Eight IT questions for the NSW Govt: Insight - Hardware

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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Eight IT questions for the NSW Govt

By Renai LeMay, ZDNet.com.au
June 15, 2009
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/insight/business/soa/Eight-IT-questions-for-the-NSW-Govt/0,139023749,339296927,00.htm

commentary What will the impact of NSW Premier Nathan Rees' ambitious agency consolidation plans be on the state's public sector ICT workers and infrastructure?

That's the question many NSW government technology workers will be nervously asking themselves tonight as they wait for their fate to be unveiled tomorrow, on the state's very own "Super Tuesday".

Last Thursday, ZDNet.com.au posed this exact question (and many others) to the office of the state's whole-of-government chief information officer (GCIO) Emmanuel Rodriguez, who leads ICT policy for the government.

We posed the questions after Rees quietly briefed a number of media organisations last week on plans to be unveiled in tomorrow's state budget to merge 160 government agencies into just 13 super-departments, in a move that has already been billed the biggest shake-up of the NSW public sector in decades.

Although the full details haven't been unveiled, it seems clear that the changes will impact IT workers in some way; obviously agency IT departments will be involved in consolidating technology infrastructure, unifying log-in structures and so on, but the Sydney Morning Herald has reported savings would come from the IT area as well.

Our query met immediate rejection and was punted straight back to media spokespeople from the NSW Department of Commerce, within which Rodriguez's office is housed.

Since the NSW Government has not yet responded, we'd like to know if any readers, especially state government employees, can help us answer the following:

What will be the broad impact on government IT services and departments from the reshuffle of NSW government departments announced as part of the 2009 budget?
What will the impact be on the NSW GCIO's office?
Have any IT staff lost their positions?
Have any chief information officers lost their positions or been re-allocated to other departments?
What IT savings will the government aim to make through the reshuffle, and how will these savings be delivered?
Will there be any consolidation of technology products and services contracts with suppliers?
What will be the impact of the reshuffle on departmental IT budgets?
Is the government considering an ICT shared services centre as Victoria and Queensland are implementing?