LINZ may outsource 78 IT jobs

Land Information will consider axing up to 78 jobs in its information technology department and transferring the work to an outsourcing company.

Chief information officer Debbie Ward says the department is about to go to market for a single outsourcing supplier which would provide a wide range of services, including datacentre management, development and maintenance of its Landonline computer system, and help-desk support.

The department already outsources some services - the contracts for which will expire this year - and will add several others, including application design and infrastructure management.

The move will mean a change for Land Information's IT shop but no decisions have been made yet as to how staff will be affected, Ms Ward says.

The new arrangement will be designed to increase efficiency and "align our core capability with Land Information's strategic direction".

Public Service Association national secretary Richard Wagstaff says he "will be involved in the process to ensure it is fair and the interests of our members are safeguarded".

Land Information completed a 12-year project last year that means all land title and survey documents are now lodged electronically, rather than on paper, which has enabled it to shed more than 150 jobs. The economic downturn resulted in a 25 per cent drop in fee income last year, which necessitated a $30 million government bail-out.

IT Services that will remain in-house are "strategy, advice, solution identification, user-acceptance testing, vendor and contract management, and process management".

The department plans to take advantage of government shared services when purchasing IT services and products, such as desktop hardware and the one.govt network service - which aims to provide cheaper voice and data services for government agencies, Ms Ward says.

Internal Affairs is on the hunt for vendors that will supply computer hardware and office equipment to all departments under government-wide purchasing contracts that are designed to cut procurement costs.

It released requests for proposals from interested firms last week, and plans to have the contracts in place by the end of June.

It is expected $58 million will be spent on the computer hardware contract in the first year and $18.5m on multi-functional devices.

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