Purpose
South Australia is ripe with tech talent. This app connects government departments and businesses with the right tech contractors for the job. As a result, this app will promote the growth of local early-stage tech businesses, and improve the local startup environment overall. This initiative provides a practical way for the South Australian Government to implement its desire to support vendors in connecting with small businesses. Contracts are the best way for the government to support business growth and encourage economic success.
For South Australian Government departments and businesses, this app allows the opportunity to engage the most suitable local contractors for their tech projects, rather than looking interstate for contractors. The app ensures that South Australian Governmet departments and businesses have a simple way to communicate their requirements, provide a cost estimate and contact with the appropriate contractors. Not only would the ambiguous process of finding a potential contractor and estimating costs be streamlined, most importantly they would be simultaneously promoting South Australian businesses and contributing to the health of the local tech startup environment.
For startups/contractors, the app would improve their visibility since government departments and business are made aware of their services (where appropriate). They would receive filtered and qualified leads, which is exponentially preferable to pitching government departments that aren't necessarily interested in engaging their services. This app also serves to provide a better understanding of their customer base.
Data and Methods
The project uses Historical Australian Government Contract Data to ascertain which contracts were assigned to South Australian contractors, and provides comparison to the other states and territories. Specifically, it uses 2016 Calendar Year Commonwealth Government Contract Data, focusing on UNSPSC Codes relating to IT projects (81100000 - 81151601). The historical NEIS data provides a dataset to populate the contractor database with, the Budget 2015-16 Data acts as a reference point for the overall market size for SA.
App Features
A simple and intuitive interface guides users through a series of questions regarding requirements for their app to be built. Such considerations and preferences include questions around:
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- Data security
- Budget approval
- Timeframe for build
- Internal or external contractor requirements
- Availability of design assets
Input: Users enter "yes" and "no" answers to a series of questions regarding requirements for the build
Output: an estimated cost range to build the app, and suitable SA-based contractors will receive an email outlining the scope of the project requesting a quote.
In gathering this information, the app provides a standardised method for assessing and communicating project requirements as an alternative to a somewhat ambiguous process.
Limitations
With more time the project would have imported the business data for sending out the actual requirements for quotes and provided an interface for businesses to mange which types of projects they wish to quote on.
Future Directions
Allow the businesses to nominate the types of projects across specific industries. Integrated third party
