DECISION ON EDS PROPOSAL

Minister responsible for Information Technology Andrew Thomson, today announced the government has decided against pursuing a proposal by EDS Canada to restructure government IT systems and services.

EDS Canada came to the government with a proposal in October 2002. In addition to the potential to save government money on improved IT services, the proposal included economic development in the province. The government spent several months reviewing the proposal and working with EDS to determine how this proposal might be applied to meet the interests of both parties.

"The EDS proposal has some very positive aspects," Thomson said . "It is a very complex and innovative proposal and was worthy of our consideration. However, after several months of reviewing the proposal, determining our IT needs and negotiating with EDS we decided the proposal does not adequately meet our initial objectives."

Thomson outlined a number of factors that contributed to the decision, including:

· Negotiations to narrow the scope and access for smaller IT firms resulted in the contract having to be longer than we were prepared to accept;
· Lower than anticipated savings due to the decision to maintain the unionized workforce, and the uncertainty about the further needs of our IT system; and,
· The difficulty of implementing a whole-scale transformation of government IT at this time.

Thomson emphasized that the standard incentive package for call centres remains on the table for EDS and others that are interested.

"The government will continue to evaluate economic development proposals brought to us by the private sector," Thomson said. "We welcome innovative ideas from the private sector, but we will not and can not accept every proposal."

Thomson also announced the government will continue to move forward on the development of a government-wide IT plan.

"Our IT objective remains to make government more accessible to the people and Saskatchewan," Thomson said. "We intend to move away from the decentralized management of government IT services into a more effective, efficient and centralized model."

Restructuring of government IT was announced almost a year ago.

-30-

For More Information, Contact:

Kevin Wishlow Media Services Regina Phone: (306) 787-0963