Altium NASA Deal Highlights ICT Skills Shortage

By Greg McNevin

October 30, 2007: Australian’s Altium, developer of unified electronic product development software, has just secured a significant deal with the US space agency NASA that not only gives the company another important win, but also highlights support issues in the Australian ICT industry.

In a deal reportedly worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston will be using Altium’s software to design electronics such as the navigational systems and power systems for the International Space Station and the space shuttle.

“I think it's just a very attractive deal,” Altium president and chief operating officer Emma Lo Russo told ABC Online. “A lot of our developers, they're bright guys who would have looked up to the sky and space as one of those things that really pushes the boundaries of electronics.”

According to Lo Russo the deal also highlights problems in the Australian ICT industry which, despite producing some world-class products and workers, is in many cases struggling to compete with overseas firms due to lack of appropriate domestic infrastructure and a drought of qualified workers.

With Aussie ITC firms such as Altium, Tower Software and Objective increasingly signing prominent deals both at home and abroad, both the Liberal and Labor governments would be well advised to take the AIIA’s advice and get cracking and outline some real ITC policy and a viable future for the Australian industry before election day.

To combat stagnation in the ITC industry, Lo Russo says that we have to come together as a nation to help people who have really good ideas bring them to market.

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