Xtras+National+Church+ICT+Committee

National Church ICT Committee
A parallel initiative to ACENC has been the establishment of a National Church ICT Committee to:
 * articulate a strategic direction for ICT as the servant of the church’s mission to spread the news of Jesus Christ and offer services in His name;
 * prepare a set of recommendations for the ACBC on this direction which brings coherence and cost savings on the one hand and promote equity and community service on the other

Three strategic initiatives have been developed by this committee:
 * 1) Develop enterprise solutions to transform business for each of the Church sectors
 * 2) Build a whole of Church online community with services tailored to the needs of each member and collaboration tools to further engage people in the mission of the Church
 * 3) Develop knowledge management initiatives to share exemplar practice and resources and provide integrated directory services for the whole of Church online community.

To implement the strategic initiatives, four enabling strategies have been proposed:
 * 1) Create a broadband network to allow Church agencies that do not have sophisticated networks (eg schools, parishes and some welfare and aged care agencies) to access enterprise solutions. Phase 1 of this initiative will be the creation of an //Australian Catholic Education Network// by the education sector.
 * 2) Identify and collate details of successful ITC initiatives within the Church and setup an internal Church high level ITC advisory service for Church agencies drawing on the significant management and technical expertise and experience that exists in Church agencies.
 * 3) Establish data standards for interchange of key information across Church agencies
 * 4) Extend current procurement initiatives to build economies of scale