Great expectations

IF THERE`S ONE organisation that`s glad to see the back of 2008, it`s the State IT Agency (Sita). Not that a new year is any guarantee of anything, but this year saw the agency get perhaps more than its fair share of woes.

Fresh from having completed a three-year turnaround strategy, and kicking off 2008 with a new CEO and relatively new executive committee (exco) in place, by mid-year, CEO Llewellyn Jones had quit amid allegations that government CIO Michelle Williams had interfered with Sita`s tender evaluation process.

Around the same time, the former public service and administration minister, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, had ordered a review of government`s institutional IT arrangements to gain better efficiencies and speed up service delivery. This review process, the new minister notwithstanding, is still under way.

Then, its latest customer satisfaction survey yielded a drop in customer satisfaction from last year`s 63% down to 61%.

And, to crown it all, the controversy over one of its biggest tenders in recent history, the multibillion-rand `Who am I` project for the Department of Home Affairs, awarded to a consortium headed by GijimaAST back in October last year, just won`t die down.

But, says acting CEO Femke Pienaar, she still believes the new exco has done a fine job of executing its strategic plan, within budget and within the confines of a balanced scorecard, all this without a permanent CEO, and despite the fact that most of the members were still finding their feet, given that they`d only joined the exco in January.

Pienaar, who has been with the organisation since its inception nine years ago  she came with the former Infoplan, was Sita`s chief of business operations before taking up the acting CEO challenge - a position she is happy to occupy "until further notice".

GETTING ITS HOUSE IN ORDER

Sita is mandated to deliver a turnover of R3.9 billion this year, 10% up on its 2007 turnover. This excludes the R5 billion in tenders it manages on behalf of government.

"The ideal is that there`s one central buyer of IT for government," admits Pienaar, but because so many departments have so many legacy systems, some of which are not ready for replacement, this leaves a whole lot of spend outside of Sita`s sphere of responsibility.

Fortunately, she says, technology is changing, and it`s no longer necessary for all networks and systems to be on the same platform, as long as they are optimised.

For this reason, Sita is compiling an inventory of all IT hardware and software operated by all government departments - no easy task, hence its designation as a "medium-term research plan".

Sita`s capex for 2007 was R460 million, and its focus was the optimisation of its infrastructure and hosting environment. Having rolled out its new-generation network (NGN), last month saw the launch of Sita`s R55 million network operations centre in Centurion, providing it with a bird`s eye view of the NGN.

"Sita has also done quite a bit of optimisation in the hosting environment, investing in application management layer for the IFMS, establishing infrastructure for e-government, and implementing its own ERP system," says Pienaar.

A NEW PLAN

While Sita`s previous three-year strategy focused on restructuring the organisation and eliminating silos, its goals for the next three years are about optimising operations, infrastructure, and pricing - giving its clients value for money.

"Being an organisation that is mandated to deliver a core service, you`ve got a monopoly of your customer base, but then the customer will always question your quality of service and whether you offer them value for money," she points out.

It`s also intent on improving its alignment with government ICT planning, and she expects the DPSA review will help refine its mandate.

And, given the ever-present skills challenge, Pienaar also notes that Sita is intent on retaining and attracting quality skills, while investing in small business.

Finally, Sita is preparing to realise government`s dream of an e-government portal.

"Most government departments are still very territorial, yet every department has a commitment to helping government delivery, so our biggest challenge is to get everyone to work together so they can operate off our infrastructure and make transactional e-government possible," she concludes.