Government IT application maintenance services outsourced
28 - 03 - 2001

The Government reached a new stage in implementing its strategy of outsourcing information technology (IT) services with the award of the first contract for outsourcing government IT application maintenance services.

The contract for the provision of IT application maintenance services to the Information Technology Services Department (ITSD) is awarded to Integrated Enterprise Solutions Limited at a contract value of $9.6 million.

The Acting Director of Information Technology Services, Mr Cheng Yan-chee, signed the contract with the contractor in a ceremony held today (March 28).

Speaking after the ceremony, Mr Cheng explained that the department had adopted an aggressive outsourcing strategy for the provision of IT services within the Government since April 1999 to enlarge the delivery capacity for IT services and to accelerate the delivery of IT solutions.

"We have already outsourced over two-thirds of the new government IT projects, but this is the first contract for outsourcing government IT application maintenance services", he said.

Mr Cheng also noted that the contractor who had succeeded in bidding the tender is a local small and medium-sized enterprise (SME).

"Today's contract is a good example to demonstrate to the local SMEs that the Government is proactively creating a larger market to encourage the further development of the IT industry locally," he said.

The scope of services to be provided covers the application maintenance of various application systems used in the ITSD.

The duration of the contract is three years, with an option to extend for a further period of not more than two years.

"We will work closely with the contractor in the initial transition period when the IT application maintenance services currently provided by our colleagues will be handed over to the contractor," he said.

Mr Cheng expects that more similar contracts will be awarded with the work on outsourcing more government IT application maintenance services currently underway.

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