CSC wins ATO refresh deal
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has chosen IT services company CSC to re-platform its Australian Business Registration system, which is reaching the end of its Microsoft support.
The database records information on companies that need an Australian Business Number (ABN). It also interacts with systems from other agencies.
The tax office realised in 2007 that the system would reach the end of its Microsoft support by July last year. It decided that a technology refresh was necessary because keeping the current system would increase troubleshooting requirements and would result in security problems going unpatched. The tax office released the tender to look for a vendor that could revamp the system by 2011.
"The current implementation is an inhibitor to doing business now and into the future as there are significant complexities in delivering enhancements and maintaining the current implementation," the tender documents said.
The system was to be implemented in two releases. The first was scheduled to be developed until April 2010 for implementation in August 2010. The second would start to be built in April for August completion and March 2011 implementation.
The successful tenderer was to supply resources for the design, build, test, implementation and warranty, which was to last for 90 days after the taxation office was happy with the implementation.
The win was published on AusTender on 16 February, with $323,785 logged for the first phase of the work, but no indication of how much the later phases would cost.
The win followed CSC pulling itself out of the running for the Australian Taxation Office's centralised computing contract.