NSW govt commences talks with Infosys, Unisys for shared services

The NSW government has established a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Infosys and Unisys to progress detailed discussions for both companies to provide shared ICT services to agencies.

In March, the NSW government invited 50 companies that registered their interest to provide technology services to submit their plans through a request for proposal process.

“Since March, we’ve been examining alternate options for the delivery of shared services which are currently provided by ServiceFirst,” NSW minister for finance and services, Dominic Perrottet said on Wednesday.

“As part of the analysis, shared service companies were invited to provide submissions for delivering human resource, ICT, finance and other shared services to more than 6000 public servants across government.”

Agencies including Treasury, Finance and Services, Planning and Environment, as well as Premier and Cabinet, are receiving ICT services from ServiceFirst.

The MOU is expected to be signed before Christmas and a decision on the final arrangements will be made in April following detailed due diligence and contract negotiations, the NSW government said.

It is still unclear whether or not Infosys and Unisys will absorb any of the 350 ServiceFirst staff once the negotiations are completed.

An Office of Finance and Services spokesperson told CIO that the government will “continue to work with new suppliers to determine the final structure and arrangements.”

Minister Perrottet said in a statement that Infosys and Unisys will bring specialist experience as well as knowledge of industry benchmarks and standards that will help the government improve business practices.

“Once we transition to the new delivery model, it is hoped that there will be greater consistency for shared services across the sector, as the new service providers will have performance and delivery benchmarks built into their contracts,” he said.

The move to shared services is part of the NSW government’s 2013-2014 ICT Strategy, designed to provide better value from its $2 billion annual spend on technology.

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