SAP wins $24m budget software contract

The Department of Finance and Deregulation has awarded SAP with a contract worth $24.4 million to provide it with software to manage the government's finances.

The department had gone to tender last year for off-the-shelf software for a central budget management system, which is expected to collect and maintain up-to-date budget estimates from across departments, and to provide reports.

The government has now purchased a suite of SAP solutions including Enterprise Resource Planning, Enterprise Performance Management, Business Intelligence and public sector industry solutions, according to SAP. The contract, published this month on AusTender and first spotted by Intermedium, started on 24 March this year and finishes on 18 March 2016.

The government decided to redevelop its current budget management system because it was nearing the end of its useful life, according to the department's site. A newer system would also provide better and more timely access to information for fiscal management, and allow better monitoring of fiscal performance. All data published in the Australian Government Budget Papers will be sourced from the system.

The department is still in the midst of a search for a system implementation partner, which it expects, according to its site, to appoint by mid-year.