Opinion: A fighting chance for public sector SMB

I was initially surprised by the Australian Federal Government's decision to create a position called the "Advocate to IT SMB", tasked with giving SMB resellers a better chance of gaining market share in the Federal Government arena.

What I was hoping that this would lead to was an overhaul of the Federal Government's procurement guidelines, which in their current form are an archaic list of suggestions on how to request a Tender, Expression of Interest or Request for Proposal.

The current guidelines have done away with the value for money proposal. Instead, it seems the focus is now on price alone, and companies are forced to drop their prices to remain competitive -- often to the detriment of the winning bidder and, eventually, the department making the request.

What I had hoped was that the value for money system of weighing up several options would be reinstated, keeping in mind key factors:

• Delivery time - Weighted at 25% of the overall value
• Innovation - Weighted at 15% of the overall value
• Diversity - Weighted at 10% of the overall value
• Price - Weighted at 50% of the overall value.

This would give SMBs an equal fighting chance against large enterprises in the tender process.

But it appears that this is not to be, with the appointment of an ex-EDS executive as the Government's IT Supplier Advocate. Potentially, he could see the SMB reseller's perspective -- but only if he has had any experience in this environment.

To date, the information put to the public has not been overly inspiring. The suggestion that the SMB companies would be best off consulting to multinationals and global corporations left a sour taste in my mouth; SMB has a lot to offer the market, and diluting their involvement will only lead to the death of the SMB player in government. And innovation will die with it.

SMB has a place in the market. Perhaps there is room for the global companies to speak to SMB, but I would think that they would be learning from these companies, not getting them in as consultants.

Small companies have the agility to change and adapt to the market far faster than their large competitors. If the various SMB resellers get smart and form consortia like they did in the '90s, the companies that will be left behind are the enterprise players, as the innovation, diversity and agility will create super companies.

They will out-do the slow-to-react larger companies. After all, it is hard to be competitive when you need to ask for directions from your head office. The resulting shakeup will possibly see the end for some companies as their solutions are exposed as being stop gap.

Pricing won't be a factor, and as the reach of these super companies extend to the manufacturers, special pricing won't be the shield it once was...

Peter Holland has worked in the ICT industry for the past 18 years, in both SMB and enterprise sectors. The opinions in this article are his own and do not represent those of his employer.