IRD on system buying mission

By ADAM GIFFORD


After the failure of the Government's Goprocure electronic procurement initiative, Inland Revenue plans to install its own system.

It has gone to the market seeking companies with experience implementing such systems and which can work with its internal e-procurement team.

The department seems to be in a buying mood - it is also shopping for a new case management system and for a telecommunications provider.

IRD's business systems development manager, Colin MacDonald, said the e-procurement project would review the way the department's 5000 staff bought office supplies, equipment and services, which they did at present through a mix of automated and manual processes.

"Based on discussions with other organisations, we believe we have opportunities to streamline and simplify those processes," MacDonald said.

Inland Revenue was not in the pilot for Goprocure, which tried to create an Oracle e-procurement portal for Government departments and agencies to use. But the tax-gatherers were expected to be an early user of the portal.

MacDonald said no decisions had been made on likely technology, but the department used an SAP R/3 financial system and expected any procurement system to integrate with that.

"That does not necessarily mean adopting the SAP procurement module," he said.

The Corrections Department recently went to the market in a similar exercise, and opted for SAP Procurement.

Inland Revenue has already moved to consolidate contracts and identify preferred suppliers, and has also worked with other departments such as the Ministry of Social Development and the police to buy more efficiently.

"One area we have made inroads in is syndicated procurement, so we combine with other organisations or the major contracts we sign have the ability to bring in other Government departments," MacDonald said.

"When we did the contract last year with Acer for replacement of our desktop PCs, we included provisions to allow other Government departments to achieve the same pricing."

MacDonald said the department was talking to tax departments in Australia and Canada about options.




The telecommunications contract is for a three-year term, with a possible two-year extension. A decision should be made by October.

Telecom currently services the department for $12 million a year.