Projects
The following are some of the projects undertaken by the Center For Open Systems.
Austraclear is the central clearinghouse for the Australian
bond and government securities marketplaces. CFOS provided
a technical audit and review role to the senior management group
on the proposed new national network infrastructure project (ANNI).
In this role, CFOS was responsible for the review of bids from
prospective network integrators, the translation of a network
architecture from concept to formal architecture and the definition
of a coherent network security framework.
Australian Government Guide on Open Systems (AGGOS)
CFOS acted as technical adviser to the Federal Government's Information Exchange Steering Committee (IESC) Open Systems Sub-Committee (OSSC) IESC on the production of the Australian Government Guide on Open Systems (AGGOS). This guide was distributed to all Federal Government Departments and State Governments to use in the planning and procurement of Open Systems solutions.
Australian Government Review of GOSIP and Open Systems Progress
CFOS were the lead consultant's on the Australian Government (under auspices of the Information Exchange Steering Committee) review of agency progress to GOSIP and Open Systems generally. This review formed the basis of a report to Cabinet on progress to date and recommended actions to achieve greater openness in Australian Government IT&T.
Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA)
CFOS remains very active in the AIIA, having provided industry
input into the Broadband Services Expert Group (BSEG),
especially in the area of multimedia standardisation. In addition
CFOS has had extensive involvement in formulating industry policy
advice on Australia's Standards Infrastructure as it applies to
the IT&T industries (covering de jure, defacto and industry
standards at domestic, regional and international levels. Australia's
role and opportunities within the Asia Pacific region (under the
APEC initiatives) have also been canvassed.
Australian Mezzanine Investments Pty. Ltd. - Market Assessment
In December 1996, CFOS conducted an independent commercial assessment on the Year 2000 Conversion Products market applicable to a company that Australian Mezzanine Investments Pty Ltd. were considering an investment in. The assessment examined the company's market potential and competitors in the Australian, Germany, Japanese, UK and USA markets for Year 2000 conversion products and services.
Australian Public Key Authentication Framework (PKAF)
Representing the interests of the finance and securities industries, CFOS worked within a small cross-industry taskforce to develop the cornerstone framework document for Electronic Commerce in Australia. The work of the PKAF Taskforce has been recognised worldwide as a major contribution to the establishment of the global electronic marketplace.
Australian Stock Exchange - Information Strategic Blueprint
Under the mandate of the Managing Director, a CFOS principal was chartered
with the design of a comprehensive Information Systems Architecture
for the Securities Industry in general and the ASX in particular.
This involved the interview of some 50 key industry leaders and
the distillation of some major industry and ASX strategic initiatives.
This work was independently reviewed by the ASX board and given
complete and unequivocal endorsement by that body. As a direct
follow-on from this work, an exhaustive board level strategic
planning exercise was initiated and CFOS directly participated
in this.
Australian Stock Exchange (ASX)
CFOS assisted the ASX in the selection of a suitable Systems and Network management solution for their NIPPA project. The ASX are installing an extensive nation-wide router based network (entitled NIPPA), approximately 200 brokers will be connected to key ASX business applications via this network. CFOS prepared the suite of dynamic system and network management evaluation tests to be undertaken by the two short-listed suppliers.
Australian Stock Exchange - Distributed Systems Architect
A CFOS principal consultant was the chief technical architect on a $26M project to design and deliver a distributed automated derivatives trading system. This project, successfully delivered on time and on budget in late 1997, deployed a high speed national network serving some 200 participants as well as international market connections. CFOS was responsible for the overall system design, security and systems management models as well as the deployment strategy. In parallel with this work, CFOS also provided systems integration consulting to the ASX in the development of an overall trading systems integration strategy.
Australian Stock Exchange (ASX)
CFOS assisted the ASX in specifying and procuring the Network and Systems Management Facilities (NSMF) for the Network Implementation and Production Project for the ASX (NIPPA). NIPPA is the underlying network for the two major mission critical development projects in the ASX (CLICK and SEATS 97). CFOS's task addresses network, systems and application management.
BHP IT: Department of Defence - RODNET Network Management Model (RNNM)
Under the auspices of BHP IT, CFOS developed a high level Network Management Model (NMM), including the policy and procedures, organizational and technology components for the RAAF's RODNET (nation wide communications infrastructure) project.
BHP IT - Response to Dept. of Social Security's Future IT Strategies
CFOS provided major assistance in the preparation of BHP Information
Technology's response to DSS's request for guidance on their 5
and 10 year IT&T strategies. Key themes considered in this
study were DSS's changing business environment and technological
change; such as the impact of electronic commerce and national
information infrastructures etc. Appropriate organizational responses
(technological, human resources, policy and financial) to these
changes were examined in depth, including the move to client/server
based distributed computing, the impact of groupware, and other
decision support technologies. Technologies for rapid application
deployment, data modeling and trends in distributed systems management
were also considered.
