"EASYBIZ - VIC COUNCIL ELECTRONIC HUB TENDER 19 AUG 2006"To Council Webmasters - please forward copies of this e-mail to the Mayor, General Manager, Director Economic Development and the IT Manager for discussion at the next Council meeting - Thank you. 14:44 Tue 12 Sep 2006 REF:61C1AAN2 Y/R: Contract No. CT060718 TO: Neil HOCKING cc EasyBiz Mayors Chair - EasyBiz Consortium EasyBiz Interests VICTORIAN 32 COUNCIL CONSORTIUM Dear Chairman [this email has been placed on the Tender eBusiness Papers to provide faster links to the references] Further to my email Tue 05 Sep to you on possible Computer Industry unconscionable conduct and my subsequent conversation with Brad WYNTER on the Article in the Melbourne Age we have reviewed the Bizdex web-site and AS 4590. This email is to provide reasons why the Australian Government and each State Government should pass Legislation like the US Government. The US Government passed legislation in 1996 that US Government Agencies use the US ANSI X-12 Standard for eCommerce Legislation is required to mandate that Government Agencies use a naming standard to ensure that Australian Small Businesses can communicate effectively with Local Government and not fall prey to the Webservices Vendors as defined in the explanation of AS 4590 and Bizdex A Web Services - vendor Driven B Changes in Local Government Requirements C Feedback from Whittlesea SMEs D SME Economic Development - Sport Sponsorship E Next Steps A WEB SERVICES - VENDOR DRIVEN Your attention is drawn to the following issues as confirmation that the Computer Industry may be viewing Councils as "very Easy Biz". The Computer Industry is renown for providing the opposite to what it offers as "the paperless society". It provides document after document of verbiage, graphics and moving pictures of workflows in its attempt to disguise the absence of the basic requirement for eCommerce. The basic requirement for organisations to exchange information electronically is for each company to agree to call the same field the same name. eg Name: John SMITH However if you want to be able to sort on the surname SMITH you have to provide 2 fields Name-one: John Surname: SMITH However each vendor then has to agree to use the field name which of course they do not. So Government Standards bodies set up Committees to establish a naming Standard. This is what the US ANSI X-12 Standard for Electronic Purchasing and the UN/EDIFACT Standard for Electronic Trade were supposed to provide even though both have different codes for the same fields in the Purchasing process. However the Companies that Volunteer to join those Standards Bodies have a vested interest in ensuring Standards are not set. Here is the history of how the Australian Bankers Association [ABA] aided by Standards Australia forced through the US ANSI-X12 Standard in 1989. It appears that The Preface and The Prologue for the 1988 IS/11 EDI Standards Committee were either prepared for Standards Australia or sent down as a draft for Arthur Andersen Melbourne to correct and faxed back to Standards Australia. [In 1993 Arthur Andersen sponsored Ted GAEBLER from the US to visit every Australian city and have meetings with senior State Government Officials to discuss the virtues of Outsourcing of Government Services. Here is the Agenda of the Sydney luncheon "Inventing the Australian Model of Government" with Ted GAEBLER. It was attended by Bob CARR as leader of the NSW Opposition. The presentations were given by Garry STURGESS, who was the Chief of Staff of the former NSW Premier Nick GREINER, and Percy ALLEN Chairman of the NSW Treasury. Nick GREINER had resigned as Premier to be replaced by John FAHEY. John FAHEY as NSW Liberal Treasurer had been the former chairman of the successful Sydney 2000 Olympic Bid. After FAHEY lost the NSW Election to Bob CARR, he joined the Federal Liberal Government as Minister for Finance. Arthur ANDERSEN had been the accounting firm for Enron and had instructed Enron employees to destroy documents during the Enron financial collapse.] The proposal by ABA for the ANSI-X12 Australian EDI Standard was supported by 12 of the 15 attendees as they were affiliated to IBM although representing other "Associations" The Bankers and the Computer Industry are looking to make the "EasyBiz" out of the Councils and their rate-payers because of the difficulty of "the Final Mile" connection Ref How does EasyBiz Work - slide 4 If someone can provide a copy of the EasyBiz Data Dictionary (Appendix B) that should have been in the tender Documentation then it is relatively simple and inexpensive to "map" how to exchange information electronically between Councils' and Home/Small Business users. B CHANGES TO LOCAL GOVERNMENT REQUIREMENTS Since the EasyBiz System was first developed 3 years age there have been considerable changes to Local Government Services particularly in the new Financial Year 2006/2007. Recent examples include: 1 Sport & Recreation Strategies 2 Tourism & Economic Development Strategies 3 Outsourced Contract Management eg Grass Cutting, Waste Management These changes have been reflected by Councils starting to recognise the need for new Information Technology Architectures. As an example, one of your members published on Sat 02 Sep 2006 a tender for Integrated Electronic Data Management Systems Examples of other changes in Victorian Councils requirements are the 13 Business Consultancy tenders published on Sat 02 Sep 2006. C FEEDBACK FROM WHITTLESEA SMES Local Small & Medium size businesses represent over 95% of the Business employers in many Councils Whittlesea Council has established some excellent initiatives with its electronic Forums However as is often the case these Electronic Forums are rarely frequented by local Home and Small Business Computer Users Whittlesea Council hosts 19 Small and Medium Business Forums. Only 5 have received any replies The most frequented is "Join New Whittlesea/Diamond Valley Networking Group" with 751 Views and 26 replies This SME Forum was formed in 01 Feb 2005 If you review the replies 4 out of the 26 postigs state "Advertising is the Killer". None of the postings mention the costs of Regulation Reduction as being of relevance to running a business or as being a hindrance to Economic Development The second most frequented Forum is "New Business Opportunities" with 473 Views and 3 replies This SME Forum was formed on 26 Sep 2004 - nearly 2 years ago D SME ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT - SPORT SPONSORSHIP As the Internet is now the cornerstone of Council Systems and SMEs are so important to the Economic Development of Local Councils particularly Shire Councils, we have to develop initiatives that will not only reduce the Advertising costs for Local SMEs but also encourage the Local Population to review the SME websites One way of doing this is to invite Local SMEs to sponsor Local Sports teams on the sports web-site for a nominal fee and a small percentage of the increased business An example of this is a proposal "Sport - Assisting our Youth to Develop" to the Australian Sports Commission [ASC] which was a joint venture with a New South Wales Northern Beaches Sports Club This will be relevant to all your councils and will assist with the Economic Development for each Council E NEXT STEPS OIC members would be pleased to assist the EasyBiz Council Consortium Members to integrate Standard Forms into Council application and more important contribute to the Economic Development of the Council. OIC members are prepared consider long term (3 - 5 year) Cost Reduction and increased Economic Development contracts. Please email or call me if you require further information Yours faithfully Stephen GOULD Chair Local Government & XML Special Interest Group OPEN INTERCHANGE CONSORTIUM E: sggould@oic.org M: 0416-009-468 W: Local Government & XML Special Interest Group