These are some of the highlights of the oneMeridian proposal that won the S$1.3 billion contract for the public sector's Standard ICT Operating Environment project, dubbed SOEasy. The oneMeridian consortium, led by EDS International, includes Alcatel-Lucent, Avanade, Cisco Systems, Frontline, Microsoft, Singapore Computer Systems and Singapore Telecommunications.

The winning team fields questions on their SOEasy proposal.

"SOEasy will allow more than 60,000 public officers to enjoy a robust, connected, innovative and agile infocomm environment," said Mr Lim Hup Seng, Deputy Secretary (Performance) of the Ministry of Finance (MOF). It will enable public officers to work together as One Government and improve overall operational efficiency in the public sector.

Under SOEasy, infocomm services will be consolidated into a single environment which will allow government agencies to achieve greater efficiency in infocomm usage. The project is expected to bring about S$500 million cost savings "from economies of scale and economies of scope", said Ms Pauline Tan, SOE Programme Director and Senior Director of the Government Chief Information Office, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA). This translates to an average of 28 per cent over current infocomm expenditure for equivalent services.

SOEasy involves harmonising desktop, messaging and network environments across all government agencies. "The approach is to streamline and automate delivery processes to minimise human error and increase responsiveness to requests and events," said Mr Stephen Yeo, EDS Executive Director, Southeast Asia.

Self-help features will be introduced to improve the user experience. For example, an electronic catalogue will enable public officers to order infocomm products and services online. These orders are automatically logged into the procurement cycle and a timeline for delivery will be generated.

The SOEasy contract spans eight years, and is easily the biggest government infocomm project to date in terms of scope, scale and value. However, the key challenges facing the winning consortium have less to do with technology than with human behaviour, said Mr Yeo. "SOE is about change management and about transformation. It touches people’s basic instincts."

With the introduction of a "standard" operating environment, there will be some users who will need to compromise, he explained. "Challenges moving ahead are not so much technology challenges but about getting people to change their behaviour."

SOEasy will be implemented in phases for a total of 74 government agencies with offices in more than 800 locations. It excludes the Ministry of Defence which has developed its own system, and Ministry of Education (Schools) which is calling for a separate tender.

The SOEasy was first announced in 2005 with the tender called in April 2007. A rigorous and thorough tender evaluation was then conducted throughout the two-stage Selective Tendering process which consisted of a Pre-Tender Qualification Stage and Tender Cum Qualification Notice Stage. The four qualified consortia from the Pre-Tender Qualification Stage were iN'spire led by HP, NexGenea led by NEC Solutions, oneMeridian led by EDS and One Team led by NCS.

All tender bids were evaluated on technical merits before price to ensure
that technical evaluation was conducted without price influence. The evaluation was conducted by a multi-agency evaluation committee
comprising 53 members.

Commenting on the tender bids, RADM(NS) Ronnie Tay, Chief Executive Officer of the IDA said, "We are pleased with the quality of the proposals submitted. The proposal submitted by oneMeridian offered the most compelling infocomm solutions that fit our purpose and is the best value for money."

By July 2009, SOEasy will be implemented for the first batch of 17 government agencies including the MOF, IDA and the Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts. It is scheduled to be fully implemented across the rest of the agencies by 2010.

The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) has revamped its web site (iras.gov.sg) to present information in simpler language and to make it easier for members of the public to access and retrieve tax information.

Launched on 1 March 2008, the new web site is part of IRAS’ efforts to encourage self-help, reduce taxpayer contacts and promote taxpayer education and voluntary compliance.

In developing the new web site, IRAS invited various groups of taxpayers to participate in focus group discussions conducted by external consultants. Before its launch, the agency also tested out the new web site structure with taxpayers and made improvements based on their suggestions.

The new web site makes it easier for members of the public to access and retrieve tax information.

The web site features a search engine for taxpayers to find what they need quickly and easily. Other enhancements include:

• Making it easy for taxpayers to explore information by using drop-down bars to provide additional information on the same page instead of pop-up windows,
  
  
• Helping taxpayers go back to the pages they accessed earlier by capturing their navigation trail at the top of the page,
  
  
• Making the navigation process consistent so taxpayers become familiar with the location of common items such as search bars and quick links on every page, and
  
  
• Using labels that are simple and easy to understand, with information classified from a taxpayer's perspective.

In addition, frequently used resources are grouped under the "Quick Links" section, for the benefit of frequent visitors to the IRAS web site such as tax agents and researchers. An email template has also been provided to guide taxpayers in providing specific information that is required for their queries.