Ministry of Social Development selects proof of concept systems implementation partner

4 May 2005
For Immediate Release

The Ministry of Social Development today announced that it has selected HP New Zealand as its Systems Implementation Partner for a Proof of Concept on the Client Management System project.

“The Ministry has been investigating whether the Curam electronic client management system will prove a suitable solution for the Ministry’s Work and Income Service.

“Three vendors responded to the Ministry’s Request for Proposal (RFP) for a Systems Implementation Partner. While it was a close race, with all vendors having different strengths, HP emerged as the preferred vendor to proceed with to a Proof of Concept (POC) stage,” said Tim Occleshaw, MSD’s Chief Information Officer.

“The Ministry confirmed its view, following the due diligence visits and fit/gap process, that it needs to take a lead role in the project and as such has sought a system implementation partner for the POC.”

“We will now work with HP New Zealand to further test the fit of the product within an MSD environment.

“The Proof of Concept will determine whether Curam is suitable for MSD.”

“The POC will consist of three streams. The first stream will commence from July and will prove technical requirements including integration, productivity, security and performance.

“The second stream will provide a limited illustration of the Curam system. This will give us a flavour of how the application might look and how the screens will work together. The third phase, which we plan to complete by November, will focus on functionality, including service plans and work flow.

“I would expect the Ministry to be in a position to make a decision on whether it will proceed with Curam by the end of the year.

“Work is also underway to define the Ministry’s legacy system transformation strategy. We would expect that the preferred Client Management System framework would be a first step in the process of legacy transformation”, stated Tim Occleshaw.

For further information: Bronwyn Saunders, Chief Media Advisor, ph 04 916 3447 or 029 916 3887.