Software Queensland was somewhat disappointed by the Premier Anna Bligh’s address to approximately 800 ICT Industry attendees at the annual AIIA/ACS luncheon on Thursday 22nd July at the Brisbane Convention Centre.

Despite being granted an incredible opportunity to win over an industry which involves approximately 70,000 employees, 6,000 employers, and generates over $29B per annum in revenues, the Premier chose to spend more than 10 minutes of her address extolling the virtues of the Queensland Games sector which employs less than 1000 staff, and is at best a boutique sector.

Delegates were underwhelmed by the lack of vision and inspiration provided in the speech.

Credit must however be given to the Premier for her references to the causes of the Health Payroll debacle, and her referencing of  the Auditor General’s report which cited people management shortfalls rather than software and hardware issues as the root cause of the failure. However, there was an undercurrent of blame with both the Vendor and the Technology that was of concern.

This led to a further admission of shortcomings and a consequential review of Corptech’s functions, which smelt strongly of a failure of shared services as a practical operating model with mega agencies such as Health.

SQ recalls the plethora of advice provided to the State Government from the ICT industry which advised against embarking on a shared services model across all agencies in the Queensland Government at the outset of this initiative, and the fact that this advice was ignored.

Details regarding the NBN rollout were sparse other than 3 Queensland sites being nominated for rollout.

With regards to the good intentions of growth, development and nurturing of the ICT industry in Queensland, scarcely a strategy was mentioned.

And regarding the growth, development and nurturing of SMEs in the State, nothing of value was said at all, despite an acknowledgement that the cradle of creativity lies with the SMEs.

Anna always impresses with her delivery and verbal dexterity, but when you have a bland and virtually content free speech, this was nothing other than an opportunity squandered.

John Vickers
Chair – Software Queensland

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Software Queensland Supports Government Transparency on Qld Health Payroll Reports

As the voice of Queensland Headquartered SMEs, Software Queensland congratulates the State Government on publishing the Auditor General’s report on the Queensland Auditor General’s website. We are most encouraged by this frankness and consider it a considerable positive step towards increasing maturity in informing the public. As Queenslanders and stakeholders in the Queensland Government’s tax payer funded projects, we are all affected by performance shortfalls.

Regarding the Queensland Health Payroll system project, Software Queensland would like to comment, that while there are some references to the Information Technology system’s performance, there has been specific Executive headline reference in the Auditor General’s report to governance, requirements management, project management, risk management and process shortfalls as the primary causes of “system” failure.

As an Industry association Software Queensland is proud of the Queensland ICT industry’s reputation both nationally and internationally. References to “system” failure may create negative perceptions in the Public’s mind of poor ICT industry performance, and risks bringing the local ICT industry into disrepute. The implementation of new mission critical Software anywhere, is complex and involves significant planning, requirements specification, governance, risk and project management disciplines. Applied expertise in change

management and training is fundamental to any “system’s” successful implementation. All these activities working in harmony to achieve an agreed outcome, comprise an information “system”, rather than solely software or technology.

We encourage Queensland Government agencies to institutionalise the lessons learnt from the Queensland Health Payroll project, as they are regarded as generic to significant ICT projects, not only in the Public, but equally the Private sectors.

We believe that allowing the ICT Industry Work Group and their participating Associations to advise and assist Government Agencies, who are undertaking once in a generation significant ICT projects, will go a long way to ensuring that Government projects are successfully executed. This in turn will reduce risks, as there is no substitute for sharing experience and accessing first class mentorship in order to deliver significant projects funded by the public purse.

- ENDS -

Software Queensland (www.softwareqld.com.au) is the recognised professional industry association for those companies working in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector in Queensland who manufacture, license and sell their own intellectual property. Software Queensland seeks to raise awareness of the ICT industry and represent its member’s views to government, industry and the community. It provides both members and non-members with opportunities for professional education and networking, as well as enabling them to contribute to the development of their industry. Today the association has more than seventy member companies including national and internationally renowned ICT identities such as Microsoft, IBM, Mincom, Wotif, GBST, Technology One, Shortcuts Software, Softlink, and Sundata.

Contact:
Glenn Irvine, Secretary & Media Liaison
secretary@softwareqld.com.au
+61 405 010 999

Good evening and welcome to our SW QLD members’ meeting.

A special thank you for turning out on a cold winter evening, I hope to make it worth your while.

