IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

AUSTRALIAN public sector spending on telecommunications equipment will skyrocket more than 85 per cent in the next three years as the various levels of government try to catch up with commercial counterparts in introducing next-generation services. And at a time when both federal and state government departments have suffered information, communications and technology (ICT) cost blowouts worth hundreds of millions of dollars, research group Gartner Australia says public sector ICT spending will grow by just over 25 per cent between now and 2006.

The staggering growth in ICT spending comes despite the wholesale moves at all levels of government towards outsourcing ICT operations to third party service providers.

In its Government ICT Expenditures report for Australia, Gartner found that expenditure on telecommunications equipment at federal, state and local levels would grow from $US174 million ($266 million) this year to $US323 million in 2006, or by 85.1 per cent. The Gartner ICT expenditure report is conducted annually, with data collated from each of the world's major ICT markets.

Gartner Australia research vice-president Richard Harris said the level of growth in telco-related equipment was surprising, but confirmed that network improvement was one of the public sector's highest priorities.

"The highest priority area right now has been around network infrastructure," Mr Harris said, especially in areas linked to the introduction of next-generation services like internet-based telephony, and e-government service delivery.

"Part of it is about governments playing catch-up," he said. "The public sector wants to provide the same kinds of services that their constituents have come to expect through commercial organisations such as banks. And government is well behind."

The hardware industry, which has suffered one of its biggest sales downturns in the industry's history, has something to look forward to from government buyers in the next two years.

Gartner's hardware analyst Matthew Boon said government hardware purchases would expand to $US656 million this year compared to a decline of 7 per cent last year.

Mr Boon said that government was one of the most serious followers of potential Y2K millennium bug problems, and had replaced much of its hardware during 1999. The result was that government at all levels had entered a critical phase in its "refresh" of ageing Y2K-related systems.

"2002 was probably the toughest year in general -- in government and commercials -- that we have had in years," Mr Boon said.

"But what we are seeing in the current year is fairly strong growth, and we're seeing a critical replacement period."

Quelle: Australian IT