The Digital Marketplace plays an important role in digital sourcing transformation (in Australia). It removes barriers to make it easier for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to do business with the government. The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) recently achieved the A$2 billion milestone, showing the ongoing strength of the Digital Marketplace and continued transformation of the buyer and seller experience.
In a post on LinkedIn Stuart Robert wrote, “Only 6 months ago I released this video celebrating the $1B milestone for the Digital Marketplace. We’ve doubled it, reaching $2.2B! Over $1.5B went to small & medium sized businesses. Now, more than ever we need to support Australian business.”
The Digital Transformation Agency reported more than A$2.3 billion of contracts through AustTender. Of this 70%, have been awarded to SMEs, totaling over A$1.5 billion. Over 90% of the 2,700 sellers were also from SME segment. There were 2,600 buyers from across governments. DTA indicated that this total contract value reported for the month of July shows a four-fold increase over the last 12 months.
More than 4,470 opportunities have been published on the marketplace, with 336 government entities registered. The top buyer for July was the NDIA, followed by the departments of defence and education. Software engineering and development have provided the top opportunities for vendors. Digital talent specialist Paxus Australia was the leading SME seller this financial year, with 70 contracts awarded.
The DTA says the figures show the Marketplace, established in 2016 to drive transformation in the government’s digital procurement processes, has made it easier for SMEs to do business with the government and win contracts for a range of services and products including software, hardware, telecommunications and digital and cloud services.
Last week, the Digital Transformation Agency announced the launch of its Digital Summit and Australian Government Digital Awards for 2020. The summit and awards bring together digital leaders and practitioners to see first-hand the innovative work taking place across government and industry in the digital space.
Australia has been enthusiastically pushing digital transformation across the government. Most recently, it established a new whole-of-government volume sourcing agreement.
Chief Executive Officer of the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA), Mr Randall Brugeaud said the agreement will make it easier and more cost-effective for government agencies to access third-party software support for major software products.
The new agreement means that government agencies looking to engage with the Third-Party Support for Enterprise Software company would now be able to do this at a whole-of-government level.
The DTA continues to expand whole-of-government volume sourcing agreements to ensure that agencies have ready access to the best pricing, terms and conditions that leverage the buying power of government.
Volume sourcing agreements have now been established with several large private corporations which the DTA believes are contributing to significant savings for government and ultimately the taxpayer.