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Buying products and services

What government agencies need to know about ICT Common Capabilities and buying products and services.

Description

An ICT Common Capability is any technology that can be used by 1 or more agencies, or across all-of-government, to support business outcomes.

The lead agency takes responsibility for procurement and contract maintenance, allowing your agency to focus on service delivery.

ICT Common Capabilities developed for all-of-government are listed in the Products and Services A–Z.

Benefits

ICT Common Capabilities allow agencies to share ICT investment, pool resources and move to a shared set of standards.

Leveraging the scale of government agencies as a single customer avoids the need for agencies to undertake their own full-scale procurement process.

Benefits to agencies of adopting ICT Common Capabilities:

  • reduces duplicated investments
  • reduces costs across government through economies of scale
  • leads to shared ICT costs
  • helps individual agencies run efficient ICT systems
  • removes the need to maintain multiple versions of similar technologies
  • allows agencies to focus on creating better public services, improving service delivery
  • removes the need for each agency to tender services
  • enables a citizen-centric approach to government services by requiring agencies to work from the same standards, and
  • creates a common level of security.

Mandated ICT Common Capabilities

Government agencies are required to adopt 3 ICT Common Capabilities:

  • ICT Security and Related Services Panel (SRS Panel)
  • Telecommunications as a Service (TaaS)
  • RealMe

Agencies are strongly advised to adopt the other ICT Common Capabilities.

Eligibility

All agencies in the public sector are eligible to use ICT Common Capabilities. This includes local authorities (district and regional councils).

ICT System Leadership mandated requirements

Agencies within the scope of the ICT System Leadership mandate and who submit Four-Year Plans to Treasury, are required to outline their plans to adopt ICT Common Capabilities.

The ICT System Leadership mandate applies to:

  • public service departments
  • non-public service departments
  • district health boards (DHBs).

It also applies to the following Crown entities:

  • Accident Compensation Corporation
  • Earthquake Commission
  • Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities (formerly Housing New Zealand Corporation)
  • New Zealand Qualifications Authority
  • New Zealand Trade and Enterprise
  • New Zealand Transport Agency
  • Tertiary Education Commission.

NZ’s central government organisations – Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission

Exemptions

When your agency’s specific requirements mean existing ICT Common Capabilities are unsuitable, contact the GCDO. In most cases there’ll be an opportunity to enhance existing service catalogues.

gcdo@dia.govt.nz

Prioritising ICT Common Capabilities

Multiple agencies with common investment needs inform the development and prioritisation of ICT Common Capabilities.

Actions in the Government ICT Strategy and Action Plan to 2017 are also reviewed each year to ensure the ICT Common Capabilities are prioritised.

ICT Common Capability timelines

The Government ICT Strategy and supporting work programme sets the direction for all ICT Common Capabilities.

The time it takes to develop ICT Common Capabilities depends on:

  • simplification of complex ICT service catalogues
  • collaboration with multiple agencies to co-design and develop requirements, and
  • a comprehensive procurement process.

If your agency needs something urgently that’s still in the development phase, contact GCDO to discuss your requirements.  

gcdo@dia.govt.nz 

If the ICT Common Capability you need hasn’t made it to the project stage, talk to us about who else may have the same requirements. It’s possible that your requirement could turn into a project that will develop the capacity you need.

How to get involved in an ICT Common Capability project

Government agencies collaborate to co-design and develop products and services. This helps to shape the scope and direction of ICT Common Capabilities.

If your agency would like to get involved or lead a project, contact gcdo@dia.govt.nz. They will put you in touch with the lead agency and help you get started.

The GCDO can assist your agency develop common market requirements and engage with reference groups to identify common attributes that will benefit other agencies.

How to adopt an ICT Common Capability

Choose the service you require from the Products and Services A–Z.

Contact the agency contact or your AoG Shared Capability Account Executive. They will provide you with specific guidance and talk you through the secondary procurement process.

We may discuss your business requirements, operating model, security requirements and available resources.

The secondary procurement process

The secondary procurement process is the way an agency selects a vendor from an existing panel. 

  1. Contact the Agency Contact for the ICT Common Capability products or services you require.
  2. Sign a standard confidentiality agreement so all vendor catalogues can be released.
  3. Select a vendor based on your business requirements.
  4. Sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) as Lead Agency. This MoU sets out each party’s rights and obligations.
  5. Sign an agreement with the preferred supplier.
  6. Once all agreements are agreed the supplier will transition the service.

The requirements selection process depends on the Common Capability being implemented, contact the Agency Contact listed for that capability for more detail.

Administration fee

The administration fee is used to cover the Lead Agency expenses for developing, procuring, managing and reviewing Common Capabilities services.

The administration fee is 1.75% across all Common Capabilities services and is cost-recovery only.

Products and Services A–Z

Transition support, contract renewals and renegotiations

DIA as lead agency manage the product portfolio and contracts for all-of-government ICT Common Capabilities.

When membership of a vendor panel changes, we will provide your agency with transition planning support and advice.

Access to preferred suppliers

If you have a preferred supplier, refer them to the Government Electronic Tenders Service (GETS) website. All open tenders are advertised through GETS.

Government Electronic Tenders Service (GETS)

 

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