AFP revamps IT purchasing strategy
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has revealed plans to establish a comprehensive new panel of information technology vendors to supply its IT infrastructure needs over the next three years.
(Credit: Commonwealth of Australia)
The panel will supply technology on an ad-hoc basis, covering a wide range of products to support the agency, according to tender documents released this week.
It will cover communications, networking and telephony, data centre hardware, storage and servers, geospatial information systems and security.
The initial period of the panel will be three years, until 2010, with an option to extend it for another two years.
The new panel is a simplified version of one the AFP established in 2007, which outlined 14 categories of technology and specified a limit of 50 suppliers. It is unclear how many vendors will be selected for the new initiative; however, the AFP wrote that it intended to expand it annually. It has also reserved the right to buy products from vendors outside the panel, and may ask panel members to compete for work.
The AFP expects to announce its preferred tenderer list by 18 November. Key focus areas outlined in the AFP's strategic plan that will take it to 2011 are to gain technological advantage over crime, identify new technologies and exploit next generation systems.
The AFP was unable to respond to ZDNet.com.au's questions at the time of publishing.