​Fujitsu Australia scores AU$14m in federal contracts

The federal government has signed almost AU$14 million worth of contracts since the end of October with Fujitsu Australia.

The Australian government contracts are spread across the Department of Defence, the Department of Parliamentary Services, and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).

Fujitsu Australia will continue its provision of cloud services with APRA, extending its existing Software-as-a-Service contract until June 30, 2019 for a cost of AU$3.3 million.

In a separate AU$1.9 million deal, Fujitsu Australia will also provide the nation's financial services regulator with the implementation, management, and hosting supporting for its National Claims and Policies Database system upgrade, which it has been involved with since 2011.

The local arm of the Japanese conglomerate will also be charged with providing internet services to the Department of Defence through to June next year, for a cost of AU$3.97 million.

The Department of Parliamentary Services will receive secure communications services from Fujitsu Australia, with the AU$4.8 million deal seeing the company provide the department with associated IT components until the end of September 2021.

Last week, TAFE Queensland appointed Fujitsu as its principal IT support partner. The AU$60 million contract will see Fujistu provide the state's TAFE with large-scale, critical services including service desk support, end-user computing, infrastructure management, and network LAN support

"We are pleased to be working closely with TAFE Queensland and providing them with the innovative ICT services to enable the organisation to deliver quality training to over 120,000 students every year, across TAFE Queensland's six regions," Mike Foster, CEO of Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand, said.

"We are continuing to invest in a quality delivery capability in this region and this opportunity builds on our recent successes in Queensland."

The contract includes 38 locally-based support staff across Australia, with Fujitsu to invest in a further 50 back office administrative roles in the Queensland team to deliver the support services.

The transition to Fujitsu is expected to be completed in early 2017.

Also in Queensland, the state's education department has selected ASX-listed MGM Wireless as a standing offer arrangement supplier to all Queensland state, independent, and Catholic schools for the provision of the company's absence management and parent notification solutions.

The standing offer arrangement has a three-year term, expiring in October 2019, and will see MGM Wireless provide the Queensland Department of Education with same-day notification of unexplained absences, straight to the parents and guardians of school students.

"We are very excited to be selected and have the opportunity to work with the Queensland Department of Education in this new initiative," MGM Wireless executive chairman Mark Fortunatow said in a statement on Wednesday.

"For MGM Wireless, this represents a wonderful business opportunity. There are 1,736 schools in Queensland for which this new policy applies, whereas currently we service approximately 60 schools across the state."

The deal is akin to that which MGM Wireless signed previously with the Western Australian Department of Education, for a value of AU$2.67 million.

Similarly, the Australian Capital Territory Education Directorate signed an AU$8.7 million deal with SMS Management & Technology in September to replace the ACT government's school administration system with an integrated enterprise platform.

Under the six-year project, SMS Management & Technology will install the centralised system for all 87 government schools within the ACT.

The deal also includes SMS advisory, solutions, and managed services as well as the provision of specialised third-party software, with the contract allowing for a further four-year extension beyond the initial six-year term.