About Us

Headquartered at the Australian Technology Park in Sydney and with research nodes in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, the Smart Services CRC Pty Ltd was established as an incorporated company in July 2007 with operations commenced in July 2008. One of only fifteen successful bids from round 10 of the Federal Government’s CRC Grant Program, Smart Services was awarded $30.8 million to be invested over 7 years for research and development to support innovation in Australia’s services economy.

Total funding available to the CRC will exceed $120million over its life, including Participant’s contributions and will be used by Smart Services to deliver outcomes aimed at returning at least $250 million to the Australian economy by 2016. In addition the CRC’s Education and Training programme will provide grants for up to 60 PhD students, aligning their thesis subjects to the interest of industry and contributing skilled resources into the Australia workforce.

The Smart Service CRC Board is currently comprised of 9 Directors and includes: Neville Roach AO (Chair), Arun Sharma – DVC (Research & Commercialisation), QUT, Gregory Hancock - Dean, Faculty of Engineering, USYD, Karim Barbara - General Manager – Health & Aged Care, Telstra Enterprise & Government, Karsten Schulz - VP Research APJ - SAP Research, Lee Astheimer – Acting DVC (Research) – UOW, Michael O'Sullivan - Executive Director, Industry Division – DSRD, Neale Condon - General Manager Corporate & Strategy – RACQ, Warren Bradey, CEO, Smart Services CRC.

With eleven initial research projects the CRC will address challenges across the areas of customer service needs, ecosystems for service delivery and services of the future.

In Media - Smart Services’ research agenda is being developed to give digital media companies in Australia tools, technologies and insights needed to understand how audiences are changing and clustering, and how to personalise their media experiences across a multi-channel, multi-platform environment.

In Finance and Government the research agenda is being developed to deliver knowledge, tools and technology for the rapid identification and deployment of services, including online and mobile, to support business growth and creativity and improve operational efficiencies.

Smart Services Participants will also look at the way in which services may be delivered in the future, how significant external factors may affect the need for and delivery of services to customers. This strategic research will deliver Participants new insights and opportunities to achieve a competitive advantage in their industry and be at the forefront of growth in the services sector.

A Services Innovation Foundry is to be established to undertake prototype development and fast testing of concepts to speed the development of ideas through to early product integration for industry.