NSW govt to create on-demand IT contractor pool for 'burst' work

The NSW Department of Customer Service will create an “on-demand resource pool” to source technology contractors for “burst” stints due to its increasing workload across government.

The central agency revealed plans for the new procurement mechanism to support its government technology platforms (GTP) business unit in a request for quote on Tuesday.

GTP provides the state’s nine clusters with core and common IT infrastructure and as-a-service digital services.

“Additional, burst capacity ICT resources are required to supplement the GTP digital delivery and GTP technology services teams,” the Department of Customer Service (DCS) said.

It put the need for the additional resources down to GTP’s “increasing requests for urgent works as well as a number of high-profile government programs”.

One such program is “Licence. NSW – Conveyancer and Asbestos”, which will deliver several new digital licences as part of a $122 million licensing and compliance modernisation program.

The three-year program received an initial $20.1 million investment from the government’s digital restart fund in last month’s half-yearly budget update.

Other projects on the runway include the NSW Pet Registry, API NSW v2 and the NSW Public Register refresh.

DCS said its preferred approach was to establish an arrangement for up to three years under the whole-of-government ICT services scheme instead of the contingent workforce scheme.

This will ensure “ad hoc support is only obtained as need and supplied immediately from the vendor talent pool”.

Web developers (React JS, ASP.nET mVC), app developers (iOS and Android Java) and those with API (ASP.net Core 2 web API, Apigee) and SQL Server 2017 skills are required for the pool.

Salesforce, MuleSoft, Drools and Domo development skills are also in-demand, as are service designers, enterprise architects, UX designers and solutions architects.

“Further resource skill sets may be required depending on specific projects that arise,”DCS added.