ATO moves on $60m end-user deal

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has released a request for tender for its five-year end-user computing contract worth around $60 million a year.

The request, released on 19 March, marks the end of the agency's trial process that a shortlist of vendors underwent between September to October last year.

CSC Australia, HP-owned EDS, recent Fujitsu acquisition Kaz Group, Lockheed Martin and Unisys remain in the race for the ATO's $60 million per year deal, the ATO said in a statement today.

The end-user computing contract covers the ATO's mobile device management, IT service desk, service management, and printer management and was the second of the three infrastructure bundles it released under its new multi-sourcing strategy that is collectively worth around $1.8 billion over five years.

Once signed, the deal will become the ATO's first move in breaking up the monolithic contract HP-owned EDS has held for the past decade.

The tender will also be a litmus test for Fujistu Australia, which acquired Kaz Group from Telstra earlier this month for $200 million. While Fujitsu has won hardware and software licence deals with the ATO, it has failed to secure lucrative service deals with the agency, which, besides Defence is the biggest spender on technology in Canberra.

Deals the ATO has yet to release requests for tenders for include its $55 million a year managed network services contract, as well as its $160 million per year mainframe deal.

The ATO late last year knocked Telstra out of its managed network services contract, leaving Dimension Data and Optus as the remaining contenders. The mainframe deal was also whittled down to Lockheed Martin, CSC, IBM and incumbent supplier EDS last September.

Incumbent whole-of-agency provider EDS will remain a supplier until 2010, following the ATO's decision to extend its contract for a further two years.