It's official - staying connected is now a national pastime for most Australians.
That's according analyst Telsyte, which has combined primary research with analyst insight to tell a unique story about how technology is impacting Austraian in 2014.
Telsyte Managing Director, Foad Fadaghi, said Australians were increasingly comfortable using and adapting to new technologies.
“Staying connected is now a national pastime - Australians are clearly more dependent on the internet for entertainment and shopping than ever before,” he said.
Telsyte research shows more than half the population regularly use Facebook and 58 per cent of Australians regularly use at least one other device while watching Television.
It has found that the average household has nearly eight connected devices and more than one-third download 100 GB per month or more via their fixed broadband connections.
The findings come with the release of the third edition of Digital Nation, an infographic style report book that showcases Telsyte’s leading local consumer and enterprise ICT research.
The finding shows Australians are increasingly turning to “post-PC” devices like smartphones and tablets for their personal information management and as a result are increasingly shifting their habits, including entertainment from desktop computers to handheld devices.
Our post-PC activities are not limited to viewing with more of us using smart devices for shopping.
In 2013 nearly a third (29 per cent) of people using a smartphone purchased a physical good with their device, with the figure even higher (43 per cent) for tablet owners.
This new found comfort has manifested itself in over $20 billion spent on eCommerce across 19 consumer categories as measured by Telsyte.
Nearly a two-thirds of consumers surveyed indicated they had saved money by buying items online in 2013.
Digital Nation is aimed at helping business leaders to take advantage of all this change.
Australians are also hungry for faster broadband with most of us willing to upgrade to a faster service when it becomes available.
But, as more of our personal technology is used for business with BYO-IT (not just devices, but apps too) and more business applications become accessible to consumers, Australians are in the middle of a work-life balance revolution, according to Telsyte.
Fadaghi said this phenomenon of by-passing IT was not confined to individuals.
"Non-IT business units within organisations are increasingly likely to procure IT services, mostly from the Cloud, to meet their needs," he said.
"This is known as 'shadow IT' and, like BYO-IT, can help or hinder an organisation managing its information effectively."
Within local organisations, around half of business units like HR, marketing and operations have their own IT budgets.
Digital Nation reveals this trend is having a measurable impact on traditional IT departments with 18 per cent of organisations increasing their IT spend believe it is due to non-IT business units buying IT and, more poignantly, a third of CIOs have experienced problems resulting from IT purchasing outside of the IT department.
Telsyte senior analyst, Rodney Gedda, says use of personal device technology in the workplace is now pervasive with nearly 45 per cent of Australian organisations with more than 20 employees allowing BYOD.
“However, a further 24 per cent of CIOs acknowledge that staff go ahead and do it anyway without permission indicating a strong desire by people to use their own technology for work – inside or outside the office,” he said.
Read more: Mobile OS battle enters new phase: Telsyte
Smartphones (94 per cent) and tablets (85 per cent) are the leading types of personal devices in use for work and sales and marketing and senior management are the leading roles adopting BYOD.
Cloud computing for business also continues to grow strongly and Digital Nation reveals the applications most likely to be delivered through the cloud – from e-commerce to project management.
“The Cloud is now a mainstream delivery model and presents a real option for local enterprises used to on-premise IT management,” Gedda said.
"Important factors like security, integration and TCO do not go away with moving on-premise systems and applications to the Cloud."
Digital Nation reveals how Australian organisations in manufacturing, health and other industries are already using wearable computers and where the technology is headed.
“Smart devices, including wearable computers, generate massive volumes of data which can then be used for business intelligence,” Gedda said. “In the third edition of Digital Nation, we look at how Australian organisations are using big data and what their future plans are.”
