1 year and 5 months since system was implemented
Used frequently by local governments and Ministry of Science and ICT
China accounted for more than 70% of contracts
Finding SaaS/PaaS companies is a ch
The contract amount for the 'Digital Service Specialized Contract System' has exceeded 150 billion won. It has been a year and five months since the system was implemented in October 2020, and evaluations indicate that it has contributed to the spread of cloud in the public sector and vitalization of the domestic cloud industry.
According to the digital service use support system, as of the 28th, the amount of digital service contracts signed was 151.76 billion won. The cumulative number of institutions was 227, and the number of contracts was 376. Local governments, the Ministry of Science and Technology Information and Communication, and the Ministry of Education were the most frequent users, in that order.
By contract service type, software as a service (SaaS) had 171 cases, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) had 180 cases, cloud support service had 8 cases, and convergence service had 17 cases. Of these, 268 contracts were for SMEs, accounting for more than 70% of the total number of contracts.
The digital service specialized contract system was introduced to enable rapid introduction of digital services, which are quickly changing, when needed. The Ministry of Science and ICT is in charge and it is operated by the National Information Society Agency (NIA). Currently, the cloud computing services make up most of it (78.6%).
Instead of the existing contract method, which usually takes more than two months, a private contract or catalog contract for services selected by the digital service review committee was made possible.
The existing bidding process, such as procurement requests, pre-specification, bidding announcements, bidding, selection of preferred negotiators, and contracts required several months, but it was simplified to digital service search, selection and consultation, contract and delivery, etc. The period required for a contract from the time of placing an order has been shortened to 1-2 weeks.
The catalog contract is a newly established system that allows the demanding organization to flexibly change the contract terms as desired. More than 60% of the total contracts are being responded to by catalog contracts.
An official from the National Information Society Agency (NIA) said, "The digital service contract system has played a role in promoting the use of public digital services and revitalizing related industries," adding, "It has become a key system for the spread of cloud services in the public sector.”
As of February, 164 services were registered in the digital service contract system. Services for large corporations and mid-sized companies accounted for 25.6% with 42 cases. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) services accounted for 74.4% with 122 cases, and evaluations indicate that they are helping small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) businesses.
By service type, IaaS accounted for about 78.7% with 129. Discovering and drawing registration for SaaS or PaaS companies remains a challenge, since there are 28 SaaS and only one platform-as-a-service (PaaS).
Some argue opportunities for specialized SMEs to participate should be increased.
An executive of a small and medium-sized cloud company said, “There are many cases where mid-sized companies such as System Integration (SI) or Network Integration (NI) make forefront private contracts with their business size, and cloud-specialized companies have to follow their choices. We need a plan to increase business opportunities for SMEs."
〈Table〉Contract status of specialized digital service contract system (as of March 28)
〈Table〉Digital service specialized contract system registration service (as of the end of February)
By staff reporter Ho-cheon Ahn (hcan@etnews.com)