ATO's network services deal climbs to $960m

The Australian Taxation Office has extended a long-running partnership with managed network services provider Optus, pushing the deal out to a total value of $960 million.

The agency handed the telco a $217.1 million contract earlier this month that extends the existing deal until July 2020.

Optus has held the managed network services deal since 2009, beating Dimension Data, Telstra and CSC to the initial four year, $186.5 million contract at the time.

Back then, the ATO said it was spending approximately $60.5 million a year on network services - a saving of $55.5 million over the four-year contract period.

The current deal covers voice and data carriage, telephony, wide and local area networks, contact centre infrastructure and services, video conferencing, and cross functional services.

It also provides for the deployment of Nuance voice biometrics software, which has been used by more than 3 million taxpayers since 2014. 

A spokesperson told iTnews that no new services are included in the contract.

Managed network services is one of three service bundles that is outsourced by the ATO.

Leidos holds one of the other bundles (for end user computing), and HP Enterprise Services runs a centralised computing bundle.

They form the basis of a multi-sourcing strategy the ATO started planning for in 2007 to split a previously monolithic IT outsourcing agreement with EDS.

Optus also provides telco services to a number of other federal government agencies, including the Department of Home Affairs and Department of Agriculture.