The Australian federal government may be planning to reduce ICT purchases in the 2008–09 financial year, according to consultancy firm Intermedium.
The firm, which helps companies sell their products and services to state and government agencies, based the observation on government procurement intention reports.
Such a dip is expected with any change of government, the firm’s head of research, Tim Conway, explained.
On top of this, changes will also stem from several government reviews.
“As well as the effect of the change of government, a number of changes will arise from the Gershon and Mortimer (Defence Procurement) Reviews and the implementation of ‘coordinated procurement contracting’ by the Department of Finance and Deregulation,” Conway said.
Although the procurement plans detail a total of 398 ICT projects in the coming year, Intermedium expects the actual number of such projects to total more than 500.
This is thanks to some government agencies being less than forthcoming with details of their ICT spend. The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC), which usually spends quite a bit on ICT, lists only two ICT items in its current forecast.
“While this doesn’t help the industry hungry for market information, it must be acknowledged that large complex agencies take some time to finalise procurement plans after they receive their budget allocations,” Conway said.
“We expect more information to be forthcoming from these agencies during the year, but in some cases we must rely on other sources of information, such as expiring contracts, to predict what will happen in these large agencies.”
