By Paul Hemsley

Cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions will be brought to NSW Trade & Investment following the selection of SAP Australia to deliver the services.

SAP will give the department and its agencies a range of cloud solutions under the three-year, $14 million agreement.

These solutions will include SAP Business ByDesign, SAP Payroll and cloud consulting services, which are part of SAP’s first cloud platform delivery in the public sector.

More than $12.5 million will be saved annually for NSW Trade & Investment from more efficiency enabled throughout the organisation.

According to SAP Australia, NSW Trade & Investment’s legacy ERP system will be transitioned and consolidated.

The ERP system includes 16 agencies with more than 8500 employees.

Deputy Premier and Minister for Trade and Investment, Andrew Stoner said the government can now focus more on building investment and jobs from the platform consolidation.

Mr Stoner said this investment in government efficiency will enable the state’s economic development agency to improve both internal and client services.

SAP Australia president and managing director, Andrew Barkla said this solution aligns with both the NSW Government’s goals under its Corporate and Shared Services Reform Program and the recently released 2012 ICT Strategy.

“We can build and deliver a highly effective cloud solution that can better enable NSW Trade & Investment to achieve its goals,” Mr Barkla said.

SAP head of cloud ANZ, Greg Harbor said benefits from the consolidation come from the process standardisation, which is what the Shared Services Reform Program is about.

According to Mr Harbor, with all shared service type initiatives, one of the most challenging things to do is drive a standardisation in the process consumption.

Mr Harbor said the solution created with Trade and Investment is centred around applying a good standard process for core functions around procurement, finance and HR and payroll.

"That will be the single biggest element in delivering what they anticipate to be in excess of about $12.5 million a year," Mr Harbor said.

He said one of the benefits for user experience is the business design solution is that it’s founded on memory technology.

"As you’re using the solution, be it procurement or finance, you’re able to drive analytics that gives you a lot richer information … and experience of the solution itself.

"The solution will be far more intuitive, far easier to use than traditional enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions would typically be perceived to be," Mr Harbor said.