Check first: NZ government agreements and contracts

All-of-government agreements and Marketplace contracts:

• simplify the contractual process
• reduce costs — leveraging the scale of New Zealand’s government organisations as a single customer.

Check if either option meets your organisation’s needs, as they are either:

• required NZ government agreements
• optional NZ government agreements and contracts.

Check second: the direct contract is acceptable

Some providers of public cloud services do not have incentives to negotiate contracts specifically for individual NZ government departments. If this is the case and the contract is still acceptable to your organisation’s risk tolerance, using the set contract is likely the option to take.

When the direct contract is unacceptable without negotiating

If the provider’s contract is not acceptable to your organisation’s risk tolerance, weigh up:

• their openness to negotiate
• if there are alternative services from other providers available — including the public cloud services your organisation has already approved for use.

If the contract’s conditions are not acceptable, do not use the public cloud service from that provider.

Check third: negotiate the direct contract

If the provider is open to negotiating a contract with your organisation, check the terms and conditions of the contract that require more negotiating.

Terms and conditions for negotiating contracts for public cloud services

The Government Chief Digital Officer (GCDO) provides an example of a clause with the minimum areas that government organisations need to cover when negotiating contracts for public cloud services.

Example minimum clause in contracts for public cloud services

More information

Government Procurement Rules — New Zealand Government Procurement