The Queensland state government will establish a $15 million ICT initiatives fund aimed at delivering government savings through whole-of-government service delivery.
Announced as part of an otherwise IT-lean 2010-2011 Budget, the new fund will be funded over three years and is aimed consolidating government network services, mobile and radio communications, desktop management and data storage management.
According to the first edition of the government's quarterly ICT in Focus newsletter, the government's primary technology provider CITEC already houses or provides managed services for the 13 government agencies, with the majority of data stored at the Polaris or 317 Edward Street data centres.
However, the program will also include the consolidation of government procurement arrangements, and the office has already announced tenders for whole-of-government network, security and data protection services.
Under the 2010-2011 Budget, the Queensland Government will also provide an additional $2.5 million for the ongoing operations of the whole-of-government web portal, GovNet, as well as an additional $4.8 million for the ongoing operations of Smart Service Queensland, a public-facing federated portal for state government web services.