[LINK] Defence & ICT
stephen at melbpc.org.au
stephen at melbpc.org.au
Sun Jun 7 16:03:39 AEST 2009
Defence to spend $700m on ICT reform
Strategic Reform Program report reveals only half of defence IT budget
visible to CIO
Tim Lohman 05 June, 2009 11:13:00
http://www.cio.com.au/article/306427/defence_spend_700m_ict_reform
Less than half of the annual $1.2 billion spent by Defence on its ICT is
visible to its chief information officer, Greg Farr, a new report has
revealed.
http://www.defence.gov.au/publications/reformbooklet.pdf
Detailing the shortcoming in its Strategic Reform Program Delivering
Force 2030 report released earlier this week, Defence said its fragmented
ICT environment was resulting in inefficiencies in services delivery.
A $700 million ICT reform program will be initiated to rectify this and
build an improved Defence information environment to support both Defence
war fighting and business reform objectives through to 2030.
The program, expected to be complete by 2012 and flagged in May, aims to
deliver savings and increased effectiveness through a consolidated,
standardised Defence Information and Communications Technology
environment, with a centralised strategy and governance framework,
according to the report.
Through this investment, savings of $1.9 billion over the decade and
around $250 million per annum thereafter would be achieved, the report
said.
The high level of investment was needed to address the chronic under-
funding of its ICT systems, which the report claims has exposed Defence
to a high level of risk.
There is an urgent need to address long-term underinvestment in
Information and Communications Technology infrastructure that has
resulted in a significant proportion of Defence assets being beyond their
effective life, the report said.
As a consequence, Defence is now dealing with an unacceptable level of
fragility, cost and risk to Information and Communications Technology
operations.
Defence has flagged that the reform program will also seek to align ICT
with Defence priorities via a single portfolio of investments. Tighter
cost control, new sourcing strategies and standardising and consolidating
assets will be implemented across all parts of Defence to reduce
high 'business as usual' costs.
Faster decision and delivery cycles will be implemented, fragile ICT
infrastructure will be reduced to help mitigate an unacceptable
business continuity risk and data centres will be consolidated to reduce
maintenance costs.
Defence also intends to lift its governance and business processes to
enable the delivery of a more cost-effective and adaptable Defence
science and technology capability. It will also form an external advisory
board, technology roadmap and ear-mark funds for its Science and
Technology Organisation.
In the report, Defence also detailed a number of specific overhaul
measures including basing its information environment on one network
connecting fixed and deployed locations built on a single set of
standards and products.
It will encompass all security levels and will determine that the right
person has the right authority to access information, the report
said. A typical desktop set up available to all Defence sites will be a
single screen connected to a wireless network that can display multiple
security sessions. Secure voice and video will be available to the
desktop in most fixed and deployed locations.
Defence will also integrate its battlefield information systems to give
deployed commanders and decision makers a single view of the battle
space through a Common Operating Picture accessing a wide range of data
from sensors and sources.
New capabilities such as the automation of procurement, personnel and pay
administration, vetting, recruitment, estate management and performance
reporting will be progressively introduced, the report said.
Finance, payroll and personnel information will also be made more
accessible, and easier to manipulate and aggregate by authorised Defence
staff.
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