Kuala Lumpur TimeI just had an excellent meeting with Don Easter, the newly appointed supplier advocate for the ICT industry. Having had the privilege of announcing the Rudd Labor Government would be making the appointment when I was a CeBIT in Hannover earlier this year, it was wonderful to meet the person tasked with this critical role.
It’s Don’s first day on the job and our discussions traversed the recent (last few decades) history of procurement policy and experience from a SME’s perspective to things like the challenge of procuring ICT in a way that fosters innovation and nimble adaptation to leverage web2.0.
I was impressed by the fact that Don Easter had already familiarised himself with the report of our 3rd public sphere: ICT and creative industries development. ICT procurement issues attracted a lot of attention throughout the public sphere and we formally presented Don with the Report for good measure.
Given my strong views regarding procurement and outsourcing of ICT, I firmly believe that our new ICT supplier advocate is in a good position to make real progress solving the well known frustrations experienced by SME’s in particular.
I also want to acknowledge and thank the Minister for Innovation, Senator Kim Carr for this appointment. In further reinforces the central role the ICT sector plays in advancing our collective vision for a productive, expanding, knowledge-based economy.
Transcript:
Kate:
I’m really excited to be able to introduce the ICT supplier advocate, Don Easter. He’s here with me in my office. I had the great priviledge of of course making the public announcement that the Rudd Labor Government was going to appoint an ICT Supplier Advocate and this is our first chance to have a meeting together. Don…
Don:
Thank you very much and delighted to be here. I’ve been meeting with the Ministry today and getting to understand the role better. And certainly I’ve got through the Public Sphere 3 and Gov 2 initiatives and there are some really terrific ideas coming out of you work in your area so I look forward to working with you.
Kate:
Well thank you for that. And it won’t surprise you to know Don that we’re here, one of the things I wanted to do today was to formally present you with the Public Sphere 3, the outcomes of the ICT industry and Creative sector briefing paper. So here it is.
Don:
Thank you very much.
Kate:
It’s on the laptop but we’ll make sure you get all the versions of the copies of it. And I commend it to you because we had wonderful engagement with the ICT sector through this Public Sphere. Their ideas have been collated via a wiki and presented in this report.
Don:
Accepted with pleasure.
Kate:
Thank you.
It’s also important to note the commitment by Minister Carr, our Minister for Innovation and Industry. How he’s been able to push out the Supplier Advocate roles, and as I said I’m particularly pleased to see the ICT industry recognised with their own Supplier Advocate.
Don:
Thank you.
Source: KATE LUNDY
