Chapter 3: Benefits, costs and risks of the SSAs
Chapter overview
The review identified that, overall, the SSAs enhance the digital procurement capability of the Australian Government and deliver significant value. Specifically, SSAs directly support the realisation of three primary benefits:
- Greater discounts reducing purchasing costs, including price stability and predictability.
- Improved efficiency in contracting through pre-negotiated arrangements, lowering overheads and reducing contracting costs.
- More consistent and aligned terms and conditions which are pre-negotiated, improving contract compliance and risk management.
The review also identified a set of secondary benefits that further contribute to improving value for money outcomes. The primary and secondary benefits are depicted below.
The review also considered the costs and key risks associated with the SSAs. Establishing an SSA costs the DTA $1.6m, and managing the SSA ongoing costs $1m annually. Key risks of the SSAs were assessed overall to be low to medium, including risks associated with buyers being locked into technologies and other sellers being locked out of government.
From a cost-benefit and risk perspective, the review concluded that the benefits of the SSAs far exceed the costs and are well worth the associated risks.
The use of SSAs should continue.