Government, Health and Education

[admin]

ACC opens tender for SAP service providers

19 Jun 2009 by: Nathan Dukes

The Australian Crime Commission (ACC) has opened tender for SAP support and maintenance.

The ACC originally opened tender for the implemented of an Enterprise Resource Planning solution in 2006-07.

The original 18 month contract is due to expire soon and the ACC are now looking for an experienced team to provide maintenance and service.

The ACC currently work with SAP ECC 6, and require a team who has worked with this version previously for at least 2 years in a government agency.

The ACC require people with specialist skills in finance, materials management, investment management, human resources, security, workflow, business intelligence and portal systems, amongst others.

They are offering a contract of three years, with the options to extend for a further two.

No details of cost were released in the tender.

The ACC is a national criminal intelligence agency, who works in concert with other law enforcement agencies to minimise the risk occurrence of serious and organised crime.

[admin]

AustralianIT | Mahesh Sharma | June 30, 2009

STATE and territory emergency services agencies are poised to create location intelligence teams to bolster disaster response capabilities, as a result of experience in the recovery effort following the Black Sa****ay bushfires.

The bushfires that swept across parts of Victoria on February 7 took 173 lives, ravaged thousands of hectares of land and burned down hundreds of homes.

The fires also wiped out hardware identification information such as street signs and mailboxes, complicating rescue and clean-up efforts as authorities did not know which areas had been searched.

To overcome this, Victoria Police and bushfire response teams worked with a mapping and planning support team (MAPS) from the ACT emergency services agency.

MAPS was set up after the ACT bushfires in 2003 to use location intelligence systems and staff to assist disaster search and recovery efforts.

It was founded by ACT emergency services agency risk management and geographic information systems manager Steve Forbes, who went to Victoria to help set up infrastructure to aid the search effort for the bushfires in the Kinglake and Murrindindi areas.

Mr Forbes said other states were planning to establish their own MAPS teams. "It's my understanding there are other states and territories looking into how they could start those groups within their own jurisdictions," Mr Forbes said.

"We're more than willing to help and encourage others to build their teams."

Initially MAPS sent a handful of staff to assist with the search effort and to set up location intelligence infrastructure at the Williamstown police station, but Mr Forbes quickly realised he would require more resources for the task.

"What we did was send down some teams on day three and found out the situation was going to be a lot more difficult than first thought," Mr Forbes said.

"They were using tools created by Victoria Police search and rescue for locating a missing person, which are typically used in the search for one to two people. In this situation, a lot more people were missing.

"Very quickly we realised the sheer numbers coming in of people displaced meant we needed to set up a more solid, well-structured spatial database to assist the people doing that search."

Mr Forbes increased MAPS's involvement, with teams of eight location intelligence staff sent to Victoria, and he said 53 MAPS volunteers were used over 43days.

Using software from ESRI Australia, Mr Forbes and his team constructed a map of the area that displayed the parts that had been searched by Victoria Police and emergency response teams.

Emergency services searchers on the ground would use mobile devices and location intelligence equipment to update in real time the areas that had been searched.

This information was used by the operating centre to ensure there was no overlap in areas that had been searched or parts that might have been missed.

"Rather than getting data in at the end of each day when they searched, we were getting it in live as the searches were taking place," Mr Forbes said.

"There were no street signs, no street numbers but we were able to give hard copy maps to search teams to describe where they were in the world.

"Using GPS technology we could tell the officers where they were on the ground so there was no way they could make a mistake on reporting back on the property they had attended."

Mr Forbes said this detailed information and documented search response was critical for the inquiries after the Black Sa****ay bushfires.

[zamir]

Take a look at this blog entry here.

[Steve Bennett]

iSOFT Group Limited (ASX:ISF) Wins Three Key Contracts Totalling A$1.6 Million For Its Integra Financial Solution

iSOFT Group Limited (ASX:ISF)

Sydney, July 13, 2009 (ABN Newswire) - iSOFT Group Limited (ASX:ISF) Australia's largest listed health information technology company today announced three key contracts for its Integra suite of Web-enabled financial and purchasing solutions, including two in new sectors that offer growth potential for iSOFT's Business Solutions unit.

