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The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) today (November 29) awarded 40 standing offer agreements to 22 companies for the provision of professional services to undertake information technology (IT) projects in the Government under the arrangement of Standing Offer Agreement for Quality Professional Services (SOA-QPS).
The selected contractors will provide four categories of IT services - pre-implementation and independent programme/project management services; ongoing services; implementation and full system development life cycle services, and information security services, for a contract period of 42 months.
Speaking at the contract award ceremony, the Government Chief Information Officer, Mr Howard Dickson, said that the SOA-QPS was a replacement of the current Information Technology Professional Services Arrangement (ITPSA) scheme, which would expire next month (December 2005).
Mr Dickson said the new scheme continued to be part of the Government's IT outsourcing strategy to enlarge delivery capacity for IT services, to accelerate delivery of IT solution, and to create a market of sufficient size for encouraging further development of the IT industry.
He said the SOA-QPS was an efficient and enhanced procurement arrangement. Compared with ITPSA, the SOA-QPS puts more emphasis on service quality. It would also encourage innovation and further expand the opportunities of participation by suppliers.
In particular, the number of standing offer agreements has been increased from 23 in ITPSA to 40 in SOA-QPS. This will help expanding the opportunities for participation by IT contractors, including the local small and medium enterprises.
On the innovative front, Mr Dickson said in response to industry¡¦s feedback, the OGCIO had been exploring the feasibility of opening up the intellectual property (IP) in Government IT systems developed by contractors for commercial exploitation.
¡§Today, I am glad to inform you that we will proceed with a pilot for opening up the IP for a period of three years," he said.
¡§As part of the pilot implementation, we may consider applying this new measure on the SOA-QPS, subject to further feasibility study of some contractual arrangements and of course the eventual project requirements.¡¨
Ends/Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Issued at HKT 17:00
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