Suppliers selected to drive online market

CorProcure, the big online marketplace being set up by 14 big Australians, has announced the suppliers that will provide the turnkey technology required for the establishment of its e-market. The lucky five are:

Commerce One and SAP, which will provide the technology platform for the marketplace. In addition, corProcure will form an alliance with mySAP.com;Telstra and PricewaterhouseCoopers, which will deliver offshore marketplace hosting, network infrastructure and systems integration to facilitate the rapid deployment of the SAP/Commerce One contributions; andWeb design company marchFirst, which will design the corProcure Web site and intranet.

Cameron Moroney, interim CEO of corProcure, said the structure of the solutions, including the unexpected decision to have Telstra host the marketplace from facilities in Asia, would speed the delivery of the site. Moroney explained that hosting the marketplace offshore reflected a decision to take advantage of opportunities created by new product development and rapid deployment from Commerce One and SAP, which would optimise speed to market.

Detailed planning for build, integration and testing of the exchange is underway, and corProcure is negotiating with other suppliers and developers for the provision of technology and services over the medium to long term as the marketplace evolves.

Watchdog bites back at Telstra

Just two weeks ago Telstra dared the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to make a final determination on PSTN access pricing so that Telstra could formally appeal against it in the Australian Competition Tribunal (Insider Edition of The Rust Report, September 8). The ACCC has responded, with a few sharp digs of its own against the carrier's carry-on.

"The debate over interconnection has been ongoing for three years, largely as a result of Telstra providing undertakings to the ACCC that it could clearly not accept," explained Allan Asher, the commission's acting chairman.

Asher made his comments as the ACCC finalised arbitration of two disputes over charges for access to Telstra's fixed line phone network notified by AAPT and Primus. The resolutions are private but while Asher was unable to give details, he did pour scorn on Telstra's claim that the commission's findings in the past had been "hypothetical".

Asher said that the ACCC used a widely accepted efficient cost approach in making its determinations and Telstra's claim that the ACCC's work on interconnection was hypothetical "is simply inaccurate". He added that ACCC's cost model is closely based on the intended network "which Telstra itself is still putting into place".

"The ACCC is confident that, should Telstra proceed with its challenge, the ACCC's approach to estimating efficient costs will be upheld by the tribunal," he concluded.

Sun rises to Swish welcome

Swish Group, the listed Victorian supplier of e-commerce solutions, has turned to Sun Microsystems as a preferred technology supplier and partner for its operations. Swish recently used hardware from Sun when fitting out a new telco-grade data centre and hosting facility, which uses switching equipment from Cisco and bandwidth supplied by C&W Optus.

In confirming its partnership with Sun, Swish had validated its data centre and e-commerce strategy and development capabilities, claimed Paul Norton, COO of Swish. "The partnership will deliver Swish increased revenue by providing increased access to market opportunities," he added.

Swedish developer wins online storefrontSwedish software developer Industrial and Financial Systems (IFS) has won a contract to provide its fourth-generation IFS Applications to build the storefront for Spotlight Online, the Internet division of the Spotlight fabric, craft and furnishings retailer.

Neil Tambourine, CIO of Spotlight Online, said that an Internet presence was a vital complement to the company's 86 stores in Australia, NZ and Singapore. "To ensure we maintained our customer service philosophy and to enhance the experience of our online community, it was imperative we upgraded our existing back office and support functions with a business applications system that could support our e-business initiatives," Tambourine explained.

IFS opened its first Australian office in Melbourne in January with Rob Simmons as managing director.

Skills exchange set for October start

In a united attempt to tackle the skills shortage an IT&T Skills Exchange, formed with seed money from the Federal Government matched by funds from industry, is set to begin operations next month. The not-for-profit exchange, which will work closely with the IT&T industry's Training Advisory Board as well as educators and state governments, will operate nationally through a network of agents.

A statement issued by the IT&T Skills Task Force noted that the exchange will:

Work with the industry and education sectors to anticipate emerging skills needs and develop appropriate education and training courses, particularly short, specialised top-up courses;Work with employers, and especially SMEs, to assess the skill needs of their staffs and act as a broker to provide those needs; andIncrease awareness of IT&T career opportunities.

Further information from www.noie.gov.auWindows hits best seller list with MEMicrosoft has created another best seller in the form of its new consumer PC operating system Windows Millennium Edition. Even though the new operating system is a less compelling upgrade that Windows 95 was five years ago, ME sold 250,000 units during its first four days on the US market, according to figures released by PC Data. It is expected to sell more than 400,000 units in its first month, and at the current sales rate, will easily pass one million units sold at retail before the end of the year.

PC Data noted that Windows 95 and Windows 98 each sold 600,000 units in their first month on the market and each went on to sell two million units in the first six months.

"Windows ME has a way to go before it comes the top selling product of the year," a spokesman explained, adding that it is nonetheless a very significant release. "Windows ME is the most important new piece of software in 2000," he claimed.

News grabs

Yes we think we do know how you feel about the Olympics. But spare a thought for US call centre operator TeleTech, which was so concerned about Games-induced absenteeism that it introduced a number of incentives to keep its staff turning up for work. Included was a raffle for a Ford car, with each employee getting a ticket for each shift completed. Other incentives included TV sets on every floor, free breakfasts and afternoon teas, competitions with Olympics tickets as prizes, and special draws each time an Australian wins gold. Interesting to note that some of the incentives will be retained when the games are long gone.

If the Olympics posed a threat to TeleTech, it was greeted as an opportunity by Austrade, which is today (Friday September 22) hosting more than 150 international guests, including investors from the global high technology sector, to a two-hour forum at Darling Harbour in Sydney. The function, known as Information and Communication Technology - An Open Space Forum, will be held at the Business Club Australia, which has been set up by Austrade in an attempt to "attract $A1 billion in combined new export and investment revenue to Australia".

The Victorian Government has provided $A6 million to a group of six universities that are forming the Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing. The funds will be used to acquire a supercomputer, which will be housed at VPAC's headquarters at RMIT. A government spokesman said the funding of VPAC has secured Victoria's participation in the Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing located at the Australian National University.

The Australian Department of Defence has entered an agreement with Veritas Software which gives it the right to use Veritas File Systems and Volume Management software for five years without geographic, organisational structure or other related constraints, a spokesman explained.

Ultilicon, the utility sector division of Sydney's Terrapinn Group, has created an Internet portal for utilities in the Asia/Pacific region. The portal provides news and information about technology updates and policy initiatives on electricity, gas, water and telecommunications, a spokesman explained. www.utilicon.com.auGood news for China and a big bunch of US companies wanting to do business there: the US Senate this week passed legislation that creates permanent normal trade relations with China. The Bill was given strong support by high-technology companies and is expected to open China's markets to further computer, software, and telecommunications equipment manufacturers. An additional boost will come when China enters the World Trade Organisation, which is expected to happen late this year or early in 2001.

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More about AAPTAustralian Competition and Consumer CommissionAustralian Competition and Consumer CommissionAustralian Partnership for Advanced ComputingAustralian Trade Commission (Austrade)Commerce OneCorprocureC&W OptusDepartment of DefenceIFSIndustrial and Financial SystemsIT&T Skills ExchangeMarchFirstmySAP.comNOIEOptusPricewaterhouseCoopersPricewaterhouseCoopersPrimus AustraliaProvisionRMITSAP AustraliaSun MicrosystemsSwish GroupTeleTechTelstra CorporationTerrapinn AustraliaVeritasVeritas SoftwareVictorian Partnership for Advanced ComputingWoolworthsWorld Trade Organisation

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