By Tony Clement

The apparent Internet lull and absence of the Internet and the Web in the headlines belies the significant progress currently being made in defining the future of electronic business in Australia. Quietly, behind the scenes, advances are being made to establish a robust, accessible framework that can be used by all businesses to cost effectively join organisations that have already experienced the benefits of using the Internet for business-to-business (B2B) e-business. Standards Australia and the National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE) are leading one such groundbreaking project – The Registry and (SMB Connector) Toolkit pilot.

One of the key leanings of the dot.com era is the realisation of the need for e-business standards. E-business standards underpin the practical use of electronic business for all businesses large and small. Standards are the building blocks on which all business can exchange information at a computer to computer level reducing the cost of transactions from dollars to pennies and perhaps even more importantly creating value chain transparency through instant access to (near) real-time information. E-business standards transcend purely technical standards expanding to the creation of business standards that define a framework for business-to-business interoperability. The emerging business model identifies the requirement for “public” and “private” infrastructure. Electronic business public infrastructure can be compared with transportation public infrastructure for which Federal, State and Local Governments share standard rules, manage, and govern use and private users fund (through taxes and tolls), use and leverage for commercial gain.

The Registry and SMB Connector Pilot project defines the framework for a national public registry which contains business forms like invoices and consignment notes, and the business processes that manage their flow through business value chains from end-to-end. These business processes and forms can be used and reused by businesses implementing them within their internal systems and extending them to their business partners. The reuse of public processes eliminates the costly and redundant need for every industry and every business to define standard transactions. Reusing public horizontal business processes (processes that every business uses like invoicing) means that businesses don’t need to create a different invoice process for cross industry use (i.e. manufacturers and agribusinesses buy office supplies and travel). Vertical industry processes, in the grains industry for example, receiving a grain delivery at a silo, can also be standardized by reusing and extending the attributes of a similar horizontal process like a goods receipt. Reuse of open, standard business processes will save industry millions of dollars in software development and facilitates exchange of standard electronic documents from business of any size to any other business.

The Small Medium Business (SMB) Connector allows software vendors like MYOB, Quicken, Agrimaster and Microsoft, to connect their applications to the Registry’s standard forms and business processes allowing small and medium businesses to cost effectively and easily (little technical complexity) exchange electronic documents with large businesses. Simply by installing an add-on or by purchasing the appropriate software upgrade, SMBs can use standard desktop computer applications to meet large business electronic document exchange and processing requirements.

The Government, large businesses, SMBs, and technology providers have all been identified as key stakeholders and have important and essential roles to play in a national electronic business framework. Standards Australia is the ideal owner/manager of electronic business standards allowing other stakeholders to use e-business standards (that comply with international standards) to satisfy their specific requirements and simultaneously contribute to the greater good. Undoubtedly, through the use of electronic business standards every industry will realise efficiency benefits to reduce costs and expand marketing opportunities to increase profitability. AWB Limited believes that establishing e-business standards in the grains industry will benefit Australian growers by expanding marketing options and increasing accessibility to information; increasing transparency of grain movement information to bulk handlers and transport companies to reduce supply chain costs; and improving traceability to increase value to end use customers of Australian bulk grains.

Today, a national electronic business framework is emerging. It’s still early days as new realisations are made new questions arise. The only way to answer them is to just get on with it. NOIE and Standards Australia are providing the leadership and management for Australia to become a global leader in electronic business. The Federal Government should harmonise all electronic business initiatives to achieve this aim. Large, medium and small private businesses must rise above petty differences to adopt and implement Australian electronic business standards (that comply with global standards) to achieve GDP gains to benefit all Australians.

Mr Tony Clement is General Manager, Business Solutions at AWB Limited - Australia's major national grain marketing organisation and one of the world's largest wheat management and marketing companies.