The Whole of Government Telecommunications Commodities, Carriage and Associated Services Panel (“the Panel”) has been established since January 2011.
In the first part of 2012, Finance reviewed the performance of the Panel, which resulted in:
- accessories being removed from the scope of the Panel from 1 July 2012; and
- a 12 month moratorium (from 23 July 2012) being placed on the requirement that FMA Act agencies use the Panel to procure mobile devices.
John Sheridan posted a blog entry dated 30 July 2012 where Finance indicated that it would undertake a more extensive review of the Panel. The review is to consider options for improving the supply arrangements for mobile devices to the Australian Government by consulting with industry and agencies to find suitable solutions.
As part of Finance’s ongoing consultations, Finance is considering how it may achieve better value for money in the procurement of mobile telecommunication devices and services generally (including associated carriage services).
I invite feedback and comments from Industry on how the Commonwealth may improve the performance of the arrangement, and what it could consider for inclusion into any future mobile telecommunications procurement arrangements.
Agencies and Whole of Government ICT Services Committee members can provide feedback via email to ICTprocurement@finance.gov.au.
Questions to kick start the conversations are:
- What has worked well?
- What needs to be improved?
- Should we change the scope of the current offerings available under the Panel arrangement?
Please refer to Statement of Requirements in the RFT FIN10/AGI002 (for establishing the Panel) below;
RFT FIN10-AGI002-Part F-SOR – Final [DOCX 62 KB]
RFT FIN10-AGI002-Part F-SOR – Final [PDF 119 KB] - How can mobile telecommunications procurement arrangements be improved to achieve greater efficiencies?
We’ll take feedback via this blog post over the next four weeks. If you have any sensitive matters that you wish to raise please send comments via email to ictprocurement@finance.gov.au. We’ll close the discussion at 5.00pm (AEST) on Friday 31 May 2013.
I emphasise that your input is valued and, as always, I look forward to your views and will keep you posted on developments!