A joint initiative between Unisys Australia and the NSW Department of Information Technology and Management aims to accelerate e-business in NSW and grow the skills base of the state.
The Centre of Excellence for e-Business, located at Parramatta in Sydney's west, is a showcase of "real live" e-business and Windows 2000 Solutions.
The centre consists of a "maintained, evolving showcase and demonstration environment where stakeholders and partners may exhibit and promote their services and technology offerings", Director, Phil Dodd said at the launch.
The e-business services will be tendered out and money raised from each project will go towards making the facility self-funding.
Tertiary institutions such as the Western Sydney University of TAFE and University of Western Sydney have been enlisted, offering support from various faculties. Students of these institutions will be involved in centre activities, including training, research, workshops and seminars.
The infrastructure and facilities will be developed and maintained through 'partnering' relationships with a range of local and international IT companies.
They include Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, EMC, StorageTek, Cable & Wireless Optus, Hitachi, Lexmark, CheckPoint, IT&C Services, Krone, Hallam Manufacturing, C&G technologies, MGE, AUSe.NET, Bullant, Syrinx, Intershop, AccessOnLine, ComputerWare and SmartForce.
While the main aim of the centre is to lift the profile of e-business projects in NSW and raise the local skills base, partners such as Unisys are ensuring that a focus on profit and market share is maintained.
"We've put it together to help us all in our quest to promote e-Business [and] in doing so, to help us sell more products" Dodd said.
