Government claims NZ$239 million in savings from common ICT
The New Zealand government's ICT Common Capabilities scheme is generating savings for the government as a whole and for individual agencies, the government chief information officer (GCIO) has said.
Across three major components of the program, NZ$239 million in savings is locked in over the terms of current contracts with suppliers.
An ICT Update from the GCIO said increased uptake of infrastructure as a service (IaaS) under the program has achieved significant savings in storage.
"Savings have now increased from NZ$43.3 million to NZ$94.6 million. This figure takes into account NZ$7.3 million of savings to date, and the forecasted NZ$87.6 million that will be achieved over the remaining years of the contract," it says.
Savings from the buying contract with Microsoft have reached NZ$70 million, with NZ$119 million forecast over the contract's term. Meanwhile, savings from the one.govt networking and connectivity contract have reached NZ$3.5 million, with NZ$25.6 million forecast over the whole contract.
Agencies using one.govt for WAN and internet connectivity can also look forward to a further 5 percent discount soon, when the contract reaches its fifth anniversary.
Common capabilities are designed to replace legacy applications and services, ensure processes, tools, and infrastructure are not duplicated, allow agencies to shift to cloud services, and reduce IT costs.
Meanwhile, the government has gone to market for telecommunications as a service (TaaS) to further extend its all-of-government services portfolio. The contract aims to ease the purchase of telecommunications services and improve connectivity between government agencies.
"A comprehensive range of telecommunications and managed security services is sought, to be delivered through a standardised platform that could be supplied and managed by several providers," the ICT Update says.
TaaS includes all services for connectivity, communications, contact centres, managed security, and the emergency services network.
It is anticipated that TaaS services will be available for agencies by the middle of 2015.
Last year, the government announced that it was entering negotiations with VMware, Oracle, and Citrix to conclude all-of-government licensing deals. It said it would aim for similar deals with SAS, SAP, Adobe, IBM, and HP, as well as a renewal of its deal with Microsoft in 2015.