Qld govt sets lean, green PC shopping policy

The Queensland Government has announced a new 'green' IT procurement plan, covering all government agency purchases of PCs, laptops and servers over the next three years.

The QP-707 agreement, administered by the government's purchasing arm, is a new panel arrangement of approved suppliers, which will come into effect from September and cover all government agencies except Queensland's Education Department.

Queensland's Minister for Public Works, Housing and Information and Communication Technology, Robert Schwarten, said in a statement: "We have two aims with this new arrangement: to save money and to get more energy efficient computers into government offices."

Schwarten expects to save more than AU$20 million dollars within the first full year of use -- a figure it bases on prices the government was paying for its hardware six months ago. The Queensland Government's various agencies and departments currently spend AU$100 million annually on desktops, PCs and servers.

While agencies will maintain control over their own IT budgets, IT service and hardware purchases will be restricted to Dell, Fujitsu and Australian reseller Data#3. Fujitsu will provide IBM, Lenovo and Acer hardware while Data#3 will supply HP and Toshiba products.

Data#3's managing director John Grant said that HP currently holds the largest share of desktop hardware sales to the Queensland Government.

The approved suppliers had to prove they were able not just to supply the products but also dispose of them at the end of their lifecycle. Grant said Data#3 had contracted out this function to a third party but was unable to say what companies they use.

The minister's spokesperson said the disposal policy was essential because the secondary market for legacy equipment is disappearing; non-government organisations who previously salvaged value from legacy equipment at auctions are increasingly turning second hand kit down, leaving the government with a disposal problem.

"We wanted to make sure there is a recycling policy involved to make sure these aren't ending up as landfill," the spokesperson said.

Resellers IPEX (a Volante company), ASI Solutions and Optima are now excluded from the government's suppliers list.

The minister's spokesperson was unable to say why the three suppliers were dropped but told ZDNet Australia that they only constituted five percent of the government's AU$75 million annual IT spend.