ICT contracts on Customs' mind
The Australian Customs Service is currently deliberating on a number of key contracts as it decides the direction of its ICT spend in the next few years.
The agency has recently renewed a deal with Telstra for some telecomms services, but is still deciding on vendors for technology and services in the areas of document and ID management, other telecommunications, application maintenance and server and storage support.
The two-year Telstra renewal was signed in December, a Customs spokesperson told ZDNet Australia via e-mail today. "Some minor changes to the scope of the contract were made to accommodate changing business needs," they said.
The majority of the other contracts have arisen as the agency plans to replace its AU$550 million outsourcing arrangement with EDS -- due to expire this June -- with four smaller contracts for:
- Mainframe, mid-range server and storage infrastructure and services
- Application maintenance and support services
- Voice infrastructure
- Internet and gateway services
Customs will bring desktop and local area network support services in-house.
The Customs spokesperson said the agency had finalised a shortlist for each of these four contracts. "Negotiations with the short-listed tenderers have commenced, and these negotiations are expected to be completed by early 2007," they said.
Customs is also in contract negotiations with a preferred supplier of a new electronic document and records management system (EDRMS) under its Records and Information Management System project, and is evaluating responses to a request for tender for ID management technology issued in April 2006.