How we will proceed is as follows;

• Chair’s perspective
• Feedback on behalf of Glenn Irvine, and Michael Blumenstein
• Mark Nicklin ICTIWG
• Bruce Mills membership and Moreton Bay Region
• Chris Gorry Events
• Q&A
• Apologies are proffered on behalf of Michael Blumenstein, Glenn Irvine, and Sue Wickenden

We continue to have a busy and productive time, we continue to punch above our weight as an Association, and the virtue of patience is paying off.

Much of what we do is not headline grabbing, it is out of the public’s sight, and regrettably under confidential communication arrangements.

Mark will provide feedback on our activities on the ICTIWG which is the premier industry lobby group and on which we represent one third of industry participation.

We have further news on the Development Work Group and the Finance/DEEDI  Minister’s Industry Advisory Group (ICTMAG) and where we are represented by Glenn Irvine.

We continue to play a role in specific industry strategic priorities and have selected as our areas of interest, Industry metrics and SME participation schemes as the priorities we will prosecute.

We continue to respond assertively to Government requests  and will continue to put the interests of Queensland Headquartered businesses first.

Two matters might be mentioned ;

• The Premier’s forthcoming lunch address in July was originally planned to be an AIIA event only and we were approached by the ACS to assist in changing the AIIA’s parochial attitude to give recognition to the event as an AIIA led one but on behalf of the entire ICT industry. This was subsequently achieved by some fairly robust interchanges.
• The Qld Health Payroll implementation has seen some further robust interchanges with the ICTIWG, as it is our belief that the ICT industry should not continue to remain as silent as it has in the face of this ICT project debacle. However sanity had to prevail and we have decided to wait for the Auditor General’s report this week before commenting publically. This was not an easy compromise.
• Some dates and details to remember
  • SW Qld Xmas function 30^th November
  • July 22^nd Premier’s luncheon address
  • World Computer Congress in September
  • WIT Board readiness programme – please check our web site.

An Innovation fund of $15m was announced with the latest Queensland budget and this has been a huge win, facilitated by the ICT Work Group, to enable funding of companies who promote and advance innovation through ICT. Details will be released in forthcoming weeks.

I am very pleased to announce that Prof. Blumenstein from Griffith University has joined our Board. He will bring much that we will benefit from and I provide more details below..

We have also lost two Board members, Paul Osborne and Damien Cassin, who have resigned due to work commitments.

Secretarial report  - Glenn Irvine

The following are the points from the ICTMAG and ICTDWG Meetings since the last Member’s Meeting:

Since our last Member’s Meeting Software Queensland has been actively involved in the creation of two new lobbying bodies for the Industry in Queensland.

With the assistance of the Executive Officer of the ICT Workgroup and Past Chair of Software Queensland, Paul Campbell, the State Government has assisted the raising of two new advocacy groups via DEEDI. These are:

• the ICT Ministerial Advisory Group for the Qld Treasurer & Minister for Innovation, Andrew Fraser &
• the ICT Industry Development Workgroup (Closely mirroring the ICT Workgroup in Public Works, but with a focus on Developing the Industry

Software Queensland is represented on both bodies by our Board Secretary, Glenn Irvine, who unfortunately could not attend tonight’s meeting.

The ICT Ministerial Advisory Group (ICTMAG) provides industry input to the Minister to inform ongoing ICT policy direction. It provides a mechanism for advice in relation to the challenges facing the industry, its growth needs and associated issues, particularly those related to ICT industry development strategy. The ICTMAG acts like a steering committee for the initiatives needed to boost our industry in three key areas:

• ICT Job Creation
• Exploiting the National Broadband Initiative (NBN)
• Promoting the Industry and the benefits gained by industries that use ICT

The first meeting of the ICTMAG was held last month (28 May) with the Treasurer in attendance. Software Queensland was represented at the meeting by SQ Secretary Glenn Irvine, and raised the issue of creating an accurate baseline of the industry metrics with the Treasurer, stating that an analysis of the size of the industry (in people and revenue) was necessary to gauge growth. The Treasurer agreed with this and one of the two actions out of the meeting was a directive given to the ADG and Paul Russell to establish the appropriate mechanism for this study. Chair of the ICTMAG, David Barbagallo asked Glenn to head the investigation with NICTA CEO, Prof Terry Caelli, and ACS Representative, Trevor Henderson assisting. Glenn has attended two meetings with the department since this and early indications are that we may be able to leverage some existing ABS information for this purpose.

The ICT Development Workgroup is largely the executive arm of the ICTMAG and is largely tasked with mounting initiatives raised by the ICTMAG and by it’s representative Associations.

