$1B in ATO Contracts On The Table

By Greg McNevin

October 1, 2007: The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has decided to bring its $1.8 billion computer and communications services outsourcing agreement with the US Electronic Data Systems (EDS) to a close and put the contract up for tender from the end of October this year.

"We've been working for the last little while with Boston Consulting Group to finalise our sourcing strategy for ICT," ATO second commissioner Greg Farr told AustralianIT. "It's likely to be well over $1 billion worth of contracts that will be out in the market over the next couple of years."

This $1 billion cost estimate is expected to cover about five years worth of business for the company or companies awarded the contract(s), which are to be split into three tranches.

The first will be managed network services, which the ATO will request expressions of interest for early next year. Applicants will be short listed and asked to submit their tenders by mid 2008.

End user computing and centralised computing constitute the other two contract areas up for grabs, the process of which will begin in mid 2008, following managed network services, and are expected to be finalised by mid 2009.

Farr also told AustralianIT that while offshore outsourcing will be considered, the agency has already ruled out any possibility of its data centres being located overseas due to security considerations.

While the ATO is finishing up its current deals with EDS, the firm will be one of those considered during the re-tendering process. Farr claims the ATO is open to signing a different vendor for each tranche, or a single vendor for all if appropriate.

Comment on this story