ACT govt plans AU$80m hardware refresh

The Australian Capital Territory government has signalled it will sign new suppliers for PC, server and printer hardware in mid-2007, in arrangements collectively worth between AU$80 million and AU$100 million.

The territory's shared services arm InTACT briefed industry on the plans in Canberra last week, saying it planned to ink five separate new contracts for the supply of desktop, server, monitor, printer and multifunction device and laptop hardware. The deals are expected to last for at least three years.

The division expects to issue requests for tender late this month, and select the new suppliers in mid August. InTACT's current sourcing arrangements expire in December this year. InTACT has not yet made a decision on whether to also go to market for off-the-shelf software.

According to presentation documents available online, the ACT government has been purchasing Hewlett-Packard desktops for the past several years. The territory also uses HP for laptops, in addition to IBM.

InTACT has specified any new machines it purchases must be capable of running Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system. The division is currently developing a Vista-based standard operating environment, although InTACT's strategy is currently to migrate its workstations from Windows 2000 to Windows XP Professional.

InTACT did not disclose what hardware it uses at the server level, although it primarily uses Microsoft operating systems for its back end, in addition to smaller numbers of Solaris and Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers. It has recently invested in a storage area network from EMC.

News of InTACT's plans come as the NSW state government is expected soon to announce the panel winners of its whole of government desktop, laptop, server and telecommunications contracts.