Standard ICT Operating Environment
The SOE (Standard Operating Environment) tender is coming... An estimated contract value of US$915 million is in the pipeline.
The Infomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) announced last year of its plan to create a standard desktop environment and a network environment across all government bodies, with the exception of Ministry of Defence.
Under the SOE model, external contractors own and operate the ICT environment for government organisations. The government will pay for the use of the services based on usage , similar to an utility model, on a monthly basis.
It is the latest initiative by the Singapore Government towards greater centralisation in the procurement of commodity IT products and services. The authorities believe that the SOE approach can help them save as much as 30% in annual ICT costs, by:
- reducing the complexitity of IT infrastructure and simplify its management
- increasing the speed and flexibility at which hardware, software and services can be rolled out
- lowering the total cost of ownership through economies of scale, eliminating hidden costs
This will effectively bring an end for Singapore Government bulk tenders of PCs and other IT products and services. But I am not so sure if such tender can create an even playing field to smaller service providers and suppliers, which may be marginalised in the view of economic of scale.
The winner bidders will have the contract for eight years, instead of existing three years government contract that comes with an option to renew it for another two years. So if a single vendor, likely a Government-Linked Enterprises or Multi-National Corporations, is awarded the tender, in the worst case scenario, will it dictate or even monopolize the SOE platform? This may results in less opportunities for the larger IT industry, especially the smaller players.
But one thing for sure, it look like Microsoft have a field day.
posted by totoro at 3:49 PM
4 Comments:
yup. reading about in the strait times.
Look in the positive way, a single vendor will be easier to control and manage too. Knowledge sharing and standardising will also be improved.
Larger players will definitely welcome the government's initiative on a single platform proposal. Imagine all the civil sectors in Singapore using one brand of PCs... that won't create an even playing field for all players in the industry. Smaller players will have to join a consortium to benefit... Given they sit on the right side of the fence.
As for the Government, they will reap the benefits by improving efficiency and costs regardless.
As a customer, it is for the better. For the vendors, the rule is ' if you cannot win them, you join them'.
Post a Comment
<< Home