Government to reduce IT outsourcing

The Australian federal government says it wants to dramatically reduce outsourcing of ICT in the public service, reports ABC News.

Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner has announced he wants agencies to reduce the number of ICT contractors by 50% by the end of 2011 - to be replaced with full-time public service staff.

He says the move is designed to correct imbalances caused by the previous government's radical decentralisation of the sector.

In today's information society, the Internet is the most important technology and the driving force of societal and economic transformation, according to fibre2fashion.

In sectors using ICT as the platform for innovation, the meaning of the term 'work' is undergoing fundamental change.

Global connectivity is leading to problems of definition between work and leisure, between professional output and play and there are lasting changes with regard to working conditions and qualification requirements in innovative business areas.

There is a critical need to encourage investment in ICT as a way of ensuring Australia's strong economic growth in the future, reports now we are talking.

Of course ICT is part of the wider service sector, but it also provides many essential business enablers across the wider economy, says David Quilty, public policy and communications GMD.

Think of the Internet, EFTPOS, online banking, Blackberries, the PC, the laptop, GPS, the wider array of business management tools, the list goes on, he says.