If some cloud tech helped Australia ’ s universities and vocational training institutions keep the lights on during the most disruptive period in decades , what could more do ?
According to a landmark economic analysis from IBRS and Insight Economics , Australia ’ s higher education sector could unlock a $ 8.4 billion ‘ digital dividend ’ by replacing old technology with cloud-based Software as a Service ( SaaS ) systems .
That figure , which is larger than the entire sector ’ s annual income from the Commonwealth Grants Scheme *, is the expert economists ’ prediction of the savings to be made over 10 years if institutions ditched their data centres and switched to cloud-based platforms to run their operations .
The technological case for moving to the cloud has been clear for some time but SaaS adoption is still in its early stages in many universities and TAFEs .
In their report , “ The Economic Impact of Software as a Service ”, IBRS and Insight Economics set out to analyse , for the first time , the savings from modernising IT systems across a range of industries including government , education , health & aged care and financial services .
Using real-world case studies and face-to-face interviews with the leaders of organisations , together with benchmark data from a wide variety of local and international sources , the researchers modelled both the costs of digital transformation and its direct and indirect benefits .
They uncovered a game-changing potential digital dividend for the Australian economy--- $ 252 billion over ten years , enough to lift the country ’ s Gross Domestic Product by 1.3 per cent---all from a relatively simple decision to fast-track investments in a proven , mature technology ; SaaS . The findings were validated using the Monash Multiregional Forecasting model ( MMRF ), which is frequently used by state and federal governments to evaluate new policy proposals .
The IBRS and Insight Economics researchers also found labour force productivity improvements of between two and five per cent , as well as reduced reactive maintenance costs of 8 per cent and reduced audit and financial expenses .