Digital Enterprise program
The opportunities for small businesses in Australia's broadband future are limitless. The NBN presents Australian small businesses with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to grasp a global long-term advantage.
Council of Small Business Australia media release 
'Realising our broadband future for small business'
The Australian Government has provided $10 million in grant funding over three years from 2011–12 to establish a Digital Enterprise program that will help small-to-medium enterprises and not-for-profit organisations (including local cultural organisations) in 40 communities that benefit from the National Broadband Network (NBN) where work on the rollout has already commenced. It will help them to better understand how they can maximise the opportunities from greater digital engagement, enabled by the NBN.
The program will provide group training seminars as well as one-on-one advice on how participants can use the NBN to make greater use of online opportunities to conduct their existing processes more efficiently and better achieve their organisational goals.
The program was established to contribute to the government's vision for Australia as a leading global digital economy by 2020. In particular, this program is designed to contribute to the Digital Economy Goal that by 2020 Australia ranks in the top five OECD countries in relation to the percentage of businesses and not-for-profit organisations, using online opportunities to drive productivity improvements, expand their customer bases and enable jobs growth. More details about this vision are available in the National Digital Economy Strategy.
Applications for round three of the Digital Enterprise program closed on 10 May 2012.
Organisations funded under round one to deliver Digital Enterprise services are listed below. If you are involved with a small-to-medium enterprise or not-for-profit organisation in one of these locations and want to learn how to improve your organisations online engagement or find out more about the benefits of the NBN, please contact your local service provider.
| Location | Service provider | Email address |
|---|---|---|
| Armidale, NSW | Armidale Dumaresq Council | |
| Kiama, NSW | Kiama Community College | |
| Townsville, Qld | Business Success Group | |
| Willunga, SA | City of Onkaparinga | |
| Midway Point, Scottsdale and Smithton, Tas | 3P Consulting |
For more information and background, please refer to:
- Media release: Federal government supports high-speed digital Australia
- Media release: Australia to become a leading digital economy by 2020
- Speech by Senator Stephen Conroy: Address to CeBIT Australia 2011
For further information, please contact the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy via a free call to 1800 017 984 on weekdays between 8.30 am and 5.00 pm AEST, or by email to digitalenterprise@dbcde.gov.au
