Digital and Investment
Data and Digital Government Strategy
2.46 The SSAs align well with the Data and Digital Government Strategy, which sets a clear expectation that the Australian Public Service (APS) will strengthen partnerships:
The Government spends on average around $70 billion each year on procurement activities, helping to drive economic, social and sustainability outcomes for Australia. This includes procuring a significant range of data and digital products, services and support from industry – everything from software and hardware, corporate systems, analytics tools and cloud services. This represents an opportunity to partner with industry, through the Commonwealth Procurement Framework, to identify the best solutions to deliver government services. The Framework also helps Government to take advantage of industry innovations, and seek industry’s support to solve emerging problems, through mechanisms like requests for information.
2.47 Notwithstanding the Strategy’s concurrent expectation to reduce the reliance of the Australian Government on those external to the APS as “in 2021, almost half of its digital and ICT workforce were contractors, service providers and consultants”, there is a clear recognition that partnering with industry is key to identifying the best solution to deliver government services.
List of Critical Technologies in the National Interest
2.48 The SSA sellers products align well with several of the technologies listed by the Department of Industry, Science and Resources on the ‘List of Critical Technologies in the National Interest’, including:
- Advanced manufacturing and materials technologies, such as IBM Maximo enables predictive maintenance, smart factory operations, and asset optimisation.
- AI technologies, such as SAP Business AI, Microsoft Copilot, and Amazon Q and Oracle Generative AI/machine learning, IBM Watson.
- Advanced information and communication technologies, such as Microsoft Teams, Amazon EMR (Elastic MapReduce), Oracle’s Distributed Cloud Solutions and Roving Edge, and IBM Voice Gateway and Hybrid Cloud with Red Hat OpenShift.
- Quantum technologies, such as Microsoft’s Majorana 1 chip, IBM's Quantum System Two and Amazon Braket.
- Biotechnologies, such as IBM research which contributes to computational biology through AI-driven drug discovery and bioinformatics platforms.
- Clean energy generation and storage technologies, such as IBM Maximo which supports energy efficiency, emissions tracking, and intelligent asset management for renewable energy systems.
Digital and ICT Reuse Policy
2.49 The consolidated contracting of the SSAs is in clear alignment with the intent of the Digital and ICT Reuse Policy to “Reuse wherever possible” and “Enable reuse by others”. Further the Reuse Standard published on the Australian Government Architecture, also notes the desire for reuse:
In the Australian Government context, the term 'reuse' means using an existing component within the process of realising a new digital or ICT solution, as grouped into the following categories:
Procurement
Commercial, legal, and licensing agreements
Whole of Government procurement resources
Procurement processes
2.50 SSAs, however, require the relevant buyer and the seller to agree on the application of any intellectual property rights, transfer rights and pricing metrics.
Digital Service Standard
2.51 The SSAs broadly align with the Digital Service Standard in the following areas:
- Connect services: the policy expectation is to 'design for interoperability' and 'join up services'. This is easier to achieve in a stable technology environment, as dynamic technology environments require reintegration or rearchitecting for interoperability. Nonetheless, the SSAs encourage contracts to address interoperability and integration requirements, although these requirements may change over the products lifecycle.
- Don't reinvent the wheel: applying lessons from predecessors is easier to do with comparable technology platforms / products. The SSAs deal with technology change and evolution.
- Innovate with purpose: SSAs ease the uptake of innovations and emerging technologies as they become available through the established contractual mechanisms. The SSAs facilitate access to product and service improvements.
2.52 No other key points of note were identified for:
- Using AI in the Australian Government.
- Digital and ICT Investment Oversight Framework.
- Benefits Management Policy (except as per the Improving reporting and transparency section in this report).
- Data, digital and cyber workforce plan.