06.12 The benefits from MITA’s LAN Procurement Framework

The push towards digitalisation has taken an exponential leap in the last few years, largely due to the ever-increasing demand on ICT-related services and products that rely on digital connections. In fact, years ago the Maltese Government launched it’s own National Digital Strategy covering 2014 – 2020.

The Maltese Government has always strived to provide citizens with access to value added services which are both efficient and effective in terms of quality and execution. MITA, being the enabler of such services, invests heavily in technological solutions by embarking on projects and procurement frameworks that give Government the right options and tools with which such services can be offered.

One of the latest procurement frameworks offered by MITA was related to wired and wireless network equipment which can be procured by government Ministries, Departments and Entities. Now commonly known as ‘LAN Procurement Framework’, the benefits this framework provides are multiple; apart from offering highly discounted prices through a large volume purchase framework and greatly reducing procurement complexity and delivery times, it also paves the way to a standard setup across the MAlta Government NETwork (MAGNET). Through the installation of networking devices of the same brand and model, MITA can offer a homogenous ecosystem and the best possible service in terms of updates, maintenance and network changes that meet client expectations who can then focus offering fit-for-purpose services to the public.

As part of the wireless framework, MITA procured enterprise grade network equipment to redesign the provision of wireless networks across government sites. One of the main objectives of this framework was to simplify the procurement process vis-à-vis client related wireless infrastructure projects. The MITA Network Services team created a simple yet scalable design which is easy to replicate across different government sites and is centrally managed from the backend infrastructure. In addition to the widely known benefits of wireless connectivity, wireless network access has become ubiquitous to accommodate the new mobile workplace. Trends such as seamless remote working (securely work from anywhere) and the increasingly expanding domain of Internet of Things (IoT) introduced ancillary management and security control challenges. The high level of investment in this new wireless infrastructure, opened a new window for supporting enhanced user mobility, productivity and security control requirements with the adoption of Network Access Control (NAC) technology.

MITA invested considerable resources in 2021 to get to a stage whereby this LAN Procurement Framework can start being used by the CIO Offices across government. The procurement made so far by CIO Offices on wired and wireless network equipment has already been significant; which resulted in substantial cost savings for Government. It is envisaged that through the resultant standardised setup across government sites, the LAN Procurement Framework will provide always-on, secure, network connectivity with the desired performance and user experience coupled with a high return on investment.

06.13 Supporting Our Digital Future - An Automation Journey

In today’s digital world, Government organisations leverage ICT to offer public services with increased efficiency and reduced queuing time. Government ICT systems and services need a secure, reliable, and flexible environment to cater to diverse needs.

The Systems & Databases Team is dedicated to build and support a stable and secure hosting infrastructure, both cloud and on-premise, which Government organisations can use to build their applications. The support and continuous improvement of such an extensive infrastructure built with a plethora of diverse technologies can be quite arduous and time-consuming, especially if repeatable tasks are required to be done manually and frequently.

To keep abreast of the improvements, the team soon realised the need to transition from traditional system administrators that react to daily situations and that are more accustomed to being task-driven, to a team that harnesses automation and proactive engineering.

One can compare the work with that of a chef who spends most of his time preparing food to achieve consistent food quality. The chef realised that he is spending too much time on cooking and would prefer to dedicate more time to creating new recipes, so he needed to find a solution that would speed up his cooking processes while maintaining high standards. He invests time in implementing an automated solution for his meals creation to have a standardised quality of food, speed up preparation time, cut down waiting time, be proactive, and provide self-service without requiring his input.

Furthermore, the chef designed a process to manage his kitchen inventory whereby meals are prepared automatically and the ingredients used are deducted from the stock. Once the inventory of those ingredients is low, an order is automatically sent to the supplier.

In 2021 the Systems & Databases team started to automate several mundane tasks, some of which required days to be serviced manually as other teams’ input was needed but which are now being completed within five minutes. These initiatives provide many advantages apart from considerable time saving, such as standardisation and efficiency. Having a standardised automated process also eliminates human errors that would result in unplanned work, similarly when the chef would have to urgently re-prepare another meal because he added too much salt. In our environment, a meal could be anything from the creation of a trivial shared folder to the setting up of a critical and complex solution where a modest error could potentially result in service downtime or degradation, possibly causing hours (or days) of unplanned work.

The time saved by virtue of these initiatives is being utilised to further achieve greater automation goals, with the intent of increasing efficiency that all stakeholders can benefit from. The team aims to continue building on these achievements and evaluating solutions for providing self-service to the clients, while also identifying the best way to engineer and implement better self-healing processes. In such a dynamic industry where tasks and technologies are constantly shifting, and human resources being a scarce commodity, these initiatives are not a destination but an enthralling ongoing journey that empowers us to support the country’s digital future efficiently and effectively.

07. Commitment to Quality and the Environment

During 2021, MITA continued its pursuit of excellence by achieving very good results during the external audits against the three ISO Standards it holds, being ISO 9001:2015 for Quality Management, ISO 27001:2013 for Information Security (both standards under the TickITplus Scheme) and ISO 14001:2015 for Environmental Management.

The Agency ensures that policies and procedures are being reviewed and applied across its operation by utilising these standards. The Certification Management Unit, within the Facilities Management Department, performs several internal assessments throughout the year. These are aimed at assuring the compliance to the ISO standards maintained by the Agency and that improvements are applied wherever possible.

MITA’s philosophy is that every single employee is part of its feat towards excellence, therefore every department of the Agency is represented within the ISO Forum, which is chaired by the Certification Management Unit. The main duty of this Forum is to enable cross functional continuous improvement of the agency’s operational procedures. Through the Forum, information on standardisation can flow from the roots of the Agency to management and vice versa.

Conformity with international industrial standards is very dynamic. It inspires organisations to be always abreast towards new methods of operation and emerging technologies which can transform and improve their output and customer satisfaction. In this effect, the Certification Management Unit continuously seeks to assist the Agency to achieve full benefit of its investment in the ISO Standards it holds.

MITA has always and will continue to strive to ensure that it controls how customer requirements are processed and transformed into quality products and services with the relevant information security measures, while ensuring an environmentally friendly policy.

MITA Cares, is the Agency’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reaching arm that ensures its employees are and remain good corporate citizens.

Social responsibility incorporates everything that every single one of us do, which indirectly has an impact on the society around us. It reproduces our morals, values and conduct as an organisation.

MITA Cares regularly organises events and encourages employees and their families to participate as volunteers in aid to improve our community.

Through these programmes, the MITA Cares Committee nurtures in our employees the culture of responsibility.

The MITA Cares Committee apart from supporting MITA employees, where at times may be going through personal difficulties, MITA Cares engages with several NGOs and entities. The support comes through ICT hardware donations, financial contributions, food donations, logistical support and employee’s voluntary work.

Such NGO’s includes ALS, Puttinu, Caritas, Aġenzija Appoġġ, and the Malta Community Chest Fund Foundation. With the latter, MITA provides a major support during the annual L-Istrina marathon by taking care of the pledging call system and their collection.

Periodically throughout the year, the MITA Committee also promotes blood donation campaigns to support the National Blood Donation Centre.

09. Financial Statements

09.1 BOARD

REPORT for the year ended 31 December 2021

Board Members