The Australian Government has selected IBM Australia to support its Standard Business Reporting (SBR) initiative, which aims to reduce the reporting burden for business.

As part of the contract, valued at AU$10m, IBM will leverage global expertise and a range of architectural design and program management skills to develop an entirely new system for the government. The finished product is expected to enable businesses to more easily interact electronically with the Government through a range of software and accounting packages.

The Government hopes the new system to be faster, cheaper and easier for businesses and their intermediaries to prepare and file their reports. It is expected that Government departments will also be faced with fewer errors and faster processing times.

The contract was signed during the second quarter of 2008.