The Digital Transformation Agency is exploring opportunities to reuse the National Disability Insurance Scheme’s new Salesforce CRM system elsewhere in government despite an ongoing investigation into the original procurement.
In recently tabled answers to questions on notice from a parliamentary inquiry, the National Disability Insurance Agency said it is currently in talks with the government’s digital advisor on “pathways to leverage the agency’s PACE implementation”.
It has also previously shared “lessons learned” from the “heavily customised” CRM system with the government’s workplace health and safety agency, Comcare, and the Department Veteran’s Affairs.
PACE, which went live at the end of October after months of testing, is being rolled out to replace the SAP CRM system operated by Services Australia since the arrival of the NDIS scheme a decade ago.
But while the NDIA expects the CRM will lead to “10 per cent reduction in cost-to-serve”, it has faced intense scrutiny since it was identified in a review of procurements linked to an alleged lobbying scandal.
The NDIA’s selection of Salesforce is currently the subject of an independent investigation that began in the wake of the review by former head of the public service Dr Ian Watt in June and is not expected to conclude until late 2024.
Last month, it was also revealed that the probe is examining “gifts and hospitality accepted by NDIA officials. Officials involved in the procurement have also previously been referred to the Australian Public Service Commissioner.
Since the NDIA entered its initial PACE contract with Salesforce four years ago, the cost of the platform has risen four-fold to $126 million, a figure that is expected to climb higher as contracts with Salesforce roll off.
Most of this figure has already been spent, with answers to questions on notice released late last month showing that $102.8 million had been paid to Salesforce, as at the end of 2023. Total expenditure on the PACE system sits at $112.4 million.
As previously reported by InnovationAus.com, the steep rise has been put down to expansions in user licence requirements, changes in scope like the inclusion of a payment functionality, and related professional services.
It has placed a spotlight on Salesforce’s offer of “price certainty” in its original bid for the work, which was accepted over Microsoft’s in the knowledge that it would be “significantly” more expensive.
Two of the contracts with Salesforce for PACE, currently worth $1.4 million a month, are expected to expire before June, according to the most recent Senate Order 13 (Murray Motion) published by the agency earlier this month.
Salesforce’s two other contracts will expire in mid-2025. In answers to question on notice, the NDIA said, “costs beyond April 2025 are subject to change and cannot reliably be estimated as they remain subject to future decisions”.
The Murray Motion also shows the total value of the contracts grew by $2 million in the second half of last year, though a spokesperson declined to comment on the increase.
Around $2.4 million of the $126 million in contracts with Salesforce are not accounted for in the Senate Order, with the total value of contracts coming sitting at $123.5 million at the end of last year.
