Queensland government seeks more ICT from SMBs

The Queensland government has launched a new program intended to help small businesses compete with larger ICT vendors.

The state government today unveiled the Advance Queensland Testing Within Government (TWiG) program.

Successful applicants for the program will receive $20,000 grant to help them test, over a period of 10 to 12 weeks, how their technology would perform when it comes to solving a number of problems identified by the Department of Science, Information Technology and Innovation.

The problem statements prepared by the DSITI span six areas: Workplace health and safety incidents capture, smart editing and style guides, short term opportunities resource matching, self-service of environmental monitoring data, consolidated systems access management, and crowdsourced data

“TWiG is a quick and practical program that will help small businesses gain insights into the ICT needs of government and speed up the development of their innovative solutions to meet those challenges,” the state’s innovation minister, Leeanne Enoch, said in a statement.

“It can be difficult for small businesses to compete with major suppliers for government work, so we’re providing them the opportunity to gain practical on-the-ground experience working with a large organisation.

“This will provide valuable insights when seeking future Queensland government or large commercial contracts.”

Applications for the program close on 19 August.

The program is open to Queensland-based businesses with fewer than 200 full-time staff.

The state government earmarked an additional $225 million for its Advance Queensland innovation and employment program in the 2016-17 budget.