NSW Government to overhaul ICT strategy

NSW Premier, Morris Iemma, has announced plans to overhaul the way the government spends its $1 billion annual ICT budget.

Speaking at CeBIT in Sydney, Iemma said the government was looking to introduce a statewide plan to achieve greater coordination in the management of its ICT activities.

This would involve an all-of-government PCs procuremnet scheme based on aggregated technical specifications, aimed at providing considerable savings, he said.

“We’re also looking at getting more for the $260 million we outlay on voice telecommunications annually, so we will look to aggregate our voice [services]by the end of the year.”

Iemma said he had also recently set up a council of public sector ICT officers with the goal of identifying areas which could be aggregated - such as common applications and government licensing.

This would lead to increased integration of common business functions, boost e-learning capabilities and the quality of online services, he said.

The moves are part of the government’s plans for cost savings and boosting the local ICT industry sector, Iemma said.

So far this had included funding for research centers, seed funding for ICT startups, increasing skilled migration, the state government broadband service for better coverage in rural NSW, and the cutting of red tape on tenders, he claimed.