The ACS -- which acknowledged last year that the structure of the EDS deal meant the agency lost out on innovation and internal expertise -- released tenders late last week encompassing provision of data processing, application maintenance and support, voice infrastructure and Internet and a secure gateway.
The tender structure reaffirms the ACS's desire to pursue a multi-sourcing strategy rather than a Big Bang arrangement once the EDS deal expires in June 2007.
The ACS said it was seeking:
The release of the tenders follows the disastrous cutover to a new imports clearance system late last year and follows the subsequent appointment of former Australian Taxation Office (ATO) boss Michael Carmody to the top ACS post.
It also comes as the ACS gears up for a range of new border protection projects, with the highest-profile being the SmartGate biometric border processing system for international passengers.
The client-server based system, which interfaces to the ACS passenger analysis, clearance and evaluation application -- is based on Windows servers running a packaged application supplied by Sagem.
SmartGate Series 1 would be introduced into the first Australian international airport in early 2007, while other airports would follow at a pace determined by uptake of the new ePassport.