The select group of iAwards finalists was revealed on Wednesday 13 April at a special breakfast at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra, before a crowd of ICT industry leaders, media and government officials.

The iAwards is the Australian ICT industry’s premier awards program, presented by AIIA, the Australian Financial Review and the CSIRO ICT Centre.

Speaking at the breakfast, AIIA’s Chief Executive Officer, Rob Durie said that he was impressed with the quality of the nominees this year. “The iAwards program is a celebration of ICT innovation and ingenuity. The high calibre of this year’s finalists reflects the entrepreneurial spirit of the Australian ICT industry,” Mr Durie said.

Senator Gary Humphries, representing the iAwards Patron, Senator Helen Coonan, told finalists that their commitment to the success of Australia’s ICT sector is a commitment to all sectors of the Australian economy.

Senator Gary Humphries speaking on behalf of iAwards Patron, Senator Helen Coonan.

“The role of ICT cannot be underestimated in terms of the benefits it provides to Australia’s economy,” Senator Humphries said. “Innovative ICT transforms and increases productivity across all sectors of the economy and creates high value businesses, growth, exports and skilled job opportunities.”

The gathering also heard from Murray Rankin, Chief Executive Officer of The Distillery, an international leader in intelligence and investigation management applications, and former iAward winner of the Innovative IT Product of the Year. “The iAwards are acknowledged as the country's most prestigious industry awards and to this end, simply being selected as a finalist is a major achievement in its own right,” Mr Rankin said.

Finalists in the healthcare category - Bruce Shadbolt (left) from the Canberra Hospital and Neil Doody of SAS Institute Australia.

2005 iAwards finalists have been selected in each of the 13 following categories:

Agriculture & Primary Industries

• Hearne Scientific Software Pty Ltd and CSIRO Entomology for Dymex-Climex risk assesment software
• Theta Technologies Pty Ltd for Information Leader

Applications & Infrastructure Tools

• Beonic for Traffic Insight (version 2.0)
• Commonwealth Bank Wealth Management for Proxima Technology Centauri
• Energetix for eEnTERPRIZE.EM

Communications Applications

• Northern Territory Fire and Rescue Service (NTFRS) for Northern Territory Fire Alarm System Transmission (NTFAST)
• engin for Broadband Phones
• Telstra Research Labs for RF-Map

Education & Training

• Inchain & Northern Territory Department of Health & Community Services for Marvin Consortium
• AudioRead for Audio-Read
• MyInternet for myportfolio
• Shortcuts Software for Shortcuts Online Academy

E-Government & Services

• NT Fire & Rescue Service for Northern Territory Fire Alarm System Transmission (NTFAST)
• Arrow Research Corporation for Arrow eAS
• Inchain & Northern Territory Department of Health & Community Services for Marvin Consortium

Financial Applications

• CSIRO Mathematical for Innovative Exotic Options Platform: Reditus
• Shine Technologies for NBV
• E-Novation Pty Ltd for BizWise

General Applications

• Intergraph for IntelliWhere TrackForce Mobile Resource Management
• Weblogics Australia for Intralogic Knowledge Management Solution
• Netsuite for Getting SMEs back to business

Healthcare

• Children’s Hospital at Westmead for Electronic Medical Record
• Centre for Health Informatics for Quick Clinical
• National Health & Sciences Centre for Innovative Protocol Hypothesis System

Industrial Applications

• CITECT for CTECTIIM Software at WMC's Olympic Dam
• Vehicle Management Corporation for enTire - Tyre Management System
• Fuji Xerox for The Fuji Xerox Eco Manufacturing Centre

Media & Entertainment

• Imagination for DVD Games
• Destra Corporation for Musicpoint
• Mapshed for LOC3

Research & Development

• Bay Technologies Pty Ltd for BayO.net
• Torian for InFusion
• e-Health Research Centre and CSIRO for Health Data Integration

Security

• Securewrap for SAWBI Services
• KAZ Group for SayPassword
• Media Sphere for SecureLearn

Tourism & Hospitality

• i4U for i4U:ELRes Product Range
• ActiveCall for Perth Airport Emergency Response System

A panel of judges rigorously judged this year’s nominations. Finalists were awarded based on innovation, market potential, proof of concept, value to public and/or government, features, and quality.

Finalists will now proceed to stringent second round of judging to be held in Sydney on 5 and 6 May. Each finalist will make a 30-minute presentation to the judging panel, and take part in a meticulous Q&A session on their innovation. The eventual winners will be chosen by the judging panel of more than 20 high-profile members of the Australian media, academia, government and the ICT industry.

These winners will be awarded at the prestigious iAwards gala dinner on Wednesday 25 May, held at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre as part of CeBIT Australia.

A crowd of ICT industry leaders, media and government officials gathered to hear the iAwards finalists announced.

A further five category winners will be announced on 25 May at the
iAwards dinner. These include the Secondary Student Project, and Tertiary Student Project, and three category winners picked from the total pool of finalists by the judges.

These categories are Local Industry (the best Australian company innovation), Community (the best contribution by an innovation to community and bridging the digital divide) and the Inspiration Winner, the Minister’s Award for Excellence or the very best of the best for the year.

In addition, an exciting new award for an individual contribution to the ICT industry, which is being sponsored by the CSIRO ICT Centre, will be presented for the first time. A special panel of VIP judges is being assembled to debate the winner for this award, which will be announced at the iAwards gala dinner on Wednesday 25th May.

The iAwards provides a showcase for many of Australia's ICT success stories. Each of the finalists announced today have the opportunity to represent Australia at the Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA) in Bali in late 2005, providing a further occasion to present their ICT solutions to a global audience.

AIIA would like to acknowledge the following partners for the 2005 iAwards: CSIRO ICT Centre, The Australian Financial Review, Telstra, National ICT Australia (NICTA), Welsh Development Agency, IBM, the Department of Communications IT and the Arts (DCITA), CeBIT Australia, I-Nex Corporation, Accenture and ZDNet.

The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) will shortly be commencing this year’s ICT Skills Shortage survey. DEWR researchers will be contacting employers and recruitment agencies by phone, asking them to identify ICT skill specialisations and the degree of difficulty in filling vacant positions.

Many AIIA member companies will be contacted shortly to participate in the survey, which will be completed by the end of May. DEWR has asked AIIA to encourage member companies to co-operate, as the information gathered is valuable for assessing the status of ICT skills in Australia.