Govtech
2008 in review
“I dream of a better health system”
 “Forgive me for dreaming – My dream for all our kids is that
there will be a better South Africa one day. A South Africa
where infant mortality will be a thing of the past.” With these
words Dr. Shaheen Khotu, Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the
Department of Health, set the tone for South Africa’s eHealth
strategy. The secret he said, to saving the 55 000 South African
children destined to die this year in terms of infant mortality
statistics is information and education. This includes
information about the patients and education on growth
monitoring and immunisation.
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 SA leading Africa in eReadiness
It is currently both the best time and the most challenging time
for Africa. So says Dr. Adesina Iluyemi of the NEPAD council in
presenting the big picture of Africa’s eReadiness. Iluyemi
outlined the purpose of NEPAD and its activities, and clarified
how the digital divide has affected the African continent.
read more
 Business intelligence with an Italian
flavor
Business intelligence is important for decision makers in all
walks of life, and especially for those in public service.
“CSI-Piemonte is a public ICT agency, similar to SITA except
that SITA is nationwide, while CSI-Piemonte is regional,” said
Guido Albertini, head of international projects and director of
CSI-Piemonte in Turin, Italy.
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Delegates have their say
 GovTech Times roving team took some time off to speak to
delegates about their experience of the conference. The views
around the conference were consistent, and largely focused on
the significance of networking and shaping business
opportunities. Birgit Smythe from Airtech Consulting said that
her focus when attending GovTech is to network. “The
opportunities the conference provides are invaluable for
companies as small as mine,” she said. Batho Makhakhe from
Equiton Solutions, also shares this view on GovTech’s
usefulness. “The sessions were quite informative and helpful in
terms of us shaping our business direction,” he said.
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Learning lessons from the future
 We stand at the cusp of a new age. What does the future hold and
what will our role in it be? Remember, you’ll spend most of your
life in the future and there’s no getting out of it alive, so
you choose. With those words Thomas Jankovich of FutureWorld
International kept his audience spellbound as he highlighted
examples of how things have changed between 1970 and the
present.
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 New collaborative service delivery
models are needed
The processes and technologies required to support collaboration
are where ICT can provide the greatest value. So said Thomas
Shirk, president of Global Public Services for System
Application Programmes (SAP), outlining a variety of ways in
which new delivery models are evolving.
read more
 Moving from silos to virtual government
Speaking on the subject of connected government, SITA GM of
Converged Communications Infrastructure Services Navin Singh
said that the challenge facing South Africa was to find a way to
extend government as an enterprise to all its constituents.
read more
 Citizenlink - the missing link in
e-government
Matt Poelmans, director of eCitizen Programme at ICTU in the
Netherlands, presented the Dutch model of eGovernment currently
in use in that country. “ICTU is similar to SITA,” said Poelmans,
“but it is focused on development in government, aimed at
designing infrastructure for eGovernment and setting standards
for generic applications and seamless service delivery.”
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 Service delivery solutions to benefit
South Africa
The mother of GovTech – that’s how the programme director:
Makana Mosidi, referred to Minister for Public Service and
Administration, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi as she took to the
podium for her address to the conference delegates.
read more
 The road ahead for SITA: Extending the
service delivery footprint
“2008 may not be a momentous year numerically, but when we look
back in a few years’ time we may see it as a watershed year,”
said Llewellyn Jones, CEO of State Information Technology Agency
(SITA) in his address shortly after the opening of this year’s
GovTech conference.
read more
 Better procurement, better results
The traditional model of procurement that government has
previously used needs to be reviewed, if SITA is to improve
service delivery to its clients. So said Jonas Bogoshi, CEO of
GijimaAST in his address on enhancing the strategic role of
procurement in the context of public sector service delivery.
read more
 Open standards the way of the future
“By 2012 more than 90% of all enterprises will be using open
source software in one way or another.” That’s the word from IT
commentators Gartner, according to Graham Taylor, chief
executive of Open Forum Europe, a non-profit organization
dedicated to increasing the use of open source software in
business and government.
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