The agreements, totalling about A$1.6 million, are with Australia's St Vincent's and Holy Spirit; Scope, a U.K charity for people with disabilities; and U.K housing association Spectrum Housing Group. About A$400,000 of the total is for software licenses, A$700,000 is for implementation services, and A$530,000 is for support and maintenance over five years.

"These deals demonstrate that our financial solutions business is gaining traction with a wider, global customer base against other competing financial solutions," said Eamonn Morris, Managing Director of iSOFT Business Solutions.

"We identified public sector markets as being particularly suitable for our Integra suite of solutions, and it's pleasing to see these efforts are already paying off."

In its third contract for Integra in Australia, iSOFT will install a complete financial and e-purchasing solution for St Vincent's and Holy Spirit, including modules for Web-requisitioning and business intelligence. iSOFT has identified a demand for modern, Web-based solutions that drive-out inefficiencies in finance and purchasing processes to reduce costs.

In the U.K, Scope is buying an Integra e-procurement solution to raise orders online at its London head office and 370 shops across England and Wales. It will also use the OCR (optical character recognition) module to scan invoices, eliminate errors and speed the approval process. The charity expects savings of EUR500,000 over five years, as well as financial benefits arising from improved relationships with suppliers.

The agreement with Spectrum, one the U.K's largest housing associations with 16,000 properties in the south of England, includes the full Integra financial suite plus the business intelligence and OCR modules for its seven offices.

The Web-based solutions will allow users to raise purchase orders and access financial data to control invoices, payments and costs.

iSOFT Business Solutions is unique among iSOFT businesses in selling outside healthcare markets.

Link: http://www.abnnewswire.net/media/en/...ISF-556851.pdf


About iSOFT Group Limited

iSOFT Group Limited (ASX:ISF) is the largest health information technology company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, and trades globally under the name 'iSOFT".

iSOFT builds software applications for healthcare. We work with healthcare professionals to design and build solutions that answer all of the difficult questions posed by today's care delivery challenges. Our solutions act as a catalyst for change, supporting the free exchange of critical information across diverse care settings and participant organisations. We are the leader in the provision of advanced application solutions in modern healthcare economies around the world Today, over 13,000 provider organisations in 38 countries across five continents use iSOFT's solutions to manage patient information and drive improvements in their core processes. The group's sustainable development is delivered through careful planning, in-depth analysis of our market and anticipation of evolving requirements. Our business is driven by the collective talent, experience and commitment of more than 4,600 specialists around the globe, including over 2,300 technology and development professionals.

A global network of iSOFT subsidiaries, supported by an extensive partner network, provides substantial experience of national healthcare markets. As a result we offer our customers comprehensive knowledge of local market requirements, in terms of culture, language, working practice, healthcare regulation and organisational structure.

For more information on iSOFT, please visit the company's website at IBA Health Group Limited

Contact

Gary Cohen
Executive Chairman & CEO
iSOFT Group Limited
Tel: +61-2-8251-6700
Email: gary.cohen@isofthealth.com

Stuart Kelly
Director, Corporate Affairs
iSOFT Group Limited
Tel: +61-2-8251-6769
Mob: +61-404-082-361
Email: stuart.kelly@isofthealth.com

[Steve Bennett]

Renai LeMay, ZDNet.com.au
08 July 2009 01:55 PM

Welfare agency Centrelink has flagged plans to overhaul the way it procures a raft of ICT services, consolidating two separate panel contracts into one overarching deal with between 10 and 15 vendors.

The agency — one of Australia's largest single consumers of ICT products and services — has previously used three separate panel contracts to supply its needs, although it also holds much larger ongoing contracts with single parties, for example IBM.

In tender documents released this week, Centrelink said it would consolidate two of those panels into one, to cover services relating to the diverse areas of applications development and support, business intelligence, database, mainframe, mid-range, desktop and mobile devices, network and communications as well as security.

"Centrelink anticipates appointing approximately 10 to 15 members to the panel," the agency said in tender documents. The new deal will not cover the supply of hardware or proprietary software.

The agency did not comment by the time of publication on who its current suppliers were, but past analysis by ZDNet.com.au has shown many of Australia's largest technology companies hold contracts with Centrelink; IBM, CSC, Fujitsu's Kaz, Dimension Data, Sun Microsystems and Acer, among others.

