Accenture to recruit more than 100 people for first regional office in Ballarat

Local tech boss Matt Coates expects its new Ballarat office to tempt workers to leave the city for a different lifestyle while doing the same tasks at the organisation.

Accenture will open its first regional office in Ballarat from May. Picture: Sarah Matray/NCA NewsWire

Global technology consulting firm Accenture will open its first office outside the major cities in Ballarat to address the growing demand for sovereign technology services and increasing need for onshore support.

The Ballarat technology and operations hub will launch in May and initially employ more than 100 new people with plans to progressively ramp up as it trains local residents with in-demand technology skills.

Accenture’s Ballarat office will offer services including application development, IT service management, and the management of business functions such as HR, finance, and marketing.

Accenture Australia and New Zealand technology lead Matt Coates told The Australian that he expected the Ballarat office will also tempt existing Accenture staff to leave the city for a different lifestyle while doing the same tasks at the organisation.

The Ballarat site would support Australian businesses and governments by providing technology and operations services, leveraging advanced technologies such as gen AI.

“The biggest revolution of our time is the shift to generative AI with it completely disrupting all the ways our clients do things,” he said.

“There’s a lot of opportunities for our clients that they’re seeing from that and they’re coming to us for help. (Ballarat) is a great growth story and an opportunity for folks that are living in the region to get involved with this global shift.”

The facility will be based in the Federation University Technology Park. Accenture plans to work with the university to offer student on-the-job experience and training.

More Australians have also moved into regional towns since the pandemic with the emergence of flexible working as well as concern around housing affordability in the major capital cities. Mr Coates said he expected that the Ballarat office would tempt existing Accenture staff to leave the city for a different lifestyle while doing the same tasks at the organisation.

Accenture Australia and New Zealand technology lead Matt Coates says more than 100 people will be hired initially.

“We’ll be doing the same sort of work in Ballarat that we do across Australia and New Zealand,” he said.

“The uniqueness here is we’re tapping into another source of talent that we haven’t done so before. We do want to have a little bit more of an anchor around some of the longer term managed services that our clients are looking for out of the Ballarat Technology Centre.”

Ballarat Mayor Tracey Hargreaves said the investment by Accenture would create jobs and upskilling opportunities for the town’s workforce and strengthen the local economy.

“It will also allow our people to work on projects of national importance, which I’m sure will be a drawcard for many to relocate to the area,” she said.

This will be the first Accenture office to not be located in a major capital city. The firm has locations in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

Accenture saw the need for Ballarat to also address demand for sovereign technology services and the increasing need for onshore support in both the private and public sectors.

Mr Coates said that sovereign capability around technology had become more important with governments increasingly demanding that data stays onshore or have requirements that people that work on the systems are Australian citizens, while regulated industries such as financial services were taking a similar stance.

“There is also the organisation that is taking a preference to keep things based in Australia. That could be a business that wants a call centre that we provide and is catering to people who want to hear an Australian voice when they call,” he said.

“What we continue to see is our clients really wanting to think about how they can take costs out and streamline their operations. And that is meaning that clients are looking at different ways of doing things. So that’s driving some of the demand.

Accenture is a global professional services company that provides a wide range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology, and operations.

Originally published as Accenture to recruit more than 100 people for first regional office in Ballarat