Director General of the Department of Attorney-General and Justice (AG&J), Laurie Glanfield has been appointed as the new DG for the Department of Finance and Services. He takes on the position held by Michael Coutts-Trotter who will move to the role of DG at the Department of Family and Community Services (FACS) by the end of July 2013. Glanfield has held his role at AG&J since 1991.
The Federal Government has pledged a further $8 million for the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) system in order to add pathology results to patients’ records by 2014. This is in addition to the $628 million already invested in the PCEHR. Last week Health Minister Tanya Plibersek announced that the current number of users stands at 520,000.
The Department of Human Services (DHS) has published an expression of interest for the replacement of its DHS Child Support System. The Department is seeking an SAP off-the-shelf product to replace its existing Cuba system. Over 1 billion transactions go through the system each year, affecting 1.5 million members receiving or paying child support. In the May budget the Government allocated $34.7 million to the upgrade which is expected to be delivered by December 2015.
The Australian Computer Society (ACS) has called for submissions on its draft National Consumer Cloud protocol. The ACS has released a discussion paper on the tools and protections needed for cloud deployment. The paper notes that while there is “clear and compelling value” for the cloud, it appears some are reluctant to take it up, mostly due to a lack of understanding. Areas covered include security, ownership of data and information, back up, service level agreement and support, and vendor lock-in. The ACS Protocol will complement existing Government legislation. Submissions on the paper are open until 5 August 2013.
Sydney Trains has published a tender to replace and upgrade its existing Information Security Gateway with equipment that will control inter-VPN traffic. The Gateway infrastructure will be positioned in two geographically diverse locations, according to the tender listing. Vendors are expected to provide both the hardware and software to successfully manage the infrastructure. Submissions close on August 7.
SA Health has called for submissions for an Oracle Corporate Systems (OCS) data management system. SA Health’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is currently being deployed across the whole of Health. The tender seeks the management of the Master Product Catalogue which is the single source of information on purchasing, supply and finance activities. This new system is also expected to manage the conversion of data for the ongoing rationalisation of the Department’s systems.
The NZ Department of Internal Affairs is on track to complete agreements with vendors for a whole-of-government Desktop as a service panel by September of this year. The panel was announced back in March with the intention of making it easier for Government agencies to access information and services via other devices through the use of cloud computing. The request for proposals closed in April.
Additionally, the NZ Government is nearing completion of its evaluation of Office Productivity as a service (OPaaS). The first cloud services, email and calendaring, are expected to be rolled out early next year with a preferred supplier to be chosen in September. Both services are said to provide “quicker, lower-cost ICT changes and upgrades.”
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