In the tender documents, Centrelink said it currently ran multiple IBM mainframes running the z/OS operating system, a number of mid-range servers running Solaris, Windows Server Linux and Novell Netware, a storage area network, virtualised systems via VMware and Lotus Domino mail servers running on Windows Server.

The agency runs a Cisco wide area network connecting its offices, supplies its staff with Windows-based PCs, laptops and mobile devices (although it also utilises BlackBerrys), and a number of Teradata systems. It is known to run Acer on the desktop, and makes much use of Cognos' software in its databases, along with SAP for HR and financial systems. Centrelink has around 2000 ICT staff.

[Steve Bennett]

AustralianIT | Karen Dearne | July 03, 2009

GREENHOUSE gas emissions reporting will be simpler, with Climate Change Minister Penny Wong promising to slash red tape for businesses under a new agreement with state governments.

The National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Streamlining Protocol will ensure a consistent approach and cut duplication, Senator Wong said.

"At present, some companies are required to provide the same or similar data for up to eight different agencies in different jurisdictions," she said. "The protocol will be used by all governments for reporting for existing and future greenhouse and energy programs, and will establish a standard approach for collecting this information."

More comprehensive and consistent data sets would allow better long-term monitoring of environmental effects and direct local action on climate change.

The protocol covers corporate reporting requirements relating to energy consumption and production, energy audits, action plans, savings and projections, and is aligned with data elements specified in OSCAR, the online system for comprehensive activity reporting used by businesses in compliance with the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting law.

A department spokesman said further development of OSCAR will begin later this year to allow for streamlined data collection and reporting.

Planned tenders for the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme indicate a number of CPRS and OSCAR developments will go to market over the next three months.

The department is seeking a provider for development and implementation of the CPRS information management solution; a business intelligence system, and office space and identity access management services.

It is also seeking a provider to establish, maintain and potentially host software applications, including OSCAR, in support of the CPRS.

While the federal government deferred introduction of the CPRS until July next year because of poor economic conditions, legislation for its emissions trading scheme is on hold over the winter recess after being delayed in the Senate.

Meanwhile, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) will adopt a 10-year strategy to accelerate energy efficiencies for both householders and businesses.

The new $88 million national partnership agreement on energy efficiency is intended to remove barriers and drive co-operation over climate change initiatives.

COAG wants to help business and industry "to obtain the skills and capacity to pursue cost-effective energy opportunities and therefore meet the challenges of a low carbon economy", according to the communique released yesterday.

It also wants to set higher efficiency standards for buildings, homes, equipment and appliances, and provide a boost for new technologies.

"We will address potential regulatory impediments to the take-up of innovative demand-side initiatives and smart grid technologies," COAG said.

[Steve Bennett]

idm.net.au

July 3, 2009 Digital record-keeping has won a place in the $A60 billion program of Defence spending announced this week by the Minister John Faulkner.

Project Eden has been announced as a major initiative to deliver an Electronic Document and Records Management solution (EDRMS) within the next five-years as part of a major push to modernise Australia's defence capabilities.

The list of acquisitions announced in the Defence Capability Plan (DCP) 2009 includes provision for 100 new fighter aircraft, 12 submarines and 24 naval combat helicopters; as well as replacements for the existing Armidale patrol boats and mine-hunters.

Project Eden is described as a project to buy, select and implement an electronic document and records management solution (EDRMS) to meet Defence's compliance obligations for record-keeping.

Senator Faulkner said the Defence Capability Plan (DCP) contains a large number of opportunities for Australian industry.

Project Acorn is described as a "solution to improve Defence’s current levels of effectiveness and efficiency in managing its holdings of physical and electronic records and ensure ongoing compliance with legislated and standards-based mandatoryCommonwealth record-keeping obligations.

"The project will leverage off additional capability that the selected solution might provide in order to realise additional benefits that contribute towards meeting the information and content management business needs of Defence users accessing the Defence Restricted and Secret Networks.

"The deployed solution is intended to overcome deficiencies associated with the use of disparate records and document management systems across the department through utilisation of a standard ECM tool,standardisation of business processes and enhanced capability that enables departmental knowledge management and business intelligence initiatives.

