ICT faces a different crunch

According to John Serle, editor of IT Trends, public sector organisations must recognise that investment in ICT can actually help them achieve the budget savings they are looking for during the recession, reports publicservice.co.uk.

The impact of the credit crunch and resulting recession has not yet fully unfolded, but clearly the pressures on public services are going to become severe during 2009.

For the past 10 years, ICT has been heralded as the means to deliver significantly better services at much lower cost, but results so far have been disappointing.

Unisys has successfully transitioned IT support services for the first nine of the twelve regions for the Australian Department of Defence covered by the contract, announced in February 2008, reports CIO Australia.

The contract has an approximate value of A$240 million (R1.6 billion) and has an initial term of five years following the transition period with the potential for two future contract extensions, each of two years' duration.

The progressive handover of each region is part of the estimated 18-month transition period currently on schedule for completion in October 2009.

The NZICT Group, representing more than 40 ICT companies in New Zealand, has appointed Brett O'Riley as its CEO, according to Computerworld.

The primary role of the NZICT Group is to represent ICT vendors to government and the community and to promote the use of ICT.

O'Riley has been managing director of Australian-based Ochre Services and Ochre Networks. Before that he held executive roles at Gen-i, Telecom New Zealand, Nava Networks, Southern Cross Cable Network and Pacific Gateway Exchange.