What are the issues that SBR Projects face?

To date, we've discovered four important issues facing SBR Projects:

1. Burden:

Governments worldwide are experiencing not only unprecedented pressure on budgets, but increasing demands for accountability and efficiency from business. Ongoing commitment to reducing the amount of red tape imposed on business is a political and commercial imperative, encouraging effective interaction with the private sector. The Australian and the Netherlands governments are tackling red tape with their innovative Standard Business Reporting (SBR) programs.

2. Standardisation of information:

SBR is a logical extension of the early e-filing initiatives. Rather than attempting to direct all business information destined for various government agencies through a single channel, SBR works to standardise the definition of the information that must be filed. Australia, for example, has a range of data collecting agencies working collaboratively, resulting in a 70% reduction in the total number of unique concepts provided for statistical, monetary policy and prudential filings, as well as for state and federal taxation purposes. (Source: http://www.sbr.gov.au) This means that companies now spend less time aggregating information from sources within their organisation, enabling them instead to focus on running their business.

3. Cross-agency collaboration:

Since SBR initiatives require collaboration and cooperation across agencies, they have, to date, been managed by central economic departments. The approach taken in Australia and the Netherlands has seen agency officials with diverse backgrounds and qualifications learning one anothers' language and nomenclature, and striving towards harmonisation. Businesses using the facilities provided by the Dutch SBR program are said to be saving up to 25% of their reporting costs. (Source: http://www.sbr.gov.au)

4. Cost:

SBR projects are an example of government proactively working to reduce the cost to business rather than to itself. The investments are worth making, as they serve to increase overall productivity of the country's private sector.