SA Government seeks Indian IT imports

Stan Beer
Monday, 03 October 2005 10:00

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

The South Australian Government, which raised a few eyebrows eight years ago when it outsourced all of its IT to one vendor, now wants to import IT skills from India.

Speaking at the SEARCC 2005 (South East Asian Regional Computer Confederation) conference in Sydney last week, SA Infrastructure Minister, Patrick Conlon, demonstrated that his Government is concerned about a desperate shortage of IT skills in his state. However, rather than announce programs to encourage young people to study IT, courses to fast track people into the IT profession or incentives for IT professionals from other states to move to South Australia, Conlon wants IT immigrants from India.

We feel that we should point out to the SA Government that when it finally relieves EDS of its outsourcing contract in 2006, in line with its stated intention of going with a multi-vendor approach, it's quite likely that there will quite a few EDS staff in SA cut loose from the company. That being the case, maybe it might be a little premature for SA to be calling for overseas IT immigrants from India or anywhere else.

With regard to India, from what we hear, that country is starting to experience its own skills shortage problems as a result of the phenomenal success of its offshoring industry. As a result, the cost of obtaining IT people in India is climbing rapidly. Now that's globalisation.