WA Health puts IT focus on 'outcomes'

No longer just about supplying people.

Fujitsu has renewed its decade-long relationship with WA Health through an "outcomes-based" data centre infrastructure and managed services support contract.

The four-year deal was awarded late last week following a tender process.

Fujitsu was tasked with supporting the department's "centralised" infrastructure and providing "relocation and transformation project services" under the new deal, according to a statement.

The IT services firm had previously supplied data centre operations and facilities support to WA Health through a decade-long InfoHealth alliance that expired on 7 June this year.

InfoHealth was a "collaborative partnership" between Fujitsu and WA Health set up to manage "every aspect of the department's IT infrastructure", according to a case study [pdf].

Fujitsu led a "consortium" of organisations on the InfoHealth project that also included ASG and ISA Technologies. The alliance had about 200 staff.

A Fujitsu spokesman told iTnews that unlike InfoHealth, the new contract was "outcomes-based".

"[The] InfoHealth contract ... was a resource-based alliance arrangement," he said.

"[The] current contract is broader in scope than InfoHealth and is outcome driven rather than resource-based."

In practice, that meant Fujitsu and other InfoHealth consortium members were supplying WA Health with people to work on specific projects under InfoHealth.

"It was based on people rather than providing a service," the spokesman said.

The spokesman did not directly respond to questions on specific outcomes WA Health expected Fujitsu to meet under the new contract.

Further comment on outcomes was being sought from WA Health.