In partnership with the WA Department of Treasury and Finance (DTF), a panel of representatives from the WA Government briefed Perth’s local IT industry on its strategic ICT initiatives, procurement plans and challenges to an audience of more than 200 at the AIIA’s annual WA Government Symposium on May 19.

Ajilon was one of the key sponsors of the event, which was held at the Parmelia Hilton in Perth’s CBD. The event was attended by key account staff from Ajilon’s Justice and Lands Sectors, along with client guests from WA Police, Landgate and the Departments of Premier and Cabinet and Commerce.

Ajilon Account Manager, Paul Wilkins, shared his overall impressions of the event.

“The Symposium gave an overview of the Government’s 2010 to 2011 procurement intentions. John Crowe, representing the Department of Treasury and Finance (DTF), said that the Government would continue to simplify buying rules and, where feasible, to secure price and other economies by channeling goods and services acquisition through Common Use Arrangements (CUAs). Points of particular interest included:

• CUA 14008 for ICT Services will soon be reviewed by an industry reference group (which includes Ajilon).
• Following similar federal and eastern states’ initiatives, DTF is shortly to finalise the first stage of a three stage process to consolidate Government data centres.
• Last week, an industry briefing was held for a new CUA to provide Government agencies with shared ICT accommodation infrastructure. The intention is that agencies move to a point where they lease rather than own the ICT infrastructure on which their base desktop requirement depends.

“In addition to this ‘whole-of-government’ view, a number of the larger agencies also gave an insight into their procurement intentions. These speakers were interspersed with presentations from the Managing Director of Data #3 and the Engineering Director of Google, who both spoke to an ‘innovation’ theme.

“Attended by industry as well as Government representatives, the Symposium proved an excellent networking event. Feedback from clients was uniformly complimentary. We’ll definitely look to sponsor similar government-focused events of this nature in the future.”