## 5 Discussion  
As noted, a considerable amount of effort has been expended to create DSSs that would meet the needs of those involved in the agricultural sector. It was similarly noted that the uptake of DSSs was limited. Whereas many agricultural DSSs have been produced from the perspective of meeting specific agricultural needs, the EASY project sought to overcome problems of DSS uptake by designing an agricultural DSS using a system-focused approach. A system-based approach was used to overcome the potential for \"technology/science push\" rather than end-user need. This was seen as critical given that as recently as 2005, most scientific literature on DSS development had not identified the clients or end-users of a reported DSS [32]. The work of [28] is highly relevant to the system-focused approach used to design EASY. Those researchers used literature review, consultations of developers, and surveys of research, development, delivery and funding stakeholders involved in agricultural DSS to determine if consensus principles about DSS design and development could be identified. A summary of their findings that are relevant to the EASY project are:  
1. To succeed, agricultural DSSs require involvement and continual improvement by farmers, agricultural consultants, and researchers. 2. The goal of agricultural DSSs should not be to produce an algorithmically optimal solution, but instead should enable users to arrive at individually designed solutions based on a combination of data, experience, and intuition. 3. A delivery plan must be an integral part of DSS creation. The delivery plan should involve developers and scientists as well as end-users and must include a funding plan that will maintain the DSS beyond initial delivery. The system-based approach adopted for the design of EASY addresses the involvement of multiple stakeholders. Consultations included a wide range of individuals from various sectors to ensure a balance between developer/researcher concepts and end-user needs. Continual improvements would result from two activities. First, the ability to create topic packages would ensure that the functionality of the EASY system would continue to grow. This would undoubtedly lead to a need to increase base functionality and databases. Hence the second way that EASY would grow would be to identify and support an EASY custodian who would have responsibility for EASY maintenance and upgrades; funding of this custodian is discussed subsequently. The second point of [28] relates to the underlying philosophy of DSSs. Many have been developed to respond to a specific question or problem. Consequently, many have an underlying philosophy of identifying \"the best solution\" to a specific problem. While this may have enhanced their utility for a specific problem, it has limited their widespread applicability. EASY was designed to avoid this problem while at the same time accommodating problem-specific DSSs. The EASY system would have a core capability, but would also be expandable to support the needs of individual users. We envision an EASY DSS that could include topic packages developed to support the needs of government policy as well as individual farmers. Agricultural consultants would also be able to develop topic packages targeted at individual farm managers and used on a fee-for-service basis. Finally, the third point of [28] indicates that the development of a sustainable business model is crucial for the success of such an online system. The EASY project team predominantly considered two self-supporting business models. The first is that EASY be established as a government-supported entity. Because EASY is envisioned as a national system, in Australia a federal agency such as Geoscience Australia, or the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Economics (ABARE) would be a logical choice for being the host and custodian of the system. Individual States would then have the capability of customizing EASY for their individual data types, agricultural activities, and structure of the agricultural sector.