ATO extends Leidos' end user computing mega-deal

The Australian Taxation Office has extended its seven-year deal with the IT services business that formerly belonged to Lockheed Martin by another year and an extra $58.3 million.

The ATO signed contracts with the now-named Leidos in 2010 for end user computing services and support.

The deals span desktops, laptops, mobile devices, monitors, printers, desktop and platform software, and end user storage services, as well as IT service desk and service management.

The contracts were to last seven years, with a combined original value of around $300 million.

Over its lifetime, however, the bundle of work has grown to approximately $530 million in value.

The arrangements were due to expire on June 30 this year.

But iTnews can reveal the agency has given Leidos a further $39.7 million for the end user deal and an extra $18.6 million for the support work to take both contracts out to June 30 2018.

It puts the total combined value of the deals at $588 million over eight years.

A spokesperson told iTnews the ATO had decided to extend the partnership while it 'considers the long term arrangements for end user computing services as part of our IT sourcing strategy'.

It did not provide further detail.

The ATO work is one of Leidos' two biggest government deals in Australia, alongside the eight-year, $710 million centralised processing contract it signed with the Defence department in late 2014.

Leidos is one of the ATO's two main IT suppliers, alongside HPE.

The agency has been struggling with its HPE partnership since late last year thanks to a collapsed storage area network (SAN) that has caused ongoing headaches, but it similarly ran into trouble with Leidos in late June when another storage array - this time within Leidos' remit - crashed, downing the ATO's online systems.