The Victorian government has refreshed its pre-approved supplier list adding another 64 ICT companies to its eServices Panel.

First established in 2003, nearly 60 percent of the new companies appointed to the panel are from Victoria and another 37 percent are local Australian companies.

In total, 80 percent of the panel is Australian and Victorian ICT Minister Marsha Thomson also announced three new categories to the panel including IT infrastructure library (ITIL) contracting and consulting services as well as open source development and implementation.

Incredibly, IT security services is being added as a category of its own for the very first time.

"It's very pleasing to see so many qualified local and Australian companies able to buy into government IT business," Thomson said.

"The eServices Panel also makes it much easier for small to medium-sized local IT business to gain lucrative state government contracts."

"These new categories recognize the continuing momentum of open source solutions in government across Australia, and will help increase the range of independent security services and consulting resources so government can more easily meet IT industry standards."

A place on the supplier panel paves the way for companies to develop partnerships with government agencies, and to showcase technology implementations.

Thomson said the volume of business undertaken through the panel had doubled in the past year, up from 94 projects in February 2004 to 194 projects by December of the same year.

She said the SMB sector is the big beneficiary.

"Since February 2004, Victorian IT companies have been selected for 60 percent or nearly $10 million worth of government contracts; this is a 45 percent increase on the year before," Thomson said.

Local services providers added to the list include Red Rock Consulting, Gibson Quai-AAS, Planwell Technology, Netstar Australia, EOS Solutions, Gen-I, Dytech Solutions and Astral Consulting. Security focused suppliers include Cybertrust Australia, Pure Hacking and Linus Information.