Celsius Tech Australia Pty. Ltd. - Battlefield Command and Control System (BCCS)
BCCS is a major initiative of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to computerise the Australia Army so as to ensure information superiority in the tactical domain (i.e. the battlespace). As architectural adviser to the project's prime systems integrator, Celsius Tech Australia (CTA), CFOS mentored the development of Operational, Technical and Systems architectures in accordance with The Open Group's Architectural Framework (TOGAF) and the USA Joint Technical Architecture (JTA). With a project start to initial deployment cycle of under a year, BCSS is widely regarded as the most ambitious computerisation project undertaken in the ADF and indeed many consider in the C2 domain worldwide. BCSS makes extensive use of modern procurement practices based on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products and a development approach using Joint and Rapid Application Development (J/RAD) techniques.
Celsius Tech Australia Pty. Ltd. - Technical Architecture
CFOS reviewed the design requirements and architectural alternatives for a major high security UNIX/Microsoft NT (Version 5.0) co-existence/transition project. This project examined Internet type technologies such as web browsers (Java and ActiveX based) for client access as well as system components embodying for instance, Microsoft's Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) and the Object Management Group's (OMG) Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA). Recent and forth coming (in NT V5.0) technologies such as Microsoft NT's Active Directory, the Security Support Provider Interface and the Distributed File System (Dfs) were assessed in depth.
Civil Aviation Safety Authority CASA - Information Technology Environment (ITE) Phase 2
On behalf of CASA's Information Management Branch (IMB) CFOS provided project management assistance for the second phase implementation of CASA's Information Technology Environment (ITE 2) project. A total of 21 CASA sites across Australia were provided with fully configured and tested Microsoft NT Servers, workstations, laptop computers and printers. In addition as part of this project all members of the CASA staff received specifically tailored training in Window 95 and Microsoft Office products
On behalf of CASA IT, CFOS conducted an independent evaluation
of the current CASA Information Technology Environment (ITE).
CFOS provided expert assistance in determining the level of compliance
between the ITE specification and the ITE currently being implemented
by industry. The evaluation included the completion of a series
of appropriately designed tests intended to prove/disprove conformance
with the ITE Technical Specification.
Corporate Utility's IT&T architecture
CFOS were the lead consultants on a review of a Corporate Utility's
IT&T architecture. They worked jointly with a selected team
of the client's IT specialists to produce a technical architecture
based on open systems standards. In addition to selecting appropriate
open systems standards, a further mapping of the client's IT environment
to the identified open systems standards was undertaken. Architecture's
from OSF, X/Open, OMG and the Australian Government (AGGOS) were
examined in depth as part of the study.
Joint Intelligence Support Environment (JISE) Project Proposal - Technical Architecture CFOS provided specialist architectural skills (interoperability, component based development) for Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) Australia's response to JISE, a project which will provide tools to the Defence Intelligence Community for the production of intelligence product required for Government and for Defence Commanders. JISE is a secure (TOP SECRET), intranet based solution which will allow analysts allow to produce intelligence products from multiple sources of structured and unstructured data, GIS, acoustic and imagery data.
CSC Australia
Civil & Civic DoD Russell Offices Redevelopment Project Proposal - Systems Architecture As the overall Solution Architect for CSC's response to this Defence HQ rebuild project, CFOS led the design team of over 20 internal and external staff involved in designing a systems integration solution to support some 6000 users and their 464 known legacy systems across both a RESTRICTED and SECRET environment. The chosen technologies included Microsoft Office, Lotus Domino, CISCO ATM campus switches and Compaq NT based servers. The fixed priced project involved short and fixed rollout deadlines (building occupations), considerable uncertainty with respect to the legacy systems and consequently necessitated through risk analysis and mitigation strategy development.
CSC: Australian Army's Central Manpower Information System (ACMIS)
As the Technical Architect for Computer Sciences Corporation's (CSC) response to this $15M+ bid, CFOS designed a systems integration architecture that linked some 30 legacy systems, serving approximately 1000 users across 38 sites. This project involved considerable technical and whole of life costing analysis of Army's existing IT systems, architectures and strategies.
CSC: Defence Science and Technology Organization (DSTO) Starlight Project
The Starlight project seeks to develop a long term Australian industry capability in the area of Information Security (INFOSEC). CFOS examined the business viability of the project and prepared the Strategic Marketing Plan component of Computer Sciences Corporation's (CSC) response.
