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to jobs
ave the skilled workforce to meet
aste and businesses are telling us
al tools they need to get a job
eople to work, training and education
ment Areas
mation on local jobs, programs and
o place more job seekers with local
mployers to take on a long-term,
Individual Support for staff to work
f Tasmanian business and help
more information visit
Half Page
Strip
Business enters
brave new era
T
HE COVID-19 pandemic plunged
many businesses into a frantic
scramble to update their IT infrastructure and programs.
It forced many businesses to take the
leap to cloud-based programming and storage that they may not have been convinced
about or were able to afford before.
IT business IT Strategic, which has offices in Hobart and Melbourne, said while many
businesses were already on their way to being
able to operate remotely, for others the transition had to happen quickly, as businesses shut
their doors and employees were forced to stay
home.
IT Strategic managing director Adam Thick
said many of the practices, such as cloudbased operations, were things they had been
talking about for some time, yet many businesses had been resistant.
“The COVID-19 issue really forced business to face these issues head on and to make
changes quickly,” Mr Thick said.
“Those businesses which had started the
transition before the pandemic, realised what
a good position they were in while others who
were struggling with the concept or the budget
to implement changes, found a way through.”
Mr Thick said the greatest challenge was
for those businesses still working on desktop computers rather than laptops.
“There was the issue of getting these set
up in people’s homes and off site which is
a lot more work than say a laptop,” he said.
“But on top of that there was a shortage
of laptops and other mobile devices as businesses rushed to set themselves up remotely.”
It Strategic’s senior cloud engineer
Stuart Haddad, left, and managing
director Adam Thick.
Trade strategy
plan released
EXPANDING domestic and international
trade is the focus of the new Tasmanian
Trade Strategy Annual Action Plan 2021
recently released.
It sets out 53 clear actions to build trade
in key sectors, showcase Tasmanian goods
and services in priority markets, support
market access and logistics and build the
export capacity of Tasmanian businesses.
Countries targeted for expansion or new
market entries include Japan, Singapore and
Malaysia, the US, Indonesia and South Korea,
as well as the Middle East.
This plan focuses efforts on growing the
domestic Australian market through in-market
and inbound trade activities, supporting
trade alliances and clusters, and expanding
Tasmania’s presence and product awareness.
It is hoped the action plan will foster
market expansion and diversification, help
businesses better manage their export risks.
Even with the pandemic affecting bottom
lines across the last quarter of 2019-20,
exports continued to climb, reaching more
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Exports defy
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TASMANIAN exports increased by 1.2
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These results saw Tasmania record
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The State Government believes there
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Let us solve the IT
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TASMANIAN BUSINESS REPORTER, March 2021 15
270
20
Eighth
Page
DOWN TO BUSINESS
Stuart Haddad, a senior cloud engineer
with IT Strategic, said the pandemic also
highlighted the value and the challenges of
‘bring your own devices’ as employees and
employers learnt how to make the most of
mobile phones and i-Pads or tablets.
“The issue of employees using their own
devices meant businesses had to revisit
their policies and consider security implications,” Mr Haddad said.
“We worked with businesses to review
and update their policies and to protect security of information where necessary.”
This changeover included migrating
business data from a single server to cloudbased storage.
Madeleine
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