TECHNOLOGICAL innovation isn’t usually within the government’s realm of responsibility, and a unique system with mass commercial potential isn’t often found in our part of the world.
TECHNOLOGICAL innovation isn’t usually within the government’s realm of responsibility, and a unique system with mass commercial potential isn’t often found in our part of the world.
Tell that to the Department of Industry and Technology, however, which has played a significant role in the development of GEM – the Government Electronic Market-place.
GEM is designed to centralise government purchasing of anything from a pack of paperclips to a multi-million dollar tender.
GEM works as a result of buyers and sellers (of which there already are more than 6,500 registered at the GEM website www.gem.wa.gov.au) undertaking their supplier searches, requests for quotes and orders online and automatically, without the documentation and rigmarole for which government purchasing is notorious.
Search listings by locality ensure a level playing field among suppliers. The search function shows your nearest suppliers first, whether they’re a sole trader or a multinational, and there are no commercial-sector tricks to ensure you’re at the top of the list.
How has DoIT done it? By putting its money where the government’s mouth is – shopping locally to secure the best in the industry.
“It’s about jobs, building up our local expertise and looking after our Western Australian companies,” DoIT director of e-procurement Rod Alderton said.
The initial tender for development partners followed GEM’s whole local philosophy. A consortium, together with co-developers iPlanet, Sun and Alphawest, has created what Mr Alderton claims hasn’t been done anywhere before.
And with interest coming from all over the world, it’s a fair claim. Since the pilot at Casuarina Prison, the success has been unprecedented.
“To be honest it’s come at us in a bit of a rush,” Mr Alderton said.
“It was built for WA primarily, and all of a sudden all the interest started coming in.”
He estimates that several hundred million dollars of the $6 billion in annual government purchasing statewide was being put through GEM. And the plan is to increase that number by providing a better product.
“We’ve got to make it a compelling solution,” Mr Alderton said.
“We’ve got to make it so people want to use it.”
And use it they do. Expressions of interest and adoption of the system have come from all over, including the NSW Government and local councils in Leeds, UK, the US and Africa.
“The NSW Government has just launched buy.gov, which is actually GEM purchasing rebadged,” Mr Alderton said. “If you log into www.buy.nsw.gov.au on the net, it’s simply GEM with NSW data.”
So will DoIT take a leaf out of Big Kev’s book and market, market, market?
Mr Alderton stresses that the exercise isn’t about profit, but rather about building a better IT State.
“We don’t want to be the developers because that’s not our business,” he said.
“We want to work with local partners to build up expertise locally. We’re not going to behave like a private company – when we deal with other governments they like to have the strength of a government behind the product. Expertise in marketing, development or commercialisation is what our partners do.”
For the moment, the focus is on getting GEM to do its job. According to Mr Alderton, the department and its partners are making inroads towards on-selling the system, but more important is making government purchasing fairer, more efficient and local.
“We need industry to say ‘this is the way we want to do business with the government’,” he said.
If the reaction so far is anything to go by, that has been achieved, and GEM looks set to make WA a winner in more ways than one.
“You’re really putting out WA more so than the system itself – the local expertise,” Mr Alderton said.
“It’s really shown that WA can do some great stuff.”
Tell that to the Department of Industry and Technology, however, which has played a significant role in the development of GEM – the Government Electronic Market-place.
GEM is designed to centralise government purchasing of anything from a pack of paperclips to a multi-million dollar tender.
GEM works as a result of buyers and sellers (of which there already are more than 6,500 registered at the GEM website www.gem.wa.gov.au) undertaking their supplier searches, requests for quotes and orders online and automatically, without the documentation and rigmarole for which government purchasing is notorious.
Search listings by locality ensure a level playing field among suppliers. The search function shows your nearest suppliers first, whether they’re a sole trader or a multinational, and there are no commercial-sector tricks to ensure you’re at the top of the list.
How has DoIT done it? By putting its money where the government’s mouth is – shopping locally to secure the best in the industry.
“It’s about jobs, building up our local expertise and looking after our Western Australian companies,” DoIT director of e-procurement Rod Alderton said.
The initial tender for development partners followed GEM’s whole local philosophy. A consortium, together with co-developers iPlanet, Sun and Alphawest, has created what Mr Alderton claims hasn’t been done anywhere before.
And with interest coming from all over the world, it’s a fair claim. Since the pilot at Casuarina Prison, the success has been unprecedented.
“To be honest it’s come at us in a bit of a rush,” Mr Alderton said.
“It was built for WA primarily, and all of a sudden all the interest started coming in.”
He estimates that several hundred million dollars of the $6 billion in annual government purchasing statewide was being put through GEM. And the plan is to increase that number by providing a better product.
“We’ve got to make it a compelling solution,” Mr Alderton said.
“We’ve got to make it so people want to use it.”
And use it they do. Expressions of interest and adoption of the system have come from all over, including the NSW Government and local councils in Leeds, UK, the US and Africa.
“The NSW Government has just launched buy.gov, which is actually GEM purchasing rebadged,” Mr Alderton said. “If you log into www.buy.nsw.gov.au on the net, it’s simply GEM with NSW data.”
So will DoIT take a leaf out of Big Kev’s book and market, market, market?
Mr Alderton stresses that the exercise isn’t about profit, but rather about building a better IT State.
“We don’t want to be the developers because that’s not our business,” he said.
“We want to work with local partners to build up expertise locally. We’re not going to behave like a private company – when we deal with other governments they like to have the strength of a government behind the product. Expertise in marketing, development or commercialisation is what our partners do.”
For the moment, the focus is on getting GEM to do its job. According to Mr Alderton, the department and its partners are making inroads towards on-selling the system, but more important is making government purchasing fairer, more efficient and local.
“We need industry to say ‘this is the way we want to do business with the government’,” he said.
If the reaction so far is anything to go by, that has been achieved, and GEM looks set to make WA a winner in more ways than one.
“You’re really putting out WA more so than the system itself – the local expertise,” Mr Alderton said.
“It’s really shown that WA can do some great stuff.”
