Airservices to outsource IT delivery oversight

Airservices Australia will hand over control of its IT projects and programs to an external provider from November in a bid to improve its delivery management function.

The government-owned corporation is preparing to establish an outsourced project management office within its information management and technology group as part of its Accelerate transformation program.

The Accelerate program, which began in March 2016 in response to its first-ever full-year financial loss, has already seen significant changes to the organisation’s operating model, including the reintroduction of the CIO role, and the loss of as many as 50 IT jobs.

Airservices currently oversees its approximately $200 million annual spend on projects in-house.

It now wants a supplier to run the "day to day operations" of the IM&T PMO to support "program and project delivery, governance and reporting and delivering continuous improvement of the IM&T frameworks," according to tender documents.

The PMO will oversee the organisation's $35 million portfolio of 35 aviation and technology projects in 2018-19, more than ten of which are yet to be initiated.

A spokeperson told iTnews that projects include airport collaborative decision making, cyber security and the organisation's corporate business technology services modernisation.

However, the now billion-dollar OneSKY system overhaul with the Department of Defence, which will replace two outdated air traffic control systems with a single civil-military air traffic management system (CMATS) by 2021, will not fall within the PMO’s scope.

“Due to its complexity and significance, OneSKY has its own dedicated program delivery team and the accountable Program Executive reports directly to the CEO,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that Airservices CIO Chris Seller will continue to have ultimate responsibility for the organisation’s IM&T environment.

The supplier will also take over responsibility for the delivery of the agency’s new PSM Framework, which will introduce good management practice frameworks for the organisation to govern and deliver programs and projects against.

Introducing an outsourced PMO aligns with the organisation's new operating model, which is "specifically designed to expand and contract in line with business requirements".

Airservices is also currently on the lookout for a partner to shift its current internally managed IT infrastructure environment to the cloud, including core compute, and to manage its fleet of almost 5000 end user devices.