Chapter 6: Other opportunities
Other areas for improvement identified by the review.
Chapter overview
Given the review engaged with a broad range of stakeholders across government agencies, existing single seller arrangement (SSA) sellers, industry bodies and representatives from other jurisdictions nationally and globally, there is value in acknowledging the broader opportunities and insight gained through these consultations.
Additional improvement opportunities to help ensure SSAs remain fit-for-purpose, deliver value and support the Australian Government's digital transformation agenda, are outlined here.
- There is opportunity for the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) to consider its operating model in relation to the SSAs, particularly with regards to how it organises itself most effectively in relation to the SSA life cycle.
- Stakeholders identified discrepancies in the terms and conditions between SSAs and the procurement panels / marketplaces and highlighted improvement in this area could prevent challenges in post-procurement contract closure.
- The way in which the SSAs are publicly represented (e.g. on Finance’s Coordinated Procurement website) and the terminology “Single Seller Arrangement” is adding to confusion about the intent of the SSAs. This could be addressed by updating the relevant content and terminology to better reflect their intended purpose.
- There is an opportunity to assess how the funding model can better enable consistency and ease of scalability of the SSA model.
- The use of seller marketplaces (e.g. Azure Marketplace) risks inconsistency with the Commonwealth Procurement Rules, despite being a key potential avenue to support the Australian Government in keeping pace with dynamic changes in the technology market. The use of these marketplaces require confirmation with Finance.