2009 is a good year. It promises many kinds of new ideas for the T&L industry. There is a resurgence of interest in RFID, on-line freight systems, tracking and tracing systems, in-cab technologies and a host of other enterprise based solutions. For bigger companies and well established groups with their own ICT capacity we can expect new and better supply chain systems.
What about the small and medium sized businsses? The so called "SMEs"? What about the industry as a whole? How do we view the entire matrix of SMEs and larger companies, government agencies, industry associations, individuals and support groups (e.g. academic researchers, advisors and consultants)? Is there any possibility of an INDUSTRY BASED system that will allow people to share ideas, data and applications across modes for mutual benefit?
When TALC developed TILIS (www.tilis.com.au) as its open course, open standard, self managed "better mousetrap" and offered it to the industry in 2007 we were met with a deafening silence. We had designed a FEDERATED model of web 2.0 collaboration, with a unique web services layer unequalled at the time. We offered the platform FREE to the industry. Still nothing.
Worse than nothing - we watched as industry stakeholders all started to develop their own web sites with old technology and call them "portals". We watched while others developed their own portals rather than ask TALC for help. It was as if the industry had to go through their own learning curve; invest time and funds and "do their own thing" rather than utilise a ready made platform in TILIS.
We are still trying to figure out the motivation of some people in the T&L industry who even though they know that TILIS is a suitable platform, they will go off and buy unsuitable, limiting web site technology - because THEY did it. They OWN it.
The T&L industry will only progress and become more productive if and when they genuinely begin to COLLABORATE on matters of ICT and web based platforms. There is huge potential out there, but each group and each SME doing their own thing will take us nowhere. A federation of connected web portals sharing data and applications across firewalls and across regions and modes remains the vision for TALC using TILIS.