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Australian Government's ICT procurement taskforce to focus on Rules, Capability and Culture

Australian Government's ICT procurement taskforce to focus on Rules

Last week, the Hon Angus Taylor MP, Assistant Minister for Cities and Digital Transformation announced the establishment of an ICT Procurement Taskforce for the Australian government. The taskforce has two stated objectives:

  1. To make it easier and cheaper for ICT businesses to contract with the Australian Government
  2. To deliver better government services at a lower cost

The plan is to develop an open and simple procurement gateway to expedite the adoption and integration of new technologies into government service delivery.

One of the areas highlighted in the consultation paper is  identifying barriers to the Government’s adoption of innovative technologies. The example provided is that of cloud services, whose adoption has been slow in the public sector, in contrast with rapid uptake in the private sector.

Snapshot of current situation

Source:  http://ict-procurement.pmc.gov.au/Default/Snapshot

In the same year, 27% of ICT spending was for services provided by an external provider, while 26% and 14% were associated with internal personnel and external contractors respectively.

The Departments of Defence, Human Services, Immigration and Border Protection, and the Australian Taxation Office accounted for 64% (around $3.6 billion) of the government’s total ICT spend of $5.6 billion.

Source:  http://ict-procurement.pmc.gov.au/Default/Snapshot

Between 2009-10 and 2014-15, 20 large vendors made up around 50% of the total value of government ICT contracts, with nearly half of this going to just five large vendors, reflecting concentration, notwithstanding the small contract size as seen from the chart above.

The government is looking to increase SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) involvement to drive greater innovation in government service delivery. SMEs accounted for 31% in value of government ICT contracts in 2014-15. Currently, there are  limited formal avenues for businesses to pitch ideas or offerings to agencies.

Three Key Areas

To achieve the aforementioned objectives, the consultation will focus on three key areas: Rules (rules and policies in place that direct how procurement occurs in government), Capability (capability, knowledge and skills of the public sector and how this capability may affect ICT procurement outcomes) and Culture, referring to unwritten practices like attitudes, habits, values, biases, and beliefs (industry or external experience of government culture, and how this might be improved).

The paper outline three tiers of rules that guide the procurement decisions of Australian Government, the first two tiers being mandatory for all agencies and universally applying to all forms of procurement, and not just ICT. The first tier rules are sourced from the Commonwealth Resource Management Framework and the Commonwealth Procurement Framework. The second tier is the Protective Security Policy Framework.

The third tier of rules consists of ICT-specific or universally applicable, agency-specific policies and guidelines that interpret the central rules and provide practical advice to officials on how procurement should be conducted.

The agency-specific rules, while necessary for customisation according to business needs and risk appetite, can consume additional time and resources for vendors. The paper also talks about other legislation, that guide the actions of government officials, such as the Public Service Act 1999 and the Crimes Act 1914, which deal with ethics and conflicts of interest. 

Source:  http://ict-procurement.pmc.gov.au/Default/Rule

The taskforce also intends to look at the approach of ICT panels, introduced in 2008, wherein an initial approach to market is made and suppliers selected, after which procurement from selected panel suppliers can be made directly. It is estimated that in 2015-16, Nearly 30% of government ICT contracts by value were procured through panel arrangements, resulting in savings of over $1.2 billion, through streamlining of the procurement process.

At the moment, there are 70 ICT and engineering services panels, some of them specific to agencies and some at a whole-of-government level and purchase of certain ICT solutions such as telecommunications, end-user hardware and data centres,  is mandatorily through seven whole-of-government panels.

The downside is that getting onto panels may impose barriers to the participation of large number of vendors, particularly SMEs, by imposing heavy time and cost requirements and demanding  certifications or indemnities.

Thirteen questions are listed down to prompt and direct thinking. Submissions are sought till 31 January 2017. The ICT Procurement Taskforce will provide a report to the Government in early 2017.

Click here to read the ICT Procurement Taskforce Consultation Paper

PARTNER

Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

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CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

Since 1972, CTC has established itself as one of the country’s top IT solutions providers. With 50 years of experience, headed by an experienced management team and staffed by over 200 qualified IT professionals, we support organizations with integrated IT solutions expertise in Autonomous IT, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure, Workplace Modernization and Professional Services.

Well-known for our strengths in system integration and consultation, CTC Global proves to be the preferred IT outsourcing destination for organizations all over Singapore today.

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Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work. Our solutions enable organizations to connect the business from ideas to impact, empowering companies to accelerate the achievement of what matters most. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions creates an organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empowers teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enables customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with locations around the world, Planview has more than 1,300 employees supporting 4,500 customers and 2.6 million users worldwide. For more information, visit www.planview.com.

SUPPORTING ORGANISATION

SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

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HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

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IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

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