The Department of Labour (DoL) is to enter a new phase of modernisation to increase its operational efficiencies and strengthen its institutional capacity following the unveiling of a new five-year information communications and technology (ICT) strategy.
This new ICT Strategy seeks to enable the implementation of the departmental policies and legislation to achieve the mandate of the department. This mandate covers the regulation of labour market, creation of decent employment, promoting labour standards and fundamental rights, sound labour relations, providing adequate social safety nets to protect vulnerable workers and labour market competitiveness.
Investment in the new ICT Strategy will also cover the support and operational costs. It will also encompass the operations of the department’s public entities such as Compensation Fund, the Unemployment Insurance Fund and Sheltered Employment Factories.
The 2012-2017 strategy will be a dynamic initiative to propel ICT into the apex as the department embraces change, takes advantage of advancements and furthers the progress of the department’s modernisation.
Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant said of the new strategy: “a new paradigm has dawned upon us requiring that we reflect and take stock of the key lessons learned from previous experiences. While doing that, we need to better capacitate ourselves to deliver on the expectations of the masses of our people who have entrusted us with a mandate so clear that we dare not fail them”.
The Department of Labour is on the last leg of an exit strategy in a partnership with multinational group Siemens. The DoL/Siemens public private partnership (PPP) ends at the end of November 2012.
The services transfer handover process started in September and the department has invoked the termination support to ensure business continuity during the operation handover of application systems into the new information technology (IT) operating model.
The initial DoL/Siemens contract was valued at R1,2-billion over a 10-year period. At its conclusion in November it is expected to have nudged up to about R2-billion - with budget overruns attributed mainly to additional services and the rise in consumer price index.
“Our ICT strategy represents how we intend on exploiting human and technology resources at our disposal to speed up service delivery. As such we endeavour to have an ICT environment that is adaptive and responsive to the continually changing regulatory and legislative environments,” Oliphant said.
In summary, the new ICT Strategy document covers three strategic agendas: the transition agenda, short to medium (6 months-15 months); the business enablement agenda, medium to long term (18 months-5 years) and the technology agenda, short to medium goal (6 months-3 years).
The strategy follows December 2011 and February 2012 assessment by the DoL to understand the full extent of the ICT landscape and the challenges that it was facing.
The assessment revealed key challenges facing the ICT department. Some of these included the lack of capacity and strategic capabilities within the department. Other key issues derived from the assessment revealed that: the PPP contract provided ICT capabilities with significant gaps that must be addressed in the new ICT strategy and future ICT operating model.
DoL Chief Information Officer Thabo Sefali said: “This strategy explores a five-year horizon, however an ICT Strategy does not remain static but requires periodic refresh to remain relevant”.
Sefali said failure to implement the strategy means that DoL will regress and possibly remain with the current unacceptable situation of a lag in technological innovation and the department’s business units working in silos without integration at all levels.
“The strategy aims to achieve more with less, technology cost have been reduced over the years the DoL will have to invest first before we could reap the benefits,” he emphasised.
Sefali said the dusk of the current dispensation in ICT within the department provides an exciting opportunity for it to shape a future that it can collectively build. He said the last ten years has seen major developments in the field of ICT to support businesses, governments, and society at large for further development.
Siemens recently announced the 100% sale of its IT Solutions and Services South Africa to EOH, a provider of business and technology solutions - in a deal subject to regulatory approval.
According to Sefali the termination support was highly considered to ensure that all systems are completed post the contract into the new model. He said the EOH and Siemens relationship does not change plans the DoL had and the ICT Strategy will be implemented as intended.
“The proliferation of ICT devices and services amongst members of the public has increased expectations on the quality of services and the opportunity of providing those services smarter and efficiently. In addition, the endeavour to promote sustainability of our environment and reduce the cost of service delivery has geared public sector organisations towards a Green IT path.
“ We intend to strengthen institutional capacity by using information systems to improve reporting and decision making capabilities. Among the key lessons learned from the PPP outsourcing has been the importance of retaining a strong internal capacity in IT. To this degree, going forward IT service provisioning will be delivered by a combination of internal staff and external industry specialists,” Sefali said.
He said the imminent conclusion of the PPP contract coupled with the challenges that it will leave behind forces the department to re-invent the manner in which ICT will be delivered going forward.
According to Sefali a positive feature of the new strategy is the pioneering of an ICT Skills Factory vision - in which the department will seek to employ the unemployed but qualified people into the junior ranks allowing them to develop skills in key strategic and operational ICT functions
“The ICT skills factory vision will ensure collaboration with other public sector organisations and ICT industry to develop required and relevant skills not only for the department but for the country,” he said.
Sefali said the department was under no illusion that the exit from the PPP would pose with it risks and threats such as increased levels of attrition with the current Siemens resource pool, procurement of services that may result in higher than expected costs, the transition to a new operating model represents an inherent risk in operational stability and, other security risks.
He said threats are being attended to and the DoL is working on plans to mitigate them.
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Department of Labour (DoL) unveils a new ICT strategy to propel the department into apex
