Since July 2012 Gravelroad has been delivering the Federal Government funded Digital Enterprise Program, with and on behalf of the City of Ipswich in South East Queensland. The program is aimed at educating small to medium-size businesses (SMEs) and not-for-profit organisations (NFPs) as to the benefits and opportunities to be gained through the utilisation of digital technology.

The Business Challenge

The challenge was to encourage small business owners and organisation representatives to attend the program despite their initial lack of understanding as to the potential benefits of utilising digital assets and tools.

Once having attended a workshop, over 80% opted to have the 4 hour one-on-one mentoring session to identify where digital business tools could assist growing wealth, improve productivity and improve the customer experience. 

The Gravelroad Solution

As part of the Regional Digital Capability Building in Ipswich, Gravelroad were tasked to provide participants with a detailed understanding of the digital economy and provide a structured framework that can be used to develop a realistic strategy and roadmap for building digital capability across the region. This is linked to the region’s economic enablers and is designed to maximise the opportunities and benefits to the region as quickly as possible. Gravelroad provided the participants with the most beneficial information, 3 key topics were addressed:

• Online presence (including website development, SEO and social media);
• Cloud and cloud-based applications (including cyber security); and
• Capital Return Optimisation
• Teleworking (including VOIP and video communications)

The Outcome

The program consisted of 50 group workshops and 220 one-on-one mentoring sessions. In April 2014 the final of the 50 workshops was completed with the following results:

• 433 attended, representing
• 325 organisations, consisting of 246 SMEs and 84 NFPs

One-on-one mentoring sessions have been conducted with approximately 200 businesses and organisations with the remaining 20 to be finalised by the end of May 2014

Gravelroad’s success in delivering this program has resulted in the consultancy being engaged to deliver the same program in three other regions of Queensland, including:

• The Gold Coast, South East Queensland
• Bundaberg Region, including Gympie, Fraser Coast, North and South Burnett Regions
• Mackay Region, including Isaac and Whitsunday Regions

In the 3 years from July 2012 to June 2015 it is envisaged that Gravelroad will conduct 195 workshops to an estimated 3000 small business owners or not-for-profit organisation representatives, along with the delivery and project management of some 750 one-on-one mentoring.