Some indication of purchasing intent is provided in the DCP, which states "hardware and software is anticipated to be acquired as Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) items available from Australian suppliers.

"Significant industry opportunity is anticipated for the provision of services that encompass information communications technology (ICT) systems design, integration, installation and commissioning of system components. The project is expected to be a major business change management initiative and significant opportunity for industry involvement is anticipated in the fields of information architecture, business analysis and process engineering, change management and user training."

Shadow Minister for Defence David Johnston claims the 2009 Defence Capability Plan is an outrageously vague document.

“Out of 229 pages that make up the plan there is only the vaguest hint at what any new acquisition will cost defence, and the costs that are mentioned are broad pricing bands, extremely broad, and that is simply not good enough,” Senator Johnston said.

“Not only has the DCP been reduced from the previous planning time frame of 10 years to an inexplicable four years, but costs are described broadly as being between some where and some where.”

A specific budget for Project Acorn was not included in the plan announced this week by the federal government.

[zamir]

SAP being used to monitor swine flu
Inside SAP Magazine, 20 Aug 2009

by: Nathan Dukes

With autumn approaching in the Northern Hemisphere, health services in the United States are finding ways to utilise SAP and Business Intelligence to predict patterns of swine flu infection.

In New York, SAP is giving hospitals visibility into trends around patient arrival times, which allows them to better manage staff.

The software is being used in a similar way in Australia. Trevor McKinnon, Director of BIS in Sydney West Area Health Service made a presentation to delegates at the SAUG Summit earlier this month about how they use Xcelsius dashboards to improve patient experience.

SAP TV has produced a story which provides details on the issues and how SAP is being used.

[admin]

ABS to set up data processing centre ahead of 2011 Census
700-strong workstation environment to run a Census dress rehearsal in September 2010

CIO Magazine, Tim Lohman 25 August, 2009 13:45:00

Tags: abs, Australian Bureau of Statistics, census, government
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is to set up a massive data processing centre by September next year ahead of the August 2011 Census of Population and Housing.

In tender documents the ABS said the data processing centre, expected to be rolled out in the Melbourne CBD, would likely consist of about 700 workstations, mostly thin client hardware serving virtual desktops, but also including notebooks and thick clients.

The workstations will run a standard managed desktop environment including Windows XP SP3, Lotus Notes 8.5, Lotus Symphony and/or OpenOffice.org, and other specific purpose and security software.

Windows Server 2008 will provide file, print and naming services, along with Oracle 11g as the preferred database service. TCP/IP over 100Mbps switched Ethernet LANs and a Frame Relay WAN will be used for connectivity.

The September deadline coincides with a planned dress rehearsal run of the 2011 Census, which will see around 20,000 test forms, scanned and processed over several passes to ensure all Census processing sub-systems are performing satisfactorily and is also used to determine operational throughput rates and staffing requirements.

The 2011 Census itself is expected to see a scanning and data collation workload of an about eighty million double-sided sheets, to be scanned in an estimated 100 working days.

To manage this workload the ABS is seeking an additional two scanners which also have the ability to scan around 32,000 coloured maps and store these images for future use in the Census processing environment.

According to the tender documents, the 2001 and 2006 Censuses scanning hardware for the 2006 Census solution consisted of 13 heavy duty scanners which were operated from 7.30am to 6pm, 5 days a week, for 20 weeks.

Intelligent character recognition (ICR) technology for data capture Census forms was also used.

In June this year the ABS said it was looking to spend up to $450,000 on a new a information technology desktop asset management solution to replace its existing software management system (SMS) with the goal of getting a better handle over the 600 or so applications used across its PCs and notebooks. In April it announced that it had virtualised its server infrastructure to form its own private cloud with the potential to host the 2016 eCensus thus avoiding a $9 million outsourcing contract.

[Doug Heywood]

If you are interested in data sets from the NSW Government then check out their portal at:

DATA.nsw.gov.au | NSW Government

Their information strategy roadmap is online at a sister site:

INFORMATION.nsw.gov.au | NSW Government

The next thing you know they might actually adopt XBRL!