MITTS Ltd: Focusing on Core Business

The National ICT Strategy 2004-2006 sets three important strategic thrusts aimed to provide an enabling environment for the local ICT industry that can contribute to the growth of the national economy and the well-being of its citizens:

• The enabling and empowerment of local businesses to gain access to the larger global market • The strengthening of the local ICT private sector and support of ICT entrepreneurship • The internationalisation of the Maltese ICT industry to compete in the global environment

Throughout 2004 MITTS Ltd has continued to participate actively in the National Information Society Council. With these three strategic thrusts in mind, and conscious of the realities of the local ICT industry, the company promoted the concept of MITTS Ltd as a National ICT Asset.

In line with Government’s political thrust to involve the private sector in all areas of its operations, the company has over the past three years sought partnerships with the private sector by utilising outsourcing or sub-contracting frameworks. In tandem with this process it has discontinued certain service lines which were deemed non-core, and which through such discontinuation, the private sector would flourish and provide a value-for-money product. In 2004, the company also embarked on a road show process with the private ICT sector in order to forge better relationships and collaborations.

As a continued manifestation of this commitment MITTS Ltd has in 2004 ceased the business of procuring and reselling of desktop computers and Office Automation software to the Public Service. These products are now procured directly from the market, through the eProcurement system which MITTS Ltd itself developed for the Public Service. Already two years earlier the company had begun to move out of the business of small application and website development, focusing more on applications of a strategic nature. Since May 2001 Requests for Proposals for website development have been issued directly by its clients to the open market. The outsourcing of desktop support continued to be extended further to reach well over 3,000 PCs. MITTS Ltd has also shifted its focus away from undertaking full scale network infrastructure projects by limiting itself to only carrying out compliance testing and commissioning of Local Area Networks implemented by private contractors.

Part of the ripple effect of these decisions has been a faster market growth in the private sector, and an increased convergence of local ICT businesses to international industry standards of service delivery and skill.

Partnering with the Private Enterprise

MITTS Ltd believes that it can be a positive asset to the private sector by placing at their disposal a number of its assets and its wealth of experience in the implementation of large IS projects in the private sector’s endeavour to win overseas ICT opportunities now made available to Malta as a full member of the EU. The company in fact enjoys an excellent track record in the deployment of large projects in sensitive business areas such as taxation, social security, health and many others. Much knowledge and expertise has also been gained in the research and design of, for example, the e-Government hosting platform and the mobile government gateway for which it has gained so much praise internationally. In June MITTS Ltd was honoured with the selection of its mobile government gateway as a best practice model at the prestigious eGovernment Conference held in Dublin in 2004.

In addition to possessing specialised skills and cutting-edge architectures such as a fully fledged testing environment, the company also vaunts a number of international accreditations such as PRINCE2 1 and ITIL 2 - respectively

In partnering with MITTS Ltd, private sector companies bidding for overseas tenders would be able to enhance their capacities and capabilities by leveraging the specialised skills, experience and economies of scale

in project management and IT service management - ISO9001:2000 certification, the Practitioners’ Certification in Software Testing and registration of its CSIRT 3 , as well as its Investors in People marquee.

In partnering with MITTS Ltd, private sector companies bidding for overseas tenders would be able to enhance their capacities and capabilities by leveraging the specialised skills, experience and economies of scale which we would only be too pleased to make available for the purpose.

The Value of Public Debate and Information Sharing

MITTS Ltd continued to advocate its belief on the value of information sharing and constructive public debate through the ICT Public Fora hosted at the Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise. The themes discussed during 2004 were:

• The Flight of the Bumble Bee: A Scenario without a Malta

CERT Forum (the need of a co-ordinated response to security breaches and related vulnerabilities) • A Riotous Assembly: Spam, Spam, Spam and perhaps

Mail (the phenomenon of spam mail) • The Big ‘e’: Sci-Fi or Reality? (leveraging e-commerce) • Euro Compliance: Another Blot on the ICT Landscape? (euro compliance in Malta)

All the fora organised proved to be a success. The high turnout in at least three of these events indicated the appetite of local institutions, industries, ICT firms, banks and other organisations, as well as practioners and students of ICT, for discussing ICT thematics and issues affecting their business.

Internationalising our Experiences

Our ongoing partnership with the Commonwealth Network for IT (COMNET-IT) has seen MITTS Ltd taking its experience and know-know to some very unusual but remarkable destinations. Two of these involved our participation in workshops about e-Government, an area where we are particularly strong, and where we are able to give a very valid and relevant input to growing economies. In addition to discussing the general state of readiness of the geo-political regions involved, the workshops provided an opportunity for participating Caribbean and southern African countries to benchmark, cross-fertilise and synergise ideas for the development of co-ordinated ICT-enabled growth strategies.

The events in which MITTS Ltd participated were:

The Commonwealth Regional Workshop on “e-Government and Sectoral Development”, St Lucia, February 2004 The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Regional Consultation on National e-Government Readiness, Botswana, April 2004

After bidding for an international Request for Proposals by the Government of Bermuda, MITTS Ltd was adjudicated to conduct a Training Workshop on IT and Business Planning in a Public Sector environment addressed to top Government officers in Bermuda in July 2004.

1 Project Management in a Controlled Environment 2 IT Infrastrucure Library 3 Computer Security Incident Reponse Team