18 September 2018
The States of Jersey has launched a competitive tender for
an expert partner to help speed up the modernising of the government’s digital
and information services.
Modern IT infrastructure and systems are a critical
component in delivering modern, integrated and value-for-money public services,
and they underpin the future success of the modernisation programme across all
departments.
The States does not currently have enough in-house capacity
and expertise to deliver the scale and pace of transformation, while also
maintaining day-to-day support for public services. An external partner will
provide short-term specialist support and also develop the skills and expertise
among States IT employees.
The chosen partner will help develop a structure for
providing information and digital services, establish a corporate project
management office, create a digital strategy for the whole of the public
service, and identify the common technology needs and capabilities across the
organisation needed in order to maximise efficiencies.
The partner will initially be contracted for 15 months, to
the end of 2019, with the possibility of extending into 2020 for up to 12
months.
Interim Chief Information Officer, John Laverick, said: “We
urgently need to strengthen and modernise our digital capacity if we’re to
transform and modernise our organisation and the public services we deliver. To
some extent, we’re still running an analogue organisation in a gigabit island,
and we need to catch up fast.
“With the injection of specialist expertise that the chosen
partner will bring, we will be able to accelerate digital modernisation and
manage projects more professionally, and at the same time boost the skills of
our own employees to create a lasting legacy.
“While we are inviting local companies to bid, we expect
that we will need to look further afield for the expertise and capacity to
support a modernisation programme at the scale of the States of Jersey. But we
will want Jersey-based companies to partner with us, wherever possible, to
deliver the individual projects that flow out of the programme.”
Digital transformation tender
gov.je