"...Because it is more than a business directory " ©

BACKING INNOVATION ?

State of the Art Business Directories

In This Day and Age is The Traditional Yellow Pages System the Only Business Directory Solution and Service Possible For SME's?

Anyone exposed to this question would of course be inclined to answer with, probably not? But then might also ask, What is a state of the art directory?
Before the Internet arrived with a supporting cast of evolving digital technologies, you would have accepted Yellow Pages as state of the art. Now however, Yellow Pages although still convenient, is no longer able to essentially monopolise directory services to SME's because lower cost superior services are now possible thanks to Internet technologies. But, Where are the new innovative services?

This also helps to explain why there has been so little innovation in this area, particularly by Telstra and those who can create innovative solutions and who are funded by Telstra in some way, which is just about everyone. (For example, over 35 universities, CSIRO, 100 or more CRC's, NICTA, ARC and so on, involved in research and innovation. Between them perhaps billions of taxpayers dollars have been spent over years. This might be a deliberate Telstra strategy to make sure they are kept aware of areas of innovation that could be a threat to their existing directory business. That is to say Telstra doesn't encourage participating in funding projects any of these entities might want to undertake if they are likely to impact on their directory business model and over years this is understood by anyone seeking Telstra funding for a project.) Given SME's have been supporting Telstra's Yellow Pages for decades and at a cost that is now clearly higher than superior state of the art solutions are capable of, should SME's reconsider traditional loyalties, and the continuing cost of a traditional directory service that is economically inefficient by comparison?
Supporting innovation benefits SME's in many unprecedented ways and also the economy.

• During Business Online Australia's ongoing research some interesting insights came to light. The following is a brief explanation although we will be publishing more on this issue shortly.
• Our unique, innovative state of the art business directory platform is now patent pending and Business Online Australia is interested in discussing the implementation and the service with interested parties.
There is every indication this new directory service has the potential to become a valuable service and solution for SME's worldwide.

However it should be noted that Australia has been late getting into this valuable area of Internet patenting, which has now become dominated by American interests. These patents might not be attracting much attention now but they will be increasingly vital to online business in the not too distant future. Australia needs to lift its game in this area if it wants to gain a share of the valuable online services such patents lead to. It has been a priority for Business Online Australia for over 5 years now, and will continue to be so.
With your membership we can continue our research more vigorously.

You can email BOA for more information. Your views on this subject are also welcome and we look forward to hearing from SME's in particular. Email:boainnovation@yahoo.com…

Telstra is the ultimate owner of the Yellow Pages in Australia and in 2005/06 this inefficient monopoly business generated sales, or revenues of A$1.7 billion for Telstra. Apparently this has increased from A$1.3 billion in 2001/02. And as the last piece of Telstra was being sold to the public late in 2006 (T3), and only a few months ago, the CEO of Telstra Mr.Sol Trujillo stated they had plans to increase that to A$3 billion in revenues by 2010/11. Clearly Telstra is planning an IPO? Naturally this is fine for Telstra and the Telstra shareholders (and especially the 1.7 million T2 shareholders who are holding losses of around A$8 billion or, 2.13 billion shares times the difference between what they paid when floated by the government, A$7.80 and the shareprice currently say A$4...- And imagine if this $8 billion plus was invested in innovative new industry, exports and wealth creation!).
But besides Telstra, only the 400,000 to 1.2 million plus SME's know what this growth so far has cost them and whether or not they have received improved state-of-the-art innovative services and solutions as a result.

BOA would be interested in hearing from SME's in this regard, given SME's have paid an extra A$400 million or so for their service since 2001/02! That is, basically, the difference between A$1.3b and A$1.7b!
Do you think it has been good value for money so far? Could it be better? Well our patent pending service clearly tells us there is a superior value proposition for all SME's.

Backing Innovation and the Future Not the Past
SME's could now consider an alternative to Yellow Pages. For example, instead of spending another $400 million to $1 billion (that is the difference between say $2 billion in revenues now in 2007 and Telstra's target of $3 billion by 2010/11) over the next 5 years for traditional directory services SME's might back BOA's superior innovative services that also value add SME's in unique ways. Obviously traditional Yellow Pages directories cannot survive but they do contribute to maintaining Telstra's share-price higher as a monopoly that also as we now know, avoids innovative solutions for SME's and consumers. SME's could instead spend a percentage of that A$400 million to A$1 billion on BOA's new service, which is clearly state-of-the-art and the future of business directories, not the past.
This new service will then be adapted to SME's worldwide.
In addition if any SME also happens to be one of the 1.5 million plus investors in Telstra T1, T2 or T3 (or in the soon to be listed Sensis/Yellow Pages IPO), then you might consider directly backing an innovative directory service that has the potential to grow in value while traditional services decline in value like Telstra T2 has. This would be insurance against losses of the magnitude T2 shareholders have experienced. Of course if SME's also have superannuation funds that have also invested in Telstra T2, then backing innovative services would again be insurance against such losses.

