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Negotiating Strategies for Senior Public Sector ICT Managers

18 May 2006

Public sector information and communication technology (ICT) managers and professionals in the Caribbean are brushing up on the art of negotiating at a Commonwealth Secretariat workshop in Tobago from 15 to 20 May 2006. The workshop is being conducted in collaboration with the Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Public Administration and Information.

Mr Devindra Ramnarine, Adviser, Public Sector Informatics, at the Governance and Institutional Development Division of the Secretariat, pointed out that many ICT consultants, products and services are obtained from the global marketplace, rather than the domestic market alone, which increases the importance of strategic negotiation skills and strategies. As the world becomes increasingly borderless and interdependent, the tasks of government officials become more challenging, he added.

"It is important to recognise that even if ICT professionals get the science right, have adequate knowledge and understand their professional needs well, negotiations can still go wrong if the art is not right, and this refers to understanding the strategies, techniques and principles. Most times even the preparation skills and general state of preparedness of an individual or team of public sector negotiators are inadequate, thus affecting their confidence level in negotiations."

The five-day workshop emphasises the significance of negotiations as a core competence for all ICT managers and professionals in the public sector at all levels of their professional engagements. It seeks to enable participants to better understand the concepts, principles, process, elements and techniques of principled negotiations, to allow the development of better procurement contracts for ICT goods and services through effective negotiations. This improves the ability to successfully manage the execution of an implementation contract for ICT projects through better negotiations.

 

CNIS - Commonwealth News and Information Service Issue 285, 17 May 2006

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