The Development Workgroup, like the ICTMAG, has a broad membership, including many of the smaller associations, the structure of which was strongly supported by Software Queensland.

It is chartered with:

• Building and strengthening the ICT Industry
• To lobby the government on behalf of the Qld ICT Industry Associations in order to strengthen the economic competitiveness of the ICT Sector in the State
• Raise Public & Political awareness of the size and economic importance of the Qld ICT industry

Currently the first few meetings of the ICTDWG have led to an investigation of hosting of an ICT Jobs Summit. The committee is currently assessing the value of this activity. John Vickers has attended some of these meetings.

Glenn would like to gauge SQ Member’s views on this activity, and also on the need for an Industry advertising campaign.

Dr Michael Blumenstein

Dr Michael Blumenstein is an Associate Professor and the Dean (Research) of the Science, Environment, Engineering and Technology Group at Griffith University where he previously served as Head of the School of Information and Communication Technology. Michael is a nationally and internationally recognised expert in the areas of automated Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence technologies. He has published over 80 papers/articles in books, refereed conferences and journals. His research spans numerous projects applying Artificial Intelligence to the fields of Engineering, Environmental Science, Neurobiology and Coastal Management. Michael has secured a number of internal/nationally competitive research grants to undertake these projects with funds exceeding $3.5 Million. Many of these projects have been undertaken in collaboration with industry and with the support of government. Components of his research into the predictive assessment of beach conditions have been developed for use by local government agencies, coastal management authorities and in commercial applications.

Michael has been invited to serve on a number of Journal Editorial Boards and to act as Organising Chair, Program Chair and Committee member for numerous national/international conferences in his areas of expertise. He has been invited to deliver talks and keynote speeches in Australia and overseas on the topics of Artificial Intelligence, Pattern Recognition and their application to real-world problems. He is also the Gold Coast Chapter Convener of the Australian Computer Society in Queensland. In 2009 Michael was named as one of Australia’s Top 10 Emerging Leaders in Innovation in the Australian’s Top 100 Emerging Leaders Series supported by Microsoft.

An AGM for IT Gold Coast (ITGC) was held last week on Thursday, June 24th. This represents the first meeting of the organisation since it went into hiatus late last year. Representatives from industry and the Gold Coast City Council were in attendance (including the Manager of Economic Development). A new committee was elected, including myself as Chairman. Aside from the standard items on the agenda, an extended (general) discussion took place about a number of items including (a) the re-branding of the organisation, (b) a plan for the organisation to represent and interact with the ICT industry on the Gold Coast but also to facilitate strong links with industry and professional bodies across the state e.g. Software Queensland, and (c) a way forward to engage closely with the Gold Coast City Council to enable appropriate support for the organisation’s activities at a local level. The first meeting of the new committee is scheduled for Wednesday 30th June at 6pm. Amongst other things, the items touched upon at the AGM will be discussed in detail, and a plan for moving forward will be initiated for a new and revitalised organisation.

Chair’s Conclusion

Software Queensland continues to remain inclusive and focussed on future growth of ICT businesses in Queensland. Remember we include not only Software development companies, but all ICT functionality – as along as you are Qld Headquartered, we will represent you.

This is not about us, this is not about now. Our fundamental reason is to advance ICT business in Queensland and ensure a basis for the future, for our sons and daughters and other generations to follow.

We really need to bring women back into our industry, opening careers and advancement, and we are the premier industry for allowing women to work from home in that hugely important period for the year after having babies. In my experience some of the very best project managers for ICT have been women.

We are working with the ACS to revive professional qualifications and development pathways for aspiring Industry participants. This is where Dr Blumenstein can assist us.

Furthermore we seek to expand our influence on the Gold Coast and will work with Michael to make this happen.

I would also like to thank our sponsors for their support, especially IBM Chris Walker from IBM, who never fails to attend our functions. Thank you.

To the Bronco’s club and staff, a very special thanks for what they did for us tonight.

To my committee, the executive, thank you for your work – we are all volunteers, and I know when you come to meetings and functions and put in the hard work, it is actually your business that is doing so, because you are the business.

Software Queensland remains the most assertive of the Associations and will not allow itself to be influenced by the culture of fear – fear of loss of Government business if one speaks out – fear of being ostracized by other associations if we differ in opinion. If we honestly believe in something we will take action, but it will be measured and it will make business sense. We do not believe in criticism without foundation, alternatively we do not believe in being cowered into silence, because silence is consent and history is redolent with examples of silence when speaking out was required. Finally we want to ensure that Software Queensland is pursuing an Industry agenda and prosecuting it constructively. With your support and membership I am sure we will do so successfully.