Membership in Business Online Australia is a step in that direction and subscriptions will be used to further develop this new and unique directory service for Australia's SME's and SME's worldwide.

But with a cash cow and consistently high margins like the Yellow Pages business, it is obvious Telstra does not have much incentive to come up with innovations that might also contribute to undermining their existing directory service and therefore threaten their cash cow and its chances of achieving their targeted A$3 billion increase in revenues. Not to mention the planned A$10 billion plus IPO.

• We also understand Telstra shut down its research and development centre some years ago? So it seems this is also another explanation for the lack of innovation in this area. Obviously SME's have been paying more for what are still basically adaptations of traditional directory services but without the potential for new innovations, although we now know why. Business Online Australia has been researching Internet directory technologies for years and we will now be proceeding to patent as much of our research as possible.
Innovation that value adds SME's in ways traditional directories cannot (unless using BOA's IP), clearly should be supported by SME's.
The online marketplace while capable of benefiting SME's in many unique and unprecedented ways is also exposing SME's to potential new threats to their businesses. BOA's directory service takes into account a number of these threats, whereby they can be reduced.

In fact and in the final analysis, there is clearly an incentive to avoid investing Telstra resources into developing innovations! You be the judge!
Of course SME's haven't been clamoring to demand better directory services as far as we know. This might be a case of, "They don't know what they don't know". That is to say, most of us have never known anything like the current Internet before and what is possible now let alone in the future.
However Business Online Australia has over 30 years of experience in digital technologies, therefore, starting more than a decade ago, we have been able to project technological trends into the future and certainly there is not a strong case for traditional Yellow Pages directories to survive in their current form. Traditional paper and printing costs are rising and there is probably an environmental cost that is being dodged.

SME's and Consumers now have a choice. However Australia has missed the boat before.
Business Online Australia is confident that if you were to read the details of our state of the art directory service you would quickly realise the potential and why Telstra among many others, does not want to encourage giving competition that delivers superior directory services to SME's, a chance. This is an example of short-term management priorities and it clearly comes at a cost. To others though, including SME's and consumers.

(Because of patent/intellectual property law, unfortunately we are unable to publish specific details of the new service at this stage, which makes it more difficult to get enough interest and backing to get the service up and running. However SME membership in BOA will speed things up in this regard.)

How about the economy and the environment? Again you be the judge.
Telstra executives have contracts that require them to manage Telstra for certain financial goals, if they want to get their lucrative bonuses. That means if they can prop-up the value of Sensis/Yellow Pages for a high value IPO listing on the Australia Stock Exchange, which in turn keeps the Telstra share-price higher than it would be otherwise, then they collect their large bonuses at the end of their relatively short contracts and move on to comfortable retirement or, to managing another company.

Also, remember that the governments Future Fund still owns around 16% of Telstra's shares. This is probably a conflict of interest as the government probably would not want to be doing anything to deliver innovative new services to SME's for example. It could reduce Telstra's share-price and therefore the value of the 16% the government holds as an investment.

"Australia 's future prosperity will depend on having an economy that is continually able to lift its productive potential and meet the rapidly changing requirements of global markets." BCA 2006

Having identified this possible conflict among others, Business Online Australia then asked, What kind of innovations would be possible to deliver a superior directory service to all SME's now and into the future , including a low cost unique online presence that can value add each SME in unique ways that traditional directories cannot? That's correct, all 1 million plus SME's across Australia! And eventually, All SME's worldwide? Eventually BOA discovered a range of specific innovations and is currently proceeding to protect them through patenting. Will Telstra for example, attempt to deny this innovation and its benefits to SME's? Probably if their history is a guide, unless SME's back BOA's innovation. Obviously if one or more patents is successful and granted, Business Online Australia will be in a position to deliver unique state-of-the-art business directory services not only across Australia but also worldwide...

"The future growth and
prosperity of Australia will
depend on its ability to
find new ways to increase
productivity."

"Currently, there are areas of relative
weakness in Australia’s innovation system
that are becoming increasing barriers to
Australia reaching its full potential."

However the Business Council of Australia and its co-researchers seem to have forgotten to identify what the "areas of relative weakness" and what these "increasing barriers" are.
Business Online Australia has been researching innovation for many years and well before the Business Council of Australia judging from their November 2006 report. We already know, and are familiar with, the importance of innovation and its relevance to SME's.
Our goal is to deliver benefits we have identified and more, to all SME's and to keep SME's fully informed of the "increasing barriers" mentioned above.

Business Online Australia is an independent service to SME's.
Become a member of Business Online Australia.

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