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The federal government’s Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) has revealed the expected timelines for a number of approaches-to-market for IT procurement, after the original procurement schedules were impacted by COVID-19.
The DTA, which is tasked with much of the federal government’s IT procurement, said in April that it may delay its approaches-to-market for a number of upcoming IT procurement panel arrangements amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, the Agency has said that, in response to disruptions caused by COVID-19 restrictions, it has decided to defer some of its approaches-to-market for its digital sourcing arrangements.
“We have been closely monitoring the impact on industry to consider the best time to recommence sourcing activities,” the DTA said in a blog post. “With disruptions easing in our respective marketplaces, we will recommence progressively over the coming months, starting in late May 2020.
“In approaching the market, we are aware of the significant impact caused by COVID-19 on businesses of all sizes, especially in light of social distancing requirements and difficult economic conditions.
“We want to make sure suppliers continue to have the opportunity to provide government agencies with access to technologies and solutions. To do this, we are working to a timeline that will establish and/or refresh our ICT sourcing arrangements without further delay,” it added.
According to the DTA, its approaches-to-market will align with the Commonwealth Procurement Rules (CPRs) and address key COVID-19 based procurement considerations.
“We will time our approaches to market appropriately to allow potential suppliers to respond effectively and provide increased support during their responses,” the agency said.
At present, the proposed timelines see the new Cloud Marketplace (CMP 2.0) establishment come with an expected release date of late May 2020, and an expected closing date of June 2020.
The Hardware Marketplace “annual open to new sellers” refresh, meanwhile, which covers End User Compute (Cat 4), Enterprise Computing (Cat 5), Smart Devices (Cat 6 – new category) and Audio Visual (Cat 7 – new category), will have an expected release date of June/July 2020 and an expected closing date of July/August 2020.
The Software Marketplace “annual open to new sellers” refresh is expected to see a release date of July/August 2020 and an expected closing date of August/September 2020.
At the same time, the Hardware Marketplace “annual open to new sellers” refresh, which covers Storage (Cat 1), Network Equipment (Cat 2) and Cabling (Cat 3), will have an expected release date of November 2020 and expected closing date of December 2020.