Thank you and please join us for refreshments and networking.

John Vickers
Chair

Software Queensland is a proud supporter of the Premier’s ICT Industry Luncheon to be held on July 22nd at the Brisbane Convention Centre.

The Premier will speak about the Government’s plans for the information technology industry in Queensland.

When
Thursday 22 July 2010

Registration
from 12.00pm, seated by 12.30pm
completed by 2.00pm

Where
Plaza Ballroom, Plaza Level
Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre
Merivale Street, South Brisbane

Car Parking
Use Carpark 1 (Merivale Street entry).
Take elevator to Foyer, then 2 sets of escalators to Plaza level

Cost
$88.00 per person (including GST)
(includes wine with lunch: cash bar for pre-lunch drinks)
Payment must be made prior to the event.

Corporate Tables
Corporate tables of ten available (one person free): payable by one charge only with no individual accounts, at the advertised rates.

RSVP
Monday 19 July 2010 (all reservations will be acknowledged).
Payment must be made prior to the event.
Please Note: If payment is not received at the time of booking, an invoice will be sent with the confirmation email. Payment is due unless cancellation advice is received in writing 2 days prior to the event.

Register
To register email aiia@conferenceit.com.au or phone Jane Alexander on 07 3878 9470.

Payment
Payment must be made prior to the event.
Please complete the payment details form and fax to AIIA on 3378 9513. Payments can be made via Credit Card (Mastercard, Visa Card, American Express or Diners Club Card), or Cheque. Please note that unless other arrangements have been negotiated, payment is required prior to the commencement of the event. Non-payment of an invoice prior to the event may result in cancellation of your registration. Payment is due unless cancellation advice is received in writine 2 days prior to the event.

An official email confirmation will be forwarded to you prior to the RSVP date. If you do not receive this email please contact 3878 9470.

The Women in IT (WiT) ICT Industry association is running a Board Readiness course that is now available to all Software Queensland members (Both Women and Men).

If you are interested in this program please register your interest in the following link:

WiT Board Readiness Course

Regards,

Glenn Irvine
Secretary – Software Queensland

Speech by John Vickers at Software Queensland’s Members Meeting on Wednesday 13 April 2010

Honoured guests, members of Software Queensland and Members of the Software Queensland Board; thank you very much for turning up this evening to this impressive venue.
I would particularly like to welcome my fellow Chair the chair of ACS Queensland, Laura Daniels, Denis Brown of Enterprise Connect and Chris Walker from IBM, one of our major sponsors.
I really appreciate the fact that you have taken the time and trouble because in many instances, you are the business.
A parallel I would like to draw is the fact that we are on the premises of a truly authentic Queensland organisation, the Broncos. You don’t get more Queensland than that. In the same vein, Software Queensland represents authentic Queensland headquartered ICT organisations. You don’t get more Queensland than that either.
We as Software Queensland are intent on galvanising our organisation to represent Queensland businesses.
Make no mistake; it hasn’t been easy-going in our industry since the good times of a few years ago. Here is a short synopsis of some of our activities.
We:
• Reintroduced our new website and ensured that it remained current;
• Introduced and awarded the first Software Queensland medal to recognise an SME achiever, in this instance Andrew Eddie of the Joomla! Project;
• Had a great Peer Group lunch at which the winner of our inaugural Software Queensland medal, Andrew Eddie from Toowoomba was speaker, and this series will continue;
• Will be launching our new chapter in Moreton Bay Region on the 23rd April;
• Have widened our inclusive net to not only include members in Software development, but all Queensland headquartered ICT businesses. In this we seek to be more inclusive, less exclusive and bring value and influence;
• Participated in three $2M reviews with Government procurement;
• Have two permanent members working on the ICT Industry Work Group, Bruce Mills and Mark Nicklin;
• Have Glenn Irvine representing us on the IMAG and the Industry Development Work Group;
• Played a leading role in the establishment of the ICT contractors agreement with CPO and continue to participate in that other gem the establishment of the E services panel, all in the cause of Government cost efficiency; (in this regard we prefer a goal of creating “ best in Australia” processes and structures for the benefit of SME business rather than putting in effort to ”save costs for Government” – the recent debacles in Government Insulation and BER projects have left us somewhat jaded about curtailing industry growth to “save Government costs”, only to see potential savings wasted by multiples.)
• Have profile syndication offers on the table from Longhaus and Delimiter – both of whom will profile a member through their media syndicates;
• Have education and training initiatives underway with QUT, Griffith and the TAFEs;
• Were proud to sponsor the ACS annual ICT awards recently; and
• Had a joint Board meeting with ACS with a view to greater collaboration on a number of projects.
However we need to lift our profile, and issues like the recent debacle with the Queensland Health payroll project put this industry in a bad light. This is one reason why we are supporting the ACS drive for ICT Industry professionalization.
Nevertheless, it illustrates to us the dangers which still lurk in major, $100M, five year IT projects, and gives pause as to what role local industry could perhaps have played if given the opportunity.
One of our top focus points is the drive to increase members. We need members, because we need to influence some of the agendas being prosecuted by Government and by industry.
Do not underestimate the importance of these agendas, most of which are drawn up with every intention of public good, but with unintended consequences which could severely damage the industry.
Left brain versus right brain economies illustrate the difference between creative, intellectual property led economies (right brain), and manufacturing, price/volume dominated economies (left brain)– that is why we need to cherish and nurture our IP, our creativity, or lose the race to prosperity in the 21st century. We live in volatile times, and ICT is the prime vehicle to drive both productivity and creativity, both of which Australia excels in.
We can still be the Smart State, leading the way for the rest of Australia; we have showed the way with the ICTIWG, (which no other State has in operation), collaborating in areas to encourage action and investment where we perceive growth in industry value and discouraging where the opposite is the case.
Once more thank you, I look forward to even better news in the near future as we continue to grow in numbers and influence.
Please continue to support us,we don’t have permanent staff, and we are still relatively small. But my goodness, we do pack a punch and we do make a difference.

