Sydney Water to consolidate telco contracts

State-owned utility Sydney Water issued a request for tender seeking to replace seven telecommunications contracts with a single four-year deal.

It planned to appoint a single, prime contractor for a total of 16 telecommunications services provided by Citec, Telstra, Optus, 3 Messaging and UXC/Getronics until 31 March 2011.

According to tender documents, the prime contractor would be able to use subcontractors, and Sydney Water would retain ownership of network assets, including routers, switches and software.

A Sydney Water spokesman explained that seven separate contracts had been established with the five providers "over an extended period of time".

This was "a result of outcomes from competitive tenders, new technologies becoming available and the need to have diversity of service providers," he said.

The tender was described in documents as an "efficiency-driven project" that would ensure long-term financial sustainability, and that corporate support services were effective and procurement was "efficient and prudent".

It was part of the organisation's Corporate Plan 2008-2009 to 2012-2013, which noted plans to implement a 'Telephony And Network Infrastructure Refresh' project.

The services encompassed by the contract were:

• Wide Area Network carrier and support;
• Internet access;
• Remote dial-up;
• Fixed-line phone;
• Mobile phone;
• BlackBerry;
• Wireless data;
• Messaging;
• Lone worker services;
• IT service desk overflow;
• Local Area Network support,
• Level 3 LAN support;
• Firewall management;
• UPS maintenance;
• Hardware and software maintenance; and
• 13, 1300 and 1800 inbound services.

Services would support Sydney Water's 3,150 staff for an initial term of four years, with two 2-year extension options.

Tenderers were required to have at least five years' continuous current experience in providing managed data and voice network services in Australia.

Applications would be assessed on the basis of the tenderer's financial capability, ability to provide all required services, and adherence to occupational health and safety requirements.

Sydney Water's IT operations were led by acting CIO Trent Brown, who took the reins when Tim Catley resigned to take up another role in June.

Nottingham City Council IT director Chris Ford will relocate from the UK to become Sydney Water's CIO from mid-September.