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7 Landsborough Street 29 November 2000 Richard G Humphry AO Dear
Mr Humphry IT Outsourcing Initiative - Review of Implementation Risks I
am writing on behalf of the Australian Geoscience Council in the context of your
review of the Government’s IT Outsourcing Initiative. The AGC comprises seven
societies and associations, represents most of the geoscientists in Australia.
and has a total membership of about 10 000. Our main aim is to promote the geosciences, in the
best interests of both our constituent organisations and the Australian nation
as a whole. Several
of our members work for AGSO and CSIRO and we are concerned that the outsourcing
of IT services in these agencies (through Cluster 9) will have significant
negative effects on their effectiveness and future performance. The
main aims of the IT Outsourcing Initiative appear to be save money, and to
assist the local IT industry to grow. However, the recent report of the National
Audit Office, cast serious doubts on this outcome. More
importantly, from an AGC perspective, the effect of this initiative within
science-based agencies has apparently not yet been considered. The risk here is
that if their IT facilities are outsourced, then their core functions of
delivering scientific-based outputs will be degraded. We
have heard a lot recently on the need for Australia to be an innovative country
and the Batterham Report: A Chance to
Change and the Miles Report: Innovation,
Unlocking the Future both contain strong arguments on the need for a culture
that encourages innovation. For most of the science agencies, IT is part of
their research programs, rather than a basic tool of trade. They develop and use
specialist systems much more than purchase standard "off the shelf"
programs. In fact the IT developments can lead to new technology solutions for
the knowledge economy. Furthermore,
there is likely to be a conflict of interest between the research groups that
are tackling strategic and tactical research issues, and the commercial IT
providers who are providing a standard service to make a profit. In other words,
the team members may be working in somewhat different directions. As
an example, in the Information Sheet for Cluster 9 for AGSO, it appears that all
the IT facilities for the operation of the seismic and magnetic observatories
across Australia and Antarctica will be outsourced. This work is very
specialised and the software/hardware facilities needed to provide the required
outputs have been developed and applied within the same organisation to achieve
program goals. The risk of degrading these outputs and fossilising the
facilities for the duration of the contract, rather than having a flexible
dynamic environment where it is very easy to change direction when new
techniques and facilities become available, is very real. There
may well be savings in scale to be gained by outsourcing the word processing and
standard communication facilities in these organisations, but we strongly
recommend that you thoroughly investigate the potential risk to their core
business in your review. Max Moore-Wilton addressed the IT outsourcing issue in his talk to the Institute of Public Administration last week in Canberra. He said: ‘the thrust of the approach is correct, but application and the way one goes about it are things where we need a fairly flexible and sensitive approach.’ He also said ‘For some others [organisations] that have particular specialised needs, there is no point in trying to reinvent the wheel outside when the expertise rests inside. The trick is to find out where these boundaries are, and the trick is to find out what can be used from outside and what can be best done inside.’ We
understand that the tender for Group 9 Science Agencies is scheduled to be
advertised after your report has been received. The AGC recommends that until an independent review has
been carried out on the likely impact of IT outsourcing on the scientific
outputs from those institutions currently clustered in Group 9, that particular
tender be put on hold. For
your consideration. Yours
sincerely David Denham Dr David Denham AM, Tel: 02 6295 3014, Email: denham@atrax.net.au |
The Australian Geoscience Council Inc. © 1999 - 2003 |
