HP ups the ante in SOE bid

SINGAPORE-- Hewlett-Packard (HP) last week inked a partnership with Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) and the Singapore Management University (SMU) to provide training in information and communication technology (ICT).

The new iN'spire Academy program is an initiative of the team led by HP, that is bidding for the S$2 billion (US$1.3 billion) Standard ICT Operating Environment (SOE) project announced last year, which includes areas such as IT service management (ITSM), change management, process innovation, as well as people and market development.

The SOE project is an effort by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) to standardize technology usage across all government departments in Singapore, and is currently in the tender process. One of four consortiums bidding for the project, HP's team--dubbed iN'spire--comprises several major local and multinational corporations including Singapore Technologies Electronics, Cisco Systems, Accenture and Microsoft.

Annie Koh, associate professor and dean of the SMU's office of executive education, told ZDNet Asia that the partners aim to differentiate the team's bid by providing technical training that also "inspires change" in the public sector mindset.

Tan Lee Chew, managing director of HP Southeast Asia, said: "Training would take center stage rather than [be] an afterthought." She added that the program will be developed according to the requirements of the SOE, and aims to prepare Singapore's public sector to transit from its current IT environment to an SOE-enabled one.

According to Koh, NYP is expected to provide technical training in ITSM, while the SMU will drive the program in the areas of strategic change management, IT governance as well as IT security and policy making.

The program is expected to commence within 90 days after the team wins the bid, and is targeted at IT professionals, all civil servants, students and iN'spire team members involved in the implementation of SOE.

Should the team fail to win the bid, HP's Tan said that the three partners involved in the iN'spire Academy will continue to work together to offer a modified version of the training program.