Thank you

John Vickers
Chair – Software Qld

Best Practice

In the first of this series of some deliberately controversial and alternate views, I would like to address the popular phrase “Best Practice”.

All too often this phrase is used in the sales process to justify a statement on product or service features or inform customers as to why costs are so high.
It sounds very authoritative and is seldom challenged.
Heaven forbid that the customer is attempting to acquire a system or service which does not reflect or comply with “best practice”!
However a little due diligence will soon reveal that this phrase is mostly without foundation and in most cases, with little or no empirical evidence to back it up.
All too often it represents the latest magazine article meanderings, and industry gossip.

There is no body of knowledge which is able to present itself as representing “Best Practice”, and which had been accepted as the definitive reference in the industry.
There is no one ‘best practice’; there are common, recognised, repeatable and well defined practices (like PRINCE, TOGAF etc.). There are also practices and endeavours that have been undertaken by organisations of a similar size, in perhaps a similar vertical market with perhaps closely aligned strategic priorities. We can learn from these, use what is applicable and bring about a solution that meets our customers’ requirements (and depending on the root of those requirements, very different practices will be applied).

So part of what our customers are asking for when they ask for best practice is exactly what’s been stated above. They are after common (proven, documented and well founded), pragmatic (common sense, easily and effectively applied without adding overhead) and applicable (meeting their specific needs) practices that will bring about a desirable outcome, that may be measured.

In large projects, where there are several parties involved over a long period of time, real benefit can be gained from adopting a common practice that allows everyone involved to have a common language and a common set of procedures or defined outcomes that will allow for greater collaboration between parties. If you take the engineering analogy, there are several standards like ISO and DIN for numerous aspects of the project, all with the aim of producing an outcome or product that will work with other compliant products. It would be impossible to successfully undertake any major engineering venture without these standards being adhered to. There are any number of these common practices across every industry with similar aims, think accounting standards, medical terminology etc.

Further to the above, the unspoken agenda behind “best practice” is all too often – “best expenditure budget” – because that is what it is going to take to aspire to this lofty goal.
It does not come cheaply, after all it’s “best practice”.
We do a disservice to our customers if we don’t tone down the rhetoric, recognise that there are indeed recognised industry benchmarks, which might be termed “best”, but which might not suit our customer’s requirements at all and in the final analysis it’s all about meeting the customer’s requirements.
Problems arise when we seek to undertake a practice and lose sight of the customer requirements. Slavish adherence to a given methodology, just so we can say ‘we are Agile\Extreme\Waterfall compliant’ for example, is a sure path to project failure.

I would rather prefer to hear the terms“ pragmatic practice” or “common practice”, i.e. something which fits the business, and meets requirements than “best practice”, which is usually a reason for  overpricing and over specification.

Regards,

John Vickers
Chair – Software Queensland