IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

In a statement on Friday, Reach said that it had narrowed down the list of firms competing to build the multi-million euro Public Services Broker (PSB) to four companies. The firms are: Accenture, BearingPoint, HP Services Consulting & Integration and Siemens Business Services. "These four vendors had demonstrated sufficient understanding of the Broker requirements to be brought through to the next and final stage of the procurement process," said Reach. The Public Services Broker is a key underlying mechanism that will serve as a kind of nervous system for many other on-line government services in Ireland. Previously, six firms had made the shortlist to build the system, but now Logica and PA Consulting are no longer involved in the tendering process. A critical part of Ireland's e-government plans, the launch of the PSB is well over a year behind schedule. The drawn-out tendering process is due to be completed in November, and a Reach spokesperson told ElectricNews.Net that phase one of the PSB should be up and running by the end of the first quarter of 2004. Nonetheless, the hold-up means that many other government services that are set to go on-line are also delayed, since the PSB is the component that is meant to tie disparate government agencies, and their services, together.

In February, in an update on the progress of e-government in Ireland, the government said that the slow delivery of the Public Services Broker was the "biggest issue" in the development of e-government here.

In what seemed to be a partial explanation for the bottleneck, Reach said on Friday that its board had asked it to "further develop and refine its thinking on how the Broker should be designed and deployed and what features it should encompass." According to the agency, this process held back selection of a firm to build the system.

"In parallel with this requirement, the board also sought and received, at government and Secretary General level, an endorsement of the Broker concept and the approach being used by Reach to develop it. Modifications to the governance and project management process, to streamline decision-making and to reduce any potential for delay, were also put in place," Reach added.

Reach also said that it has developed more detailed statements of requirements for the Broker, including the policy framework required to support the PSB and technical and security architectures.

Indeed, it has been reported that Reach hit a brick wall with the PSB late last year when the Department of Finance questioned the cost and strategy behind the scheme. "There were some issues with the Department of Finance," explained the Reach spokesperson, "but it would be unfair to say that any disagreements we had held back the process. There are always disagreements between Finance and government departments and agencies. We have had no more and no less than anyone else."

For more information on the PSB visit Reach's Web site.

Quelle: electricnews