SAP to allocate AUD 150 Million to support co-innovation of citizen-centric services and deliver SAP HANA capability in a private government cloud
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — SAP Australia today announced it intends to establish the SAP Institute for Digital Government and deliver SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud via a data centre in Canberra to support Australian Government agencies in innovating citizen-centric services as well as in their transformation initiatives.
Representing an allocation of resource and investment of AUD 150 million over five years, the SAP Institute for Digital Government and data centre are currently scheduled to open in the second quarter of 2015. The additional infrastructure and staff are intended to support federal, state and local agencies in Australia in executing on their cloud-first policies, as well as in their initiatives to eliminate waste and duplication of services, improve overall efficiency and effectiveness of government-delivered services and provide more value to taxpayers.
Building on SAP’s long-standing relationship with the Australian Government, the planned investment in this initiative aspires to support Australian government agencies in developing a platform and solutions to improve government processes more broadly, from human capital management and finance, to asset and case management.
With the facilities, SAP aims to provide not only a platform for modernisation of government services in Australia, but also a hub for the development of best practices for public sector organisations globally. In collaboration with clients and partners, SAP intends to offer resultant solutions to government agencies across Australia and throughout the world.
The announcement was made at a reception on November 17 in Sydney in honour of Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Dr. Angela Merkel, following her attendance at the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Brisbane. SAP was one of four presenting organisations at the reception, held by the German-Australian Chamber of Industry & Commerce.
Minister for Human Services, Marise Payne, said her department was one of 50 Federal agencies served by SAP, and is at the forefront of delivering social and health services in Australia.
“We welcome SAP’s commitment to building an Institute for Digital Government here in Australia that will help social services agencies around the world share experiences, ideas and innovations,” said Minister Payne.
“The SAP announcement provides a substantial investment in leading-edge infrastructure and services,” said Kevin Noonan, Research Director, Public Sector at Ovum. “This is a big win for the government sector in Australia, and a vote of confidence in Australia’s capacity for digital innovation.”
“Digital government is necessary because citizens are now digital citizens. A digital community expects to interact with government in different ways, and this creates new opportunities to improve service delivery while continuing to drive cost savings. This is a fundamental change, and it is causing governments around the world to rethink key aspects of government administration.”
“This announcement addresses some of the important pieces of the digital government jigsaw by providing a secure onshore cloud platform, together with investment in local talent to develop new government services for both a local and global market.”
“With federal, state and local agencies embracing cloud as well as real-time business processes and citizen services, Australia is a world leader in applying technology to support more efficient government and government services,” said Simon Paris, President of Industry Cloud, SAP SE. “This makes the nation the optimal location and investment destination for our public sector innovation efforts.”
German and Australian innovation converge at the SAP Institute for Digital Government
With the establishment of the SAP Institute for Digital Government – the first of its kind from SAP – SAP intends to hire and allocate approximately 250 SAP staff, including developers, solution architects and services professionals. Together with government agencies, universities and partner organisations, these staff will aim to research, develop and improve digital services and experiences for citizens of Australia and beyond. Project teams will work in virtual and physical innovation centres aligned to domains in government services, including social protection, defence and shared services. Outcomes from these projects can be developed further – solely or in collaboration with participating organisations – toward eventual commercialisation, deployment and adoption.
The SAP Institute for Digital Government is designed to also include a showcase facility and briefing centre to house select outcomes from the innovation centres, including prototypes and proofs of concept leveraging cloud, mobile and analytics solutions powered by SAP’s in-memory platform SAP HANA. The showcase and briefing centre will enable physical and virtual collaboration among public sector officials and business and technical subject-matter experts to discuss, workshop and review innovation initiatives.
“Australian government agencies have recognised the need to adapt their services to the expectations of more informed, socially engaged and digitally enabled citizens,” said Andrew Barkla, President and Managing Director, SAP Australia and New Zealand. “At the SAP Institute for Digital Government, SAP’s global technology leadership will meet Australian government’s strength in public services to deliver more value to taxpayers and redefine the digital experience for citizens.”
Realising innovation through SAP Cloud for Government
“With SAP’s new data centre SAP aims to support Australian Government with its future IT transformation into the cloud. The data centre is designed to fulfil the Australian government’s needs for capacity, security and data protection, as well as the capability to run innovative real-time applications with SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud in a private cloud environment,” said SAP CIO and Managing Board member Helen Arnold.
Introducing SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud via a local data centre, SAP aims to enable Australian government agencies to vastly simplify their IT infrastructure and focus resources on developing and supporting more citizen-centric services.
With the data centre in Canberra, SAP builds on its cloud provisioning footprint, including its existing SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud data centre in Sydney, which opened in April of 2014, as well as data centres for its SuccessFactors solutions, part of the SAP for HR portfolio, and for its cloud-based ERP suite, SAP Business ByDesign.
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Perry Manross, +61 478 303 232, perry.manross@sap.com, AEDT
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