CLIENT STORY
eCommerce Platform – PLS & SuperStream
A case study on the successful implementation of a contemporary high-volume real-time data solution.
THE ECOSYSTEM AT A GLANCE
- This Federal Agency collects and shares data with many domestic and international organisations. APIs and Web Services underpin over 1 billion machine-to-machine transactions per annum.
- Most Tax Agent facilitated returns are lodged via the eCommerce Platform which supports real-time, batch and bulk data traffic in a variety of formats.
- The eCommerce platform provides real-time data validation that enables certainty of outcome for users submitting data via their accounting software.
- Over 250 software providers have integrated with the platform.
This Federal Agency is the leading global tax administration for the provision of API data services. Over the past 5 years it has progressively provision secure, very high-volume data collection and dissemination services to the public, third-party software providers and to government agencies.
The primary platform to deliver these data services is the Agency’s eCommerce Platform. The usage of these data services has increase dramatically over the last two years, with the platform expect to process on average more that 1.4 million transactions per day by October this year across a range of taxation, superannuation, and relationship management services. This equates to over 1 billion transactions per annum.
We assisted the Agency to successfully plan, design, develop and transition-in this strategic capability across a multi-year period.
THE CHALLENGES
The Agency has been progressively increasing the volume of data it collects over the past 30 years to improve its understanding of each Business’ and Citizen’s taxation circumstances. As a result of this increased data collection they have progressively built more systems and bespoke connections to support their users, until 2010 with the introduction of the Standard Business Reporting (SBR 1) Version 1 platform.
SBR1 was hampered by low Software Developer adoption due to its use of complex and proprietary standards. The Agency decided that in order to achieve adoption and decomission legacy capabilities it must invest in a strategic platform that leverages international data and messaging standards of an economy-wide scale.
HOW WE HELPED
To support the Agency to achieve their targeted outcomes we delivered the enterprise-class eCommerce Platform in collaboration with IBM. Our expert consultants provided the following capabilities:
- Program Initiation – program and project initiation, business case development and preparation of a New Policy Proposal, culminating in $80 million in project funding subject to ICT Two-Pass Investment Process.
- Procurement coordination and vendor management– prepared the procurement strategy, RFQ materials and conducted the evaluation for all program streams in accordance with the Commonwealth Procurement Rules. Subsequently managed vendor contracts and performance until the platform was successfully implemented.
- Program Management – day-to-day management of all aspects of the program including budget, scope, schedule, benefits realisation using a hybrid set of management methods including Managing Successful Programs (MSP), PMP and Agile Scrum.
- ICT Delivery Management – co-ordinated delivery and integration of project deliverables across 100+ staff and five locations, including an off-shore delivery capability.
- Establishment of a new delivery location – managed the commissioning of a new delivery location in regional Australia, including compliance with the PSPF and IRAP requirements for a secure ICT delivery location.
- Bridging User Experience and Technology – working closely with Agency teams to translate the desired user experience into pragmatic, robust technology features, and translating technology constraints into viable business process outcomes.
- Solution Architecture and Design Leadership – to describe the critical technology components and capabilities required for a successful solution including approval through the relevant Architecture Review Group and Industry Consultation Groups.
- Secure Data Exchange Expertise – to design a data transfer solution that balanced IT Security Controls, Authentication Techniques (SAML) and Usability to ensure confidential data assets remain protected.
- Application of International Messaging Standard – to elicit requirements, and document the design for a fundamental enhancement to a Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) product.
- Technical Delivery Excellence – to build, validate and document a reliable, scalable solution that met all client and Australian Government requirements, including the Information Security Manual.
- Information Modelling and Validation Expertise – to analyse, document, develop and quality assure data collection specifications, validation rules, error handling and data transformations for downstream utilisation.
- Application Support and Management – to support the Agency to introduce the solution into its production environment, training agency support staff, and support during the warranty period.
Our consultants have frequently been engaged by the client to advise on the next evolution of the platform and to assist them to keep pace with emerging industry trends in data formats, APIs and Secure Data Supply Chains.
THE RESULTS
The eCommerce Platform is one of the Agency’s two strategic Automated Data Exchange Platforms and processes over 1 Billion transactions per annum, with over 250 Software Developers consuming the Platform’s API Services – which including SuperStream, PLS and SBR capabilities.
The platform continues to evolve and the Agency continues to invest in building new API services on top of the eCommerce Platform. This platform and the technology standards it introduced have become the catalyst to achieve and exceed the benefits forecast of $795m pa. outlined in the Treasury’s original SBR Business Case.
Furthermore, the Agency has now been able to decommission a number of legacy systems, including their previous flagship Electronic Lodgement Service (ELS) for Tax Agents.