Defence inks all-you-can-eat Oracle deal

The Department of Defence has consolidated its Oracle contracts into a $63 million, four-year deal covering unlimited, department-wide use of more than 200 software products.

The deal supports a range of initiatives in Defence's 10-year Strategic Reform Program, including the infrastructure for HR sustainment, document records management system and data centre migration and consolidation projects.

"Defence is dependant on Oracle software to support key systems including the HR Domain and the extensive use of Oracle database software and related technology throughout the department," a spokesperson for the department told iTnews.

"The recently executed Head Agreement provides Defence with a central set of terms and conditions governing Oracle hardware and software and is part of Defence's continued rationalisation and standardisation of its IT environment."

The new contract will support the JP2080 project among others, with JP2080 intended to upgrade an Oracle PeopleSoft HR and payroll platform.

It was inked on 28 May but announced last week, with Defence's outgoing chief information officer Greg Farr highlighting the benefits of a modern, consolidated HR platform.

Oracle described the deal as a "significant partnership" that would reduce Defence's total cost of ownership by allowing it to move from an environment featuring more than 3000 applications to a more integrated, standardised software suite.