The framework, entitled Spirit, provides a form of pre-certification for suppliers of government IT services. It is designed to replace BDMW and BIPAC, two consortium contract arrangements currently held by CSC, as well as a plethora of smaller tenders pertaining to different levels of government.
The approach has received the support of state-based and national players such as IT outsourcers ASG and Kaz Computer Services,as well as global companies such as Unisys joint venture Unisys West.
Spirit project director Diane Jamieson described the framework as a move away from central control to central coordination, to a point where individual agencies could autonomously choose from a list of providers whose services were certified through the process.
"It is a very basic panel-based certification model," Jamieson said. "Overall we have identified about 160 IT service requirements which we then divided into three key areas, planning and management, business applications, and technological infrastructure."
Describing previous attempts of centralised purchasing as a monumental failure, Jamieson said the formula for the new Spirit framework was only reached after extensive consultation with the industry.
"We have developed this approach in conjunction with the industry," Jamieson said. "Although the application system is complex, it's launch has been greeted favourably by the industry."
Representing about AU$20 million of the State Government's spend on IT, the BDMW and BIPAC tenders were drafted in 1993 -- after the McCarry Report into public sector finances recommended the consolidation of government IT resources into a mainframe environment.
Campaigning in favour of government IT outsourcing, the former State Liberal Government awarded the tenders to global IT outsourcer CSC and the then locally-based company Ferntree. Subsequently Ferntree was bought by GE, to establish GECIT, which in turn was bought out by CSC -- creating exactly the monopoly the government was attempting to avoid through their duopolistic approach.
Designed to coincide with the expiration of BDMW and BIPAC in mid-2002, with the pre-qualified supplier list to be announced on June 10, Spirit is expected to gain momentum as a series of smaller tenders also expire over the next 18 months.
"In WA, government purchasing has a very strong influence on the market and it has become recognised that it's important to use government purchasing to achieve other aims," Jamieson said. "If you bundle things up into larger tenders you stop a lot of local companies from becoming involved. This way agencies can either choose to go with a large multinational, or go for a smaller niche player who might be more suited to their needs."
Thank God someone stood up to these huge IT companies like CSC. Good to see WA taking the lead. I've heard there are a lot of innovative IT companies over there in Perth. Keep up the good work! We might use this same approach in NSW and drive the likes of CSC out of the coffers!