Oracle SA has come out in support of the South African government`s initiative to reduce the levels of complexity within its IT infrastructures.
Roger Harris, Spatial product manager at Oracle SA, says moves by government to centralise its IT functions, including procurement within SITA (State Information Technology Agency) should be welcomed by the IT industry.
"Government is no longer addressing isolated requirements particular to individual departments or regions, and its strategy of consolidation will result in significant time and cost savings," he says.
Harris has applauded efforts by government to reduce the duplication of tasks and systems within different levels of the administration. "Previously, the same data was captured at local government, provincial government, and at central government," he says.
"Many of these data capturing tasks were costly to execute and time-consuming in nature - as well as being labour-intensive.
"By pooling resources and implementing a coordinated, enforceable policy that ensures that only selected custodians of data are responsible for the capture, accuracy and its eventual availability of data to those who require it, massive savings will result," says Harris.
"At the same time, scarce IT personnel resources are being more effectively utilised and the practice of various state organisations employing personnel from other state departments is being phased out."
Harris says the adoption of a centralised data capturing strategy will also reduce the dependence of each government organisation on costly computer hardware systems.
"We believe that the money saved will be used to improve levels of accuracy and availability of the data captured," he says.
"In addition, the centralisation of government IT infrastructures will also give the government increased buying power, resulting in lower prices for software and services."
Going further, Harris suggests that the State Tender Board should put in place term contracts for software and services, which, he says, would further streamline and simplify procurement procedures.
"It would free up the time of the many government officials who write, process and adjudicate tenders," he adds.
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