The Western Australian (WA) government has announced plans to end its GovNext IT procurement scheme next year, citing the need for more choice and flexible outcomes.
GovNext, which began in 2015, was created to transition state agencies from owner-operated IT to consumption-based models, with agencies directed to purchase compute, storage and unified communications services from a small number of providers.
While the government has credited GovNext with a considerable shift in public sector purchasing behaviour for IT, an audit in 2018
that the scheme was incapable of delivering the savings promised in the business case for it.
A spokesperson for the finance department said that over the life of the contract, total expenditure under GovNext would be $424m, but that the savings forecast in 2016 were not able to be quantified due to the transition of ICT procurement away from infrastructure to services.
The government is yet to determine what will replace GovNext, but scoping work will begin this year, ahead of tenders in early 2024.