Request for Information

Background

Email is an increasingly popular form of communication, but due to security concerns is not widely used by Government for communication with people and businesses.

The E-government Unit of the State Services Commission (E-government Unit) is undertaking a project to develop a platform of policies, protocols, guidelines and standard operating procedures (SecureMail) that will provide clarity about the delivery of secure email from government agencies to people and businesses.

It is anticipated that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will develop and provide services to their customers that meet the SecureMail requirements.

A brief description of SecureMail is included as Appendix 1.

Consultation

In order to identify any issues that need to be addressed during the development of the SecureMail requirements, the E-government Unit wishes to consult with ISPs who are interested in and have the potential to provide SecureMail services.

The consultation is likely to take the form of a workshop with selected ISPs that will discuss a set of draft documents developed by the E-government Unit. Feedback from the workshop will be considered, along with feedback from government agencies, in preparing the final drafts of these documents. The final drafts of these documents will be presented for comment to all ISPs who applied to participate in the workshop, regardless of whether or not they were selected. The extent to which any comments are taken into account, if at all, is at the E-government Unit's sole discretion.

Timeframes for workshop participation and any other terms relating to an ISP's participation in the consultation process or the project will be set by the E-government Unit, at its sole discretion.

Application process

ISPs are invited to indicate their interest in participating in the workshop by making an application as follows:

1. Prepare a response, not exceeding the equivalent of one A4 page, briefly covering the following points:

• Contact name, email address and phone number;
• Approximate size of existing customer base that could potentially be provided with access to SecureMail; and
• Knowledge and capability in providing:
• Mail-hosting facilities to customers;
• Secure network access facilities to customers;
• Registration, installation and on-going support functions to online customers; and
• Face-to-face service with customers.

2. Email your response to Mike Pearson, Senior Advisor, E-government Unit at: securemail@ssc.govt.nz?subject=RFI response.

3. Responses must be received before 5:00 p.m. on Monday 26 April 2004.

Selection Process

Subject to the terms and conditions below, the selection process for the workshop is as follows:

The E-government Unit will select ISPs in accordance with criteria determined by the E-government Unit, at its sole discretion.

The E-government Unit will notify all applicants of the outcome of the selection process by email using the email address provided by the applicant.