Government cloud procurement goes digital

Digital services minister Clare Curran has signalled the imminent launch of Marketplace, a new digital services to enable government agencies to procure goods and services. It will initially enable access only to public cloud services.

Marketplace has been in beta trial with a limited number of suppliers since May and Curran told attendees at a ‘Transforming Procurement’ event in Wellington that it would go live in the next few days, saying it was “an example of transformational thinking in action.”

“Marketplace has recently completed testing with agencies and suppliers and is set to go live shortly,” she said. “It will start off by providing agencies access to a catalogue of cloud based services before expanding to offer other products and solutions.”

Curran said Marketplace had been co-designed by suppliers and government agencies as part of an ongoing effort to change how the two work together.

“It’ll dramatically reduce barriers for suppliers engaging with government – and make procurement easier for agencies. Together we can change procurement into a much more flexible, agile process taking advantage of what digital platforms can offer and making it easier for organisations, especially small and emerging suppliers, to work with government.”

She added: “The government spends around $3 billion a year on ICT, including capital and operating expenditure, and we’re taking a leadership position across the whole area of digital procurement to drive digital transformation and create an open government.”

According to the digital.govt.nz web site, Marketplace has been developed in consultation with the local ICT industry and government agencies over six-month through a co-design process, and in collaboration with the procurement functional lead at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

An entry on the site dated 25 May says the Marketplace will be open to all suppliers who meet the entry criteria and that, when available these criteria will be made available through the Government Electronic Tenders Service (GETS) website and www.digital.govt.nz. The entry also provides a list of the agencies that will be eligible to use Marketplace