Volante bags fourth federal government win

Australian IT infrastructure provider Volante Group has bagged its fourth managed services contract with the Federal government securing a three year, $6.7 million deal with the Department of Finance and Administration.

IBM GSA had been the primary supplier to the department for the past seven years. The department conducted a review process and went to tender in late 2003, before selecting Volante for the business.

Under the contract, Volante would provide maintenance and support to the department's desktop, mid-range and storage infrastructure.

Volante first cracked the Federal government market in March 2003 when it won a contract to provide IT equipment, maintenance and onsite support to senators' and members' electorate offices in 243 locations across Australia. The company won the deal after the break-up of CSC's cluster 3 federal government outsourcing deal.

At the time, Shadow Minister for IT Kate Lundy said the decision to finally award a contract for a local SME was "too little, too late".

It wasn't too late for Volante, which earlier this year won a $16 million, four year outsourcing deal with the Department of Transport and Regional Services and in July, its contract to supply IT services to the Group 8 Commonwealth government agencies, worth a massive $40 million per year, was extended to June 2009.

Hugh Bickerstaff, chief operating officer at Volante said the win was proof that an Australian company can compete successfully against the multinationals, and selective sourcing had opened up opportunities for the company.

"The contract is another step in Volante's growth as a significant provider of IT managed services for government departments and major corporates. It confirms our ability to compete successfully in a market that historically has been dominated by large multinational groups," he said.

He added that he understood the decision by the department to award the contract to Volante was based around "overall value for money".

Currently, Volante earns around $100 million per annum in sales revenue from its services business of which almost $50 million is derived from these Federal government contracts. Around $380 million is derived from product sales.

Volante announced a merger with Australian box builder Ipex in November 2003. The contract comes into effect in November this year.