Govt calls on partners to pitch for new ERP panel

The Federal Government has opened up the doors for local partners to pitch in on its proposed whole-of-government enterprise resource planning (ERP) software-as-a-service (SaaS) procurement panel.

On 26 September, the Department of Finance issued a request for proposal for the establishment of the proposed panel, saying that it is making an open approach to market to establish a panel of suppliers to fill the procurement panel.

Specifically, the timeframe of the proposed panel is five years, plus up to five years of extension options which may be taken by the Department of Finance in whole or in part.

The move comes roughly three months after the Department released a position paper on the proposed panel, aimed at advising the local tech industry of its indicative strategy for establishing the ERP panel and inviting feedback from the industry.

The broad objective of the approach to market (ATM) was to establish a panel that offers public entities ERP solutions that are cloud based, as either software-as-a-service (SaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) or scalable public cloud-based services.

According to the more recent request for proposal, the services required by the Department include the supply of scalable commercial off the shelf ERP software provided as a SaaS solution, planning, design and implementation of the ERP solution, and ongoing support, maintenance and development for the ERP solution.

The move to establish a whole-of-government ERP procurement panel is part of the Federal Government’s Shared Services Program.

The Australian Public Service (APS)-wide program is aimed at providing common services across agencies through the development of centres of excellence (hubs) and the transition of agencies into these hubs.

The hub agencies include the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Department of Human Services, the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, as well as Finance and Treasury.

The aims of the program include minimising the number of ERP systems used across the APS, standardising business processes across all of the hubs, and localisation at lower levels where required.

Under the program, business systems and processes are expected to be standardised across the APS by consolidating service provision from 85 internal service providers into six hubs.

It is intended that successful respondents will be appointed to a panel to provide the services on an as required and non-exclusive basis.

The request for proposal closes on 30 October.