Data#3 wins NBN office IT roll-out

Diversified ICT products and services group Data#3 has won a fistful of contracts to design, deploy and manage the National Broadband Network Company's corporate IT infrastructure.

Announcing the deals today, Data#3 managing director John Grant said NBN Co had put four contracts out to market about four months ago to support its corporate environment, as distinct from its planned network roll-out. Data#3 bid for and won all four tenders.

"It covered the design and deployment of technology infrastructure and managed services," said Grant, noting the deals covered services relating to the NBN Co's corporate network, and for example, email platform (Microsoft Exchange).

The estimated timing of the release of the tender documents would mean they were made available to IT suppliers around the same time — or even before — former Alcatel executive Mike Quigley took the NBN Co CEO role on 25 July.

The NBN Company has not yet gone to market for most of the goods and services it will require to fulfil its plans to roll out optical fibre infrastructure across the nation, although its Tasmanian subsidiary has put some work on the market.

The NBN Company is known to have taken offices in North Sydney, but has not announced further details about its planned office locations around Australia as yet.

Broadly, Data#3 said today that it had made a good start to its financial year, winning not only the NBN Co deals but other contracts with companies like McWilliams Wines, NAB's wholesale division and in various state governments.

"We are continuing to experience restraint in customer investment and higher levels of market competition and these are materialising as pressure on pricing and margins," said Data#3 chairman Richard Anderson in a statement associated with the company's annual general meeting today.

"However, we have a diversified business with much of our revenue under contract and our objectives for the 2010 financial year remain to gain market share, continue to build sustainable profitability through appropriate investments and to improve on the record performance of 2009."