Editorial: Federal Government purchases 2.5 million CRM SaaS licenses to save us from the Global Economic Crisis
Opinion: Fighting Fires & Stemming Floods – The Right to Information

The editorial for this edition was already written by the time Lawrence Springborg made his statement on 3rd March about a 3% saving across government to funnel more into front-line services. But what a timely announcement it was in light of this month’s topic. Unfortunately the cuts he indicated will include technology amounting to a $40 million annual reduction for the national and international industry suppliers that service Queensland
Government. Somewhere along the line, someone forgot that “front-line” services today are almost entirely underpinned by technology.

For too long Australia’s public policy answer to ICT has been to cut costs and save our way to productivity gains, invest in “research and development”, encourage innovation and many other mantras. Those approaches have not moved us forward as a technology nation and it is time for a change. In  response to the absence of policy from the political sphere we have put together an ICT investment policy around SaaS that recognises the true nature of ICT in this part of the world; as a fundamental driver to support and sustain a services and knowledge based economy.

Finally, please mark your calendars for the 19th March when we will be unveiling our updated web presence. We welcome your feedback as you review the changes. Until then, we’ll see you in the market or next month in Longview, or just follow us on Twitter for regular sound bites throughout the month (@thenakedchief and @shigginski). Read more...