The agency's mandate is to improve service delivery to the public through the provision of IT systems and related services.
“To effectively fulfil this role requires a highly-sophisticated and dynamic agency with the necessary leadership, skills, capabilities and systems and processes to ensure a high level of service excellence, value for money, innovation and thought leadership,” says the organisation.
At a recent parliamentary meeting, the agency said its vision is to be the lead ICT agency to enable public sector service delivery.
However, it has been plagued by several challenges in the past. Cabinet adopted a turnaround framework for SITA in March 2010, recognising that a decade after the formation of the agency, it was in crisis, according to SITA.
Golden three
It highlights three specific focus areas for 2011/12, with the first being service delivery.
SITA says it will implement a service management strategy, emphasise proactive customer relationship management, and re-engineer supply chain management (SCM).
It will seek industry partnership for economies of scale, partnership with other government agencies, review of transversal tenders, and will implement National Treasury's SCM framework.
The second focus area is the implementation of phase two of the turnaround strategy, which is to enable the organisation as a PSI. To do this, SITA will implement a new operating model.
It will also engage in organisational alignment, an external communication drive, the Government Change Control Board, and a programme for vendor accreditation and certification.
Enabling e-government is SITA's third key focus area. To this end, the agency will implement the Integrated Financial Management System.
It will also, under the government systems convergence strategy, look at an SA Government Business Architecture Reference Model, an SA Government Data Architecture Reference Model, and an SA Government Applications Architecture Reference Model.
Under the government technology convergence strategy, it will work on technology architecture and will get government to adopt an e-government strategy.
Choice employer
The agency's strategic plan for 2011/12 has seven outcomes.
The first is to provide quality service delivery to the public sector by tackling customer relations, flagship projects delivery and service performance.
To become a proficient lead agency in public sector ICT, SITA will focus on service portfolio management, and becoming a PSI and a learning organisation.
The agency's third strategic outcome is for effective and integrated public sector ICT SCM. The key performance areas for this outcome are SCM effectiveness through digital inclusion, reducing backlogs and improving contract management.
The fourth outcome is to have competitive pricing and financial stability, through debt management, revenue growth, and pricing and costing.
To become an effective ICT regulator, the agency will focus on inventory and information systems convergence, reducing duplication, interoperability, security, and certification.
Effective governance and monitoring is the sixth outcome for 2011/12, and requires clean audits and stakeholder management.
To reach the seventh outcome, and become an employer of choice, SITA will place emphasis on talent management and corporate performance and change management.
Challenging IT
The agency said part of the crisis was a failure to incorporate government departments into SITA due to the dissatisfaction with its service levels and standards.
It also lists a high staff turnover as a key challenge in achieving its mandate. This problem was especially hindering at leadership and executive level, resulting in a lack of core skills, an ineffective board and weak corporate governance.
SITA says its service delivery is poor, inconsistent and, in some cases, non-existent. “Services are expensive, non-value-adding and a burden,” adds the agency.
A lack of compliance with regulations, pricing and turnaround times, no economies of scale, and weak internal capabilities were also mentioned as some of the agency's challenges.
“After this assessment... the rallying theme that underpins SITA's turnaround is 'SITA today, SITA tomorrow, SITA to the future', noting the organisation's importance to government's service delivery agenda in the short-, medium- and long-term.
“The SITA strategy is formulated to illustrate the organisational direction over a phased period. In essence, it shows the organisation poised, through its new strategic direction, to fulfil its mandate in the context of government's core priorities,” says minister of public service and administration Richard Baloyi.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Farzana Rasool
Quelle/Source: ITWeb, 03.05.2011
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