As the professional association for those working in the ICT sector, the ACS invests substantial resources in representing the views and concerns of its members to industry and government.

Through a range of activities such as articles in leading publications, speeches at industry events, researched submissions to government committees and meetings with key decision makers and their advisers, the ACS highlights issues of interest to ICT professionals and makes recommendations about preferred approaches to issues challenging the sector's growth potential.

An issue of major concern to the ACS at the moment is the fact that the ACS believes Australia's future prosperity is totally dependent on ICT professionalism.

This is a bold claim, and will attract a degree of derision from some, but it is one that ACS National President, Philip Argy, has made and substantiated to some of Australia's leading stakeholders in business and political circles.

Australia's economic prosperity is driven primarily by productivity gains - our ability to improve efficiency and reduce the cost of doing business; key to the delivery of these is technological and process innovation.

Unfortunately, what we have all too often is a situation where people are left feeling frustrated and infuriated because their technology tools don't do what they were promised to do, have bugs or conflicts with other software, or are so complicated or poorly designed as to be almost unusable for the average user.

There is also confusion over the difference between trusted and trustworthy technology, since all too often, trusted systems have proved not to be worthy of that label.

We are moving at a rapid pace towards a situation where all government services will be delivered online, but what happens if those systems become compromised because of a lack of security or testing? Trusted will quickly become untrustworthy.

ICT professionalism is all about delivering products and services that are trustworthy, as distinct from trusted. It's about raising the bar and valuing excellence in a way that our sector has rarely seen.

Mr Argy is concerned that when the looming skill shortage begins to bite, the pressure to find staff with ICT skills will encourage employers to lower the bar even further, with obvious implications for quality and professionalism.

True professionalism, and its underlying commitment to a Code of Ethics and Code of Professional Conduct and Practice, continuing knowledge and skills development, demands a level of excellence, rigour, integrity and honesty that must represent a key competitive advantage.

Mr Argy challenges the industry and government is to place a higher priority on the credentials of the people they engage on technology projects and to demonstrate that they value the professional attributes needed to overlay basic technical skills.

And if the outcome is more trustworthy technology for Australia, and for those to whom we export, then our prosperity into the future will be assured.

To help the public and business community finding an ICT professional, the ACS has established two new member registers to promote ICT services to the public and improve networking amongst ICT professionals.

The Consultants Directory lists details of those professional members who have elected to use the ACS web site as an avenue to introduce their services to the public. The directory is searchable by geographical location, industry, job function, expertise and languages spoken.

Since its launch in August, the ACS receives strong and positive feedback from members about the enquiries they receive via this Directory.

The ACS Members List includes all ACS members who have given permission for their details to be published to other members only. This list is designed to facilitate effective networking among ICT professionals so that they can share a beer, discuss a (technical) issue or explore various ideas with peers.

Professional organisation seeks professional staff for professional solutions. Is your IT staff a member of the ACS, the recognised professional association for those working in ICT to take advantages of the registers?

Details at www.acs.org.au.

Visit aiia.com.au!

AIIA's events calendar can be viewed on the AIIA website.
To register for events, view past presentations or read the latest news from the ICT industry, visit aiia.com.au.