The IT industry has lost confidence in public sector ICT projects, according to analyst firm Ovum.
This is evidenced by last week’s re-tendering of the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood’s $61 million Ultranet project, which Ovum said is merely the latest in a string of such projects gone awry.
“Despite years of diligent effort by CIOs and e-government directors and so on, we seem to be edging into an abyss of loss of confidence in public sector ICT projects,” said Steve Hodgkinson, research director at Ovum.
The Ultranet project is intended to provide automation for administration and curriculum processes. Parents would be able to check their children’s results and attendance at school via a secure website.
Since September 2007, both the Victorian state government and various vendors have spent millions putting the project to tender and responding to the tender.
The winner of the tender was expected to be announced early this year, but last week the government announced it was again asking for submissions.
The tender process fell apart, according to Ovum, because of a dispute over the Ultranet name. The term is associated with Oracle, and other vendors involved in the project have objected to working with a term that may imply a bias to Oracle.
To avoid such problems, Ovum warns vendors to enter R&D projects with caution.
“The lesson for vendors in this case is to be very careful about partnering with public sector agencies in R&D activities if you have an interest in selling them the fully developed solution sometime in the future,” Hodgkinson said.
“The R&D project can very easily become a poisoned chalice which strikes down both the vendor and the well-intentioned public servants — who are, after all, simply trying to get on and get things done.”