CSC: Defence Science and Technology Organization (DSTO) Command and Control Information Systems Integration Laboratory (CCISIL) Project
The CCISIL project is to establish a research facility to investigate interoperability issues between the major ADF command and control information systems (CCIS). DSTO sought industry assistance in the establishment of the facility. CFOS assisted CSC in the preparation of their successful bid response and then provided subject matter expert guidance to CSC for the project delivery.
Dairy Farm Group/The Wellcome Company Ltd. - e-Business Systems Architecture & Implementation
Commencing in January 1999, CFOS was appointed as Systems Architecture and Design consultant for the Dairy Farm internet DDC project. The Dairy Farm Group, based in Hong Kong is a Fortune-500 company and Asia's largest retailer.
The objectives of the DDC project were:1
- development of a new home shopping web site for The Wellcome Company Ltd., the largest supermarket chain in Hong Kong
- development of order capture processing for interactive TV, telephone and fax channels
- provision of automated credit card authorisations for all ordering channels
- integrating existing merchandising and distribution systems into a new inventory control and warehousing systems
The system was developed in Hong Kong using third parties (USInteractive for the web site and Exceed Technologies for the warehouse) and in-house technical resources with a total team of approximately 30 persons.
The system went live in June 1999. The web site address is www.wellcomehk.com/delivers/
Dairy Farm Group/Woolworths (NZ) - e-Business Project Managment
In July 1998, the Dairy Farm Group appointed CFOS to project manage two important Internet applications:
- a new home shopping web site for Woolworths (New Zealand)
- a web-enabled intranet procurement application for all major Dairy Farm business units (Procurenet)
Both applications were under development by web developers, USInteractive (USI) at the time of CFOS's appointment.
The Woolworths site (www.woolworths.co.nz) went live with deliveries in the Wellington area in November 1998 and these have subsequently been extended to Auckland and Christchurch.
Procurenet went live to users in the major business units of Dairy Farm (Wellcome Hong Kong; Franklins Australia; Woolworths New Zealand) in December 1998.
DAS - Development of Guidelines for Security and Network Management
CFOS provided overall project co-ordination on the development of GOSIP Guidelines for Security and Network/Systems Management undertaken by CFOS for the Department of Administrative Services (DAS). These Guidelines provide guidance to agencies to assist them in as they re-engineer their networks within an open systems framework for current and emerging technologies.
Dept. of Defence - Open Systems Interconnection - Training Programs
During 1994, CFOS was the principal trainer delivering OSI and related open systems education to a wide range of Department of Defence staff. CFOS developed 1 day Management and 3 day Technical OSI training courses based upon the Essential OSI Education Program (OSIEP). CFOS principals had earlier played an important role in the development of OSIEP which was undertaken as an educational joint venture between Government, TAFE NSW, vendors and major users of IT.
Hewlett Packard - Asian Stock Exchange - Enterprise Architecture
Under the auspices of Hewlett Packard, CFOS developed a Technical Architecture for a major Asian Stock Exchange. The project was to define the business and technical requirements for a new merged equities and derivatives exchange and then to use this information as the basis for the development of an Enterprise Architecture for the exchange. The major projects required to migrate the exchange towards this target architecture where identified, resources and costs apportioned and an implementation plan developed for the exchange. Several CFOS staff were involved in this project which involved working closely with the exchange executive management group.
HQ Australian Defence Force (HQADF)- AUSTACCS Review
CFOS was one of only three companies approached to conduct a review of the Australian Army's Command and Control Support System (AUSTACSS). This significant IT project is now entering its major acquisition phase (A$400M over 10 years) and Defence required a review of the design requirements and architectural alternatives for AUSTACSS. As principal consultant, CFOS's technological expertise was teamed with Defence domain experience from the SMS Consulting Group Pty Ltd. While not successful in its joint bid for the major review, CFOS/SMS undertook a significant and well received scoping study for the HQADF.
CFOS is currently developing a data network charge-back model for a large manufacturing organisation with in excess of 200 locations Australia-wide. The model will evaluate charge-back options for internal and external data network traffic. Careful consideration of operational costs and asset ownership/depreciation has been included in the terms of reference for this project.
Major Australian Telecommunications Company
Throughout 1999, CFOS consultants assisted a major Australian telecommunications company to identify potential investment opportunities in the financial services sector.
