IT Industry Attraction Project

Information Technology Enterprise in the Great Southern Region of Western Australia

An IT Industry Consultancy for the Great Sourthern Region Development Commission

Terms of Reference

Specialist Consultant

The role

The specialist consultant under the guidance of the project manager will be responsible for the four stages of development.

  1. Develop the concept to optimise IT industry attraction potential in the Great Southern through initial market assessments.
    1. Undertake a scoping analysis of existing call centres/IT businesses that recently re-located or opened up a new operation.
    2. Assess "foot-loose" capability and quantify locational determinants.
    3. Assess range of IT industries that would best suited the Great Southern region, through the development of a capability statement.
  2. Develop a statement that identifies the capacity of the region to host a range of IT industries from the perspective of the investor. This will be envisaged as the key area in the consultancy.
    1. Develop a framework of questions that an investor would want answered.
    2. Undertake extensive consultation of regional stakeholders who have a keen interest and contribution to the project in terms of information and advise over the region’s capabilities. In particular on infrastructure and service issues. Key issues to be included would be-
      • issues that would impinge on future IT development options for IT industries
      • impediments to the various options
      • issues that would have to be addressed for a potential investor considering locating to the region
      • information currently available to answer questions of a potential investor and information gaps that would need to be filled as part of preparing documentation to attract potential investors
      • Policy issues that would need to be addressed.
    3. Review previous literature and reports and successful capability statements from elsewhere.
  3. The final report will address questions that an investor might have about relocating an IT operation to the area.
    1. Clear indications as to economic and social circumstances to the region conducive to establishing operations in the region.
    2. Clear indications as to the policies in place that allow the potential operator to focus on important issues with the prospect of consistent answers.
    3. Clear indications of the level of community support for IT development.
    4. Clear indications of the options for dealing with a range of technical issues.
    5. A clear indication as to what the proponent needs to negotiate and information regarding the sources of this next level of information that might be required.
  4. From the capability statement and market information, advise and assist the GSDC to "sell" the opportunity to organisations targeted earlier and develop strategies for the ongoing marketing and promotion of the regions capability into the market place. This would include-
    1. Identifying market segments within the IT industry where previous research under "1" has identified the Great Southern regions competitive advantage.
    2. Developing bottom line returns for potential investors, targeting specific IT market segments.
    3. From the above, develop a complete marketing strategy ready for joint execution by the GSDC and consultant.

Further Information

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