GovNext-ICT is a whole-of-government approach to ICT infrastructure that will support government agencies transform from individual ownership of ICT infrastructure to consumers of on-demand, consolidated services.
GovNext-ICT aims to simplify and connect government systems by re-locating 60 physical data centres into pay-as-you-go, secure cloud services, creating a single, unified network, and modernising telecommunications. GovNext-ICT CUA GNICT2015 was created to simplify and optimise procurement of ICT infrastructure services.
Traditional procurement models of ICT infrastructure support services have resulted in locking government into numerous, long-term contracts which are expensive, onerous to manage and don’t service evolving public service needs.
Physical removal and consolidation of hardware, reduction of contracts and simplification of the buying mechanism will create government savings, increase cyber security and provide agility for government to drive innovation by removing the limitations inherent with ownership
Implementation of GovNext-ICT
GovNext-ICT is a reform initiative that is sponsored by the Directors General ICT Council and championed by the nine largest government agencies, the Department of Health, Education, Justice, Police, Communities, Transport, Main Roads, Public Transport Authority and the Department of Finance. Agencies plan and execute their ICT transformation with the help and support of the GovNext-ICT Service Broker (GSB) and the three vendor consortia, who have been selected as members of a new ICT infrastructure services panel arrangement, GNICT2015.
GNICT2015 – Common User Arrangement
GNICT2015 is a new mandatory Common User Arrangement (CUA) for the supply of compute, storage, cloud computing, and a unified government communications network for whole of WA Government.
GNICT2015 came into effect in January 2017 and has a five year term, with one five year extension option.
GNICT2015 replaces a number of older CUAs, including:
- CUA56808 Telecommunication Services
- CUANIS2013 ICT Network Infrastructure Solutions
- CUA169209 Data Centres and Associated Management Services
- CUA13010 IT Servers and Data Storage Devices.
GNICT2015 is a CUA for ICT infrastructure services. It does not replace or affect CUA ICTS2015 Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Services.
It is expected that GNICT2015 will cover approximately 15 per cent of the WA Government’s annual ICT expenditure.
Under GNICT2015 ICT infrastructure services will be provided by three consortia, led by Atos Australia Pty Ltd, Datacom Systems Pty Ltd, and NEC Australia Pty Ltd. These three companies are commonly known as the consortia Primes.
Each Prime has assembled a consortia of local and national partners in order to supply the full range of services and provide diversity of supply for network, telephony, data centre co‑location and other ICT infrastructure services.
Consortia membership is ‘open’, and Primes may propose additional partners that can provide innovative and cost-effective ICT infrastructure solutions to the State.
GNICT2015 aims to establish a fair, orderly and transparent market for ICT infrastructure services, where the three consortia compete to provide ICT services to WA government agencies.
The market is regulated by the GovNext-ICT Service Broker (GSB), who conducts regular price and service benchmarks and ensures that the ICT infrastructure services consumed under GNICT2015 continue to be cost-effective and state-of-the-art.
Services that can be purchased under GNICT2015
GNICT2015 services cover the supply of compute, storage, cloud computing, and communications services and include:
- Datacentre co-location into tier 3 datacentres equipped with:
- standard server racks
- high power server racks
- highly secure server racks
- a range of additional data centre capabilities.
- A range of private cloud computing services, including:
- customisable computing
- tiered storage
- backup and recovery services
- server operating system and database management services
- a number of complimentary additional private cloud services.
- Communications network connectivity, including:
- standard Wide Area Network (WAN) and Local Area Network (LAN) capabilities to service any government agency building
- standard WAN services to connect existing datacentres with GovNext-ICT datacentre, providing the data path for agencies to transition application workloads
- failover WAN services
- Internet Protocol (IP) and Plain Old Telephony Services (POTS) catering for general government agency voice telecommunications needs
- range of additional network services, including Public Key Infrastructure and extended support.
- Internet Gateway Services that deliver:
- standard Internet connections
- firewall, proxy, remote access and threat intrusion management
- internal and external security zones
- a range of additional Internet services commonly used by government agencies.
All GNICT2015 services are listed in a Service Catalogue, available on the Contracts WA website and customers can compare the service offerings from different contractors.
Buying guidelines
The Buying Guidelines for GNICT2015 are published on the Contracts WA website, together with the service catalogues of the three vendor consortia and the GovNext-ICT contracts.
Agencies can enrol with one, two or all of the GovNext-ICT vendor consortia. Enrolled agencies can order services from the consortia Primes in accordance with the Buying Guidelines.
To seek quotes and clarify service catalogues, please email the GSB Agency Engagement Team at GovNext-DPC@dpc.wa.gov.au, who can provide induction sessions, case studies, planning assistance and procurement advice.
The role of the GovNext-ICT Service Broker
The GovNext-ICT Service Broker (GSB) within the Office of Digital Government is overseeing the GNICT2015 market for ICT infrastructure services, monitoring and reporting on cost and consumption, defining and certifying new service offerings and supporting agencies with their GovNext-ICT transformation.
The GSB provides induction sessions for agencies about:
- the scope of GovNext-ICT services
- GovNext-ICT Technical Architecture
- how the Contract is constructed and who the contractors are
- examples of journeys taken by other agencies.
The GSB provides planning assistance to agencies for:
- identifying the potential cost savings of adopting GovNext-ICT service offerings
- defining the roadmap for the GovNext-ICT transformation.
The GSB provides procurement advice to agencies, in collaboration with the Department of Finance's Government Procurement (GP) area on:
- interpreting the service catalogues
- selecting services required
- providing requirements templates and ensuring alignment to the service catalogue and transformation agenda
- reviewing quotes/proposals from the contractors.
A summary of the roles and responsibilities of the GSB and GP are available in the GovNext-ICT Common Use Arrangement roles and responsibilities fact sheet.
What does GovNext-ICT mean for local business?
The CUA GNICT2015 is a panel arrangement with three consortia, all of which already include a number of local businesses.
The GovNext-ICT government private cloud is hosted in Perth and most of the other services, for example, data centre co-location, network and telephony, require the three consortia to work with local providers.
The CUA GNICT2015 allows for innovation to be added to the service mix. The three consortia Primes are encouraged to augment and strengthen services with new providers, if this allows them to provide more innovative and cost-effective services to the State.
How is GovNext-ICT different to Shared Services?
GovNext-ICT is not a government shared service. While GovNext-ICT establishes a unified network architecture, all services are provided by the three vendor consortia who can be engaged by agencies via the GNICT2015 Common Use Arrangement.
Service offerings are comparable and interchangeable between vendors and the interoperability of services is overseen and controlled by the GSB.
Case studies
The GovNext-ICT program is supporting agencies throughout this transition by providing strategic advice and collaboration opportunities to assist agencies undertake their digital transformations. The GovNext-ICT case studies show examples of agencies who have adopted GovNext-ICT services. For more information on GovNext-ICT case studies, contact the GSB Agency Engagement Team at GovNext-DPC@dpc.wa.gov.au.
Further information
For more information on transitioning to GovNext-ICT email: GovNext-DPC@dpc.wa.gov.au