available to recipients of fixed wireless and satellite services ahead of consumers in the fibre footprint. It is also the case that the NBN does build-in the flexibility to enable upgrades at a later stage, from satellite to fixed wireless and from fixed wireless to fibre. So, the 2022 end-state described above need not be the end after 2022 as further upgrades will, though uncertain and difficult to define now, be likely. Catching the wave: meeting demand for highspeed broadband A recent study by Deloitte on telecommunications spend and demand in Victoria has characterised the NBN satellite/fixed wireless speed as being in the second wave category of high-speed broadband roll out in Australia. The first wave means download speeds of 256kbps to 8Mbps currently the range accessed by the majority of Australians. The second wave means download speeds of 8Mbps to 50Mbps. The third wave is 50+ Mbps. In the second wave, significant broadband enabled innovations in service design and delivery are catalysed by the availability as the