Standard Operating Environment II

EDS has just announced the first consortium in bid for Singapore $1.5 billion SOE tender. As expected, it is made up of industry heavyweights - Singapore Computer Systems, Avanade, Cisco Systems and Microsoft.

EDS, SCS and Avanade are exclusive members of oneMeridien, which means that they will not be part of any other consortiums that are expected to be bidding for the tender. Cisco Systems and Microsoft are non-exclusive, but they are also part of the EDS Agility Alliance, a partnership of 10 firms. While EDS and SCS are product- and platform-neutral service providers, Avanade is owned jointly by Accenture and Microsoft.

So it seems like the Microsoft technologies will indeed gain the upper hand and dominate the Government sector. While the SOE project is beneficial to the Government, expecting to cut 30-40% of IT expenses, it is definitely not good news to the existing vendors and suppliers. From the signs of things to come, the local SMEs, notably the smaller players in the IT industry, as feared, will be increasingly sidelined in the Government sector.

Is this a fair level field of play? The Government is "encouraging" the SMEs to focus their attention overseas, but at their own backyard, they are already disadvantaged. It is analogous to a tree without strong roots, how will the branches and leaves grow?

Everyday, I have been seriously thinking how to survive being "a small fish in a big pond"? Recalling historical stories from "The Spring Autumn Warring States Chronicles" and "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the smaller states (but not necessarily weak) need to band together in order to survive. But unlike larger states, each states have its own manifest and they more than often, united only in name but not in hearts.