This assignment, which is still in progress, has so far:
- provided a high level overview of the financial services market in Australia
- identified potential business and investment opportunities in insurance, superannuation and investment management, smart cards and transaction switching, securities markets and retail/wholesale banking
Following an internal restructure of the telecommunications company, the assignment is being extended to include:
- development of a strategic framework for assessing finance sector opportunities, through a process of senior management consultation
- assessing possible market entry and positioning strategies
- conducting in-depth analyses of short-listed opportunities
Media Monitors Australia Pty. Ltd. - Organisational Review and IT Strategic Planning
On behalf of the board, CFOS led an IT Operational Management Review which addressed the appropriateness of Media Monitor's Technical Infrastructure and IT Operational services, Organisational Structure and Capabilities. The review was very well received by Media Monitors and CFOS is continuing to assist in the implementation of its recommendations.
NSW Department of Technical and Further Education (TAFE)
Working directly to TAFE's CIO and in conjunction with the Information
Systems Division (ISD) management team, CFOS reviewed and recommended
structural changes to the ISD organization to better match business
and technology requirements to the end of the decade. TAFE are
a major Digital installation transiting to Microsoft NT with some
12,000 staff across 100+ sites. In addition TAFE has some 400,000
students, all requiring some form of information management services
either through technology assisted learning, flexible delivery
or simply student administration. In addition to the organizational
review, CFOS also assisted TAFE in initiating a review
and further development of its technical architecture and its
related infrastructure sub-systems. Recently CFOS undertook
a strategic review of TAFE's database management systems (DBMS)
architectures and vendors, specifically, ORACLE Rdb, OpenIngres,
Sybase, Informix and Microsoft's SQL Server.
Open Learning Technology Corporation
CFOS were the Principal Communications Consultants to the Open
Learning Technology Corporation, a federal government organization
responsible for Distance Education programs throughout Australia.
CFOS developed a national telecommunications
architecture for OLTC that will be capable of supporting integrated
voice, data and video education delivery through the year 2000.
Petroleum Industry - Telecommunications Strategy
CFOS was responsible for formulating telecommunications policy
and overall definition of a corporate network for a large Australian
oil company. The telecommunications issues associated with off-shore
production and exploration were of particular interest, options
for satellite services, fibre optic cabling and tropospheric scatter
systems were reviewed.
Queensland State Government GOSIP Migration Workshops
CFOS developed and conducted a series of two day workshops on
behalf of the Queensland State Government in regard to GOSIP migration.
These courses were designed to enable representatives from State
government departments to enhance their GOSIP migration planning
process.
CFOS were the lead consultant's on the Telecommunications industry sponsored review (Alcatel, Ericsson, NEC, Nortel, Siemens and Telecom Australia) of CIRCIT's future research program, structure and funding. Specifically the review addressed the requirement for a cross sector (Telecommunications, Information Technology and Media), industry based, socio-economic research organization to address areas of convergence between the industry sectors. CIRCIT is widely acknowledged as the leading independent socio-economic research organization in this field in the region. The review examined technological and regulatory developments within Australia and the Asia/Pacific region and their relevance to Australian industry development.
South Australian Government Internet Billing/Charge-back
CFOS completed an Internet billing/chargeback prototype system for the South Australian Government. The purpose of the prototype was to demonstrate that it was possible to produce Internet bills to all government agencies based on actual Internet usage as opposed to adopting a pro-rate charge-back mechanism. A number of solutions were evaluated and a 6-month billing trial was successfully completed.
South Australia State Government Network Management Strategy
CFOS assisted the South Australian State Government with the specification
and procurement of a network management system for the management
of voice and data communications equipment deployed in Government
departments throughout the State.
South East Queensland Electricity Board (SEQEB) CIS Charge-back
CFOS reviewed a number of billing/chargeback options for SouthEast Queensland in regard to the chargeback of their internal network costs. Charge-back to other regional electricity boards in Queensland in regard to network and transaction based utilization of the SEQEB Customer Information System based in Brisbane was required.
The British Post Office - Technical Architecture
Under the auspices of The Open Group and in accordance with The Open Group's Architectural Framework (TOGAF), CFOS prepared a technical architecture for a major (2,500 seats) Customer Relationship Management (CRM) project that the Post Office is undertaking to improve its business with its top 50,000 customers.
The Dairy Farm Group (Hong Kong) - Technical ArchitectureThe Dairy Farm Group is Asia's largest retailer with 1600 stores across the region. During 1998, under the auspices of The Open Group, CFOS worked with DFG to develop DFG's Technical Architecture (TA) and to establish an ongoing IT governance process (the Technical Architecture Program Group) to assist in its implementation. Strongly endorsed by DFG's Operating Committee, the TA is guiding numerous new developments across the Group and CFOS is continuing to assist in their implementation.