ATO seeks staff for upgraded SAP systems

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has launched a search for ICT contractors to support its newly upgraded SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) and business intelligence systems.

In the past two weeks, the tax office has issued three separate requests for tender seeking a total of six contractors with SAP ECC6 and BI7 expertise.

The ATO commissioned IT firm CSC in January 2009 to upgrade its SAP platform from SAP 4.6c and Netweaver Business Warehouse 3.5.

The upgrade went live on 17 November 2009 and was expected to deliver reduced support costs, improved management processes, and enhanced views of business data.

According to tender documents, the ATO was in the process of implementing the SAP Enterprise Learning Management Solution and Supplier Relations Management (SRM), alongside the Procurement for Public Sector SAP add-on and BusinessObjects Xcelsius.

The tax office sought three Canberra-based business analysts to provide technical support for the new systems, which according to an ATO spokesman, also remained fully supported by SAP.

These analysts would be responsible for change initiatives from initiation to implementation, and would be required to possess, or obtain, a 'Highly Protected' security clearance.

Another two developers were sought to provide support and undertake project work from within the ATO's EST SAP Maintenance and Support Team for one year from August.

The developers were expected to have "expert-level" Advanced Business Application Programming skills and experience in developing and maintaining .NET applications interfacing into an SAP environment.

A separate request for tender was issued for "at least one new contractor" with SAP BI design and programming skills to join the same team for one year with a 12-month extension option.

"The ATO is seeking to leverage new functionality available in BI7.0 and SAP ERP ECC6 as part of our ongoing business improvement program," the spokesman told iTnews.

"We are seeking to supplement our internal capability with specialist skills."

Federal Government agencies have otherwise been tasked with reducing IT contractors under its response to the Gershon review.