Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
The agency responsible for processing 25 million international passengers annually through airports lacked an up-to-date disaster recovery plan and did not adequately track ICT-related problems, an Australian National Audit Office report has found.
While the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service's IT systems
and management arrangements were adequate to support the intercept of
incoming passengers who posed a risk, the ANAO said its IT problem management needed to be improved.
The report into 'Processing of Incoming International Air Passengers,'
which was tabled in Parliament earlier today. It also recommended better
information sharing between Customs and Border Protection' and the Department of
Immigration and Citizenship.
"At the time of audit, IT disaster recovery plans were not up to date
to reflect the business environment in which Customs and Border
Protection operates," the report found.
"Customs and Border Protection advised that the agency is developing
nationally consistent arrangements for business continuity, which will
be valuable in unifying airport operations across Australia."
In 2007, Customs and Border Protection reported 23.5 million incoming
and outgoing passengers to Australia by both sea and air, a number
expected to increase to 34.1 million by 2015.
Visitor arrivals by air are expected to grow on average by 4.9 per cent
per annum, and notwithstanding the impact of the current economic
downturn, the number of international air passengers entering Australia
is estimated to increase from 22.9 million in 2005–06 to 29.9 million
in 2011–12.
Broadly the Auditor-General concluded the Customs and Border
Protection’s management for processing air passengers in the primary
line was effective, and risks were processed appropriately.
Customs and Border Protection’s IT systems and control arrangements
provide appropriate support to intercept incoming air passengers who
pose a risk or may carry prohibited items.
However, the report said better IT problem management could be
improves, and recommended that service times for IT incidents be
established and documented, especially for those with a significant
business impact.
"Although IT incidents and IT problems are tracked, their status is not
always clear," the ANAO said. "Further, it is not directly linked to
the longevity of open IT incidents or IT problems."
"In the highly operational environment of Customs and Border
Protection, there should be clear parameters around the resolution
timeframes and monitoring of IT incidents and IT problems."
The Customs and Border Protection Agency accepted the recommendations
that it bring its disaster recovery contingency plans up to date and
that it put more effective mechanisms in place for tracking IT
incidents.
David Bass
| ComOps, a leading Australian provider of business software products and services, has won a competitive tender to deploy its Salvus safety, r…
How to Make Business Discovery Work for Your Business
Business Discovery takes its cues from consumer apps. Like Google, it encourages us- ers to hunt for and explore data without worrying about or even noticing the underly- ing technology. Their entire experience is working within an intuitive interface to get real-time, self-service results with only minimal training. ...more
Try an easy-to-use set of web-enabled
tools for business-class productivity services. Office 365 provides
anywhere-access to email, important documents, contacts, and calendars
on almost any device.
