By any yardstick, federal spending on information technology products and services is massive. Depending on the ebb and flow of tech projects, that spending amounts to somewhere between $7 billion and $10 billion each year.
When directed consciously, that level of spending can have profound impacts on local industry development, building domestic capability and generating huge spillover benefits to the broader economy.
With the election of the Albanese Government, a spotlight is being applied to public sector procurement in a way that has been absent for some years.
InnovationAus.com wants to hear from suppliers of information technology products and services to the public sector. This survey aims to map the experience of companies selling to the Australian government.
All survey data and comments collected will be anonymised. The results will be published as a report on InnovationAus.com and shared with the relevant minister’s offices. All participants in the survey will get early access to the results.
This survey is succinct and to the point. It will take about ten minutes to complete – and there are plenty of opportunities to leave comments.
With plans for a Future Made in Australia Office still be scripted, we hope the results of this survey will help inform the policy decisions that will help build our sovereign and domestic capability in strategically important areas in everything from application software development to artificial intelligence design and digital service delivery.
This is your opportunity to influence the discussion and to produce better outcomes for the development of a strong and vibrant local tech industry.
“We know that other countries use procurement to strategically lift industry, and Australia now has an opportunity to have a fresh look at how it buys information technology and related services, and to refresh its government procurement norms,” InnovationAus.com publisher Corrie McLeod said.
“Through this survey we aim to provide government with some signposts based on the experience of companies selling into the public sector.”
In addition to encouraging anecdotal insights of the experience of companies selling to government, we have also included a couple of questions that explore specific themes.
First, we are interested to understand if there is a gap between companies that have successfully applied for a government grant to develop a product – and have passed all the due diligence and capability assessments that accompany these grants schemes – but have subsequently been unsuccessful in selling an appropriate product to government. We want to find out, and in particular the experience of these companies that may have had success selling into export markets but have struggled to find government as a customer.
Secondly, we are interested to measure and understand what and how SMEs are selling to government. How often does it contain locally developed intellectual property, and how can we make it easier for government to buy products and services that have Australian smarts. And are these sales direct, through a reseller, or as a subcontractor to a larger prime.
Thirdly, there is room for comment on government as a customer. Does the public sector have the internal technical skills and procurement experience to purchase locally developed technology?
InnovationAus.com has been a long-time follower of technology procurement practices. The aim of this survey is to provide a positive voice to government as part of its own reset of federal procurement practices.
You can participate in this survey by clicking here.
Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.