ANAO puts IT outsourcing deal up for grabs

One of the federal government’s longest running outsourcing arrangements is up for grabs at the Australian National Audit Office, as the agency prepares to ditch onsite ICT infrastructure in favour of the cloud.

Unisys has been responsible for the agency’s IT services since a whole-of-government IT outsourcing initiative was introduced in 1997, requiring agencies to farm out mainframe services, midrange systems, distributed and desktop operations, support services and data networks.

The current contract expires at the end of June 2018.

The agency has been considering replacing its current arrangement since April 2016, and kicked off the procurement process earlier this year with a view to market test its relationship to support its transition to an as-a-service delivery model.

It has now issued a request for tender for a new IT services provider, and wants to begin the shift from “ANAO owned infrastructure to value-adding business services” from March next year.

The market approach is understood to be only the second time that the agency has put the contract up for competive tender.

The new provider will deliver business applications and infrastructure through SaaS, IaaS and workplace as-a-service means where applicable, as well as service desk and IT consultancy services for specific projects.

The ANAO requires that cloud services be certified to a protected level classification by the Australian Signals Directorate.

It is also hoping the outsouring change will improve the mobility of its 330 staff by allowing them to work securely from wherever auditing takes them, and have the right tools and technology in place to analyse data collected during its audit and to realise its digital-first direction.

It expects to have the contract in place by the end of the year.