As part of our work alongside the States of Jersey’s e-Government initiative, we are delighted to be involved in delivering, to our community, a Policy Paper regarding the States of Jersey’s information services sourcing.

We would like to invite the community to provide us with thoughts and Feedback about what the Sourcing Paper has to say. There are two channels which we will be using to receive this feedback:

Workshops – At the end of the month, we will host workshop sessions to discuss the paper. We would like to invite our members to express an interest in participating; invitations to deep dive sessions will be circulated once we have received interest.

Email – We would like to invite our members to send us their opinions on this subject to the email address provided below.

The deadline for this feedback will be Friday 29th November

The sessions will take place in December

The paper can be found here

The paper

This consultation stems from the generation of an IS sourcing paper, written by Director of Information Services for the States of Jersey, Neil Wells.

As we mentioned in our Strategic Document, the delivery of e-Government in the States of Jersey presents a significant opportunity for local IS/Digital suppliers to participate in the implementation and long term maintenance of those services.

The paper describes the current situation regarding the States of Jersey IS model, the local IS supply chain, and outsourcing supply market in Jersey. It puts forward the following:

Options for supply of IS services to the States of Jersey
The prerequisite internal arrangements with States IS necessary to support the options.

Several key messages are developed in the paper:

1. The States of Jersey historical approach to IS services has fragmented the IS supply market locally, however the size and scale of the States could affect the market very positively if politically desirable.
2. The States of Jersey IS function needs consolidation and further development to affect the local market positively by effective strategic sourcing to and guidance of suppliers/partners
3. The extent and pace at which local IS services are developed is a political decision, because the required rate of reform in the public sector will impact the extent to which local IS services can be nurtured and grown over time, as opposed to IS services bought in from off-shore to meet shorter term reform aims.
4. Certain market areas will need external skills in the short term, and how those are introduced can have a positive effect for the island skill base.
5.The clarity of position taken by Digital Jersey and the Technical Action Groups should have an influence of Government Thinking.

Why are we holding a consultation?

It is in the best interests of Digital Jersey, and for the island, to maximise opportunity that e-Government can offer. The input that we receive from industry and the periphery will be collected and recommendations will then be made to the states.

The intention is to enable an informed discussion regarding how the States use IS suppliers which could inform and assist the development of a stronger IT industry in the island, and stronger IS delivery into the States. Digital Jersey are delighted to be involved in facilitating this consultation with our community.

Questions posed by the paper

There are several questions that when reading the paper, both the community and Digital Jersey should keep in mind.

1. Whether the IS sourcing strategy, sourcing principles, and internal management capabilities to support a multi-supplier sourced model for the States of Jersey as an enterprise are considered to be an influence on the local market.
2. The approach Digital Jersey considers the States should take internally as a significant customer of IS services to achieve positive influence.
3. The States sourcing needs for e-Government delivery and the type of supplier structures most appropriate to achieve that through the local supply market.
4, Digital Jersey’s vision of the on island IS services market for the future and what could be done by the States to help develop the on island supplier market.