Datacom seeks staff for Lockheed Martin-ATO deal

IT service provider Datacom has announced plans to hire 90 staff in Sydney and Canberra to support Lockheed Martin's $283 million end-user computing deal with the Australian Tax Office (ATO).

The two-part end-user computing deal was inked last month after a two-year joint bidding process that involved US defence technologist Lockheed Martin and its local partners Datacom and CSG.

It comprised an Enterprise Service Management Centre (ESMC) component that covered end-user support and service management, and an End User Technology Support Services (EUTS) component for hardware provision and support.

Datacom General Manager Kassandra Singh would lead the ESMC's ITIL-aligned IT service desk functions, while Lockheed Martin handled configuration and change management for the ATO's 24,000 users.

Lockheed Martin would also own all infrastructure required to provide EUTS, and work with CSG on that component of the deal.

When the deal was announced in July, Lockheed Martin would not disclose how many of its 500 Australian staff were employed in civil versus military technology divisions.

Datacom director Mark McWilliams told iTnews that Datacom currently had 1,400 Australian employees, and planned to hire an additional 90 to support the ATO deal.

He sought subject matter experts, service desk analysts, supervisors and managers; "technical people who can take calls from upset ATO users, and who can fix their problems," he said.

The end-user computing tender was one of three IT sourcing bundles that the ATO had looked to establish since 2007. It spanned five years at an estimated $60 million per year, with six one-year extension options.

Lockheed Martin and partners beat CSC, EDS, KAZ and Unisys to the deal, and was expected to replace the ATO's existing end-user computing contractor, HP-EDS, by mid-2011.