Disaster Plans
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday November 26, 1996
MORE than two-thirds of government organisations have no recovery plan for an IT disaster, a new report from the Bureau of Statistics has found.
Of those that did, only one in 10 had a "hot site" plan with ready-to-run alternative systems to prevent downtime.
The study of government information technology also revealed that some departments of State and Federal governments could not provide accurate data on their IT use, equipment and spending. The study covered the '93-'94 financial year.
Among the figures the bureau was able to come up with:
*Total government spending on information technology and telecommunications was $2.265 billion for the year, with $1.922 billion in expenses (including equipment not capitalised) and $343 million in spending on hardware.
*Federal government organisations have an average one IT professional to every 22 employees, while the State average was about one to 51.
* There are more workstations than computer-using workers in government: the overall ratio was about 1.1 stations to a user.
*An average of $7,800 in running costs was spent for each computer user.
*An average 72 per cent of government employees were computer users, but the proportion was higher in Federal organisations at 84 per cent, compared with only 64 per cent in State bodies.
*Smaller organisations spend less on operating costs per user.
*Wages and salaries made up about a third of all IT and telecommunications spending of the bodies surveyed.
*About $614 million of government IT and telecommunications spending went to outside bodies. The Federal Government spent $283.5 million on out-sourcing, compared to $331.2 million spent by the States.
The bureau is not releasing figures for individual States, partly because of the difficulties it encountered in gathering accurate information.
A similar study of corporate IT use was due out early next year, and the bureau expected its figures to be more reliable than the government version, a spokesman said. An improved study of government IT would be started next year.
© 1996 Sydney Morning Herald