The Australian public sector is becoming an increasing attractive prospect for vendors thanks to a renewed focus on delivering greater broadband access and a determination to streamline public sector back office processes.

And a new report from Datamonitors suggests those opportunities will continue to grow as public sector organizations envision new ways to make savings through IT investment.

The Datamonitor report: Future IT Trends and Projects: Australia Public Sector (Industry Focus) says vendors entering the Asia-Pacific market will find Australia a good place to start as the country seeks to strengthen its technological infrastructure and establish a foundation on which it can build as it participates in an increasingly technology-oriented global market. And it says those opportunities will grow as public sector organizations seek to automate processes before implementing more specific solutions.

The report predicts Australia will be an attractive market for networking infrastructure vendors as the Australian, state and local governments further their "Broadband Blueprint" initiative to invest in the country's broadband infrastructure. Federal, state and local governments are all participating in this initiative.

And it says the relentless demand that governments do more with less will lead to further opportunities as public sector entities concentrate technology efforts on solutions to streamline back office processes.

"From the Australian Federal Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs to the Northern Territory Government to the Western Australia Department of Education and Training, agencies prefer to automate their work rather than outsource it. The most common services organizations in Australia are investing in service desk operations, business support services and applications support such as human resources, payroll systems and financial systems," the report says.

"Solutions that generate organizational efficiencies will be in the most demand."

The report finds governments will increasingly turn to enterprise applications like human resources and financial management to cut costs and boost services.

"Vendors who are able to address organizations' business issues and strengthen their technologies both today as well as in the future will have greater success in the public sector market than those who are only concerned with near-term problems," the report says. "Hardware and software solutions that will not be compatible with future offerings will not become widely adopted.

"Vendors who invest in their Australian employees will make a noticeable impression on government officials. Finally, those that provide disaster recovery and emergency preparedness solutions will find a receptive audience in Australia."