Defence IT staff fill 80 per cent of Unisys roles

In February 2008, Unisys won a contract to provide a range of IT support services, including network security and infrastructure support, servers and desktops used by civilian and military areas of Defence across Australia .

It has since transitioned nine of twelve regions onto its IT services.

These regions account for some 460 Defence sites.

Only the ACT and Southern NSW, Northern Territory and Kimberley, and Northern Queensland regions remain to be transitioned to Unisys.

It is expected that these sites will come online by October.

The transition process involved Unisys "working closely with Defence and embedding Unisys transition managers and support staff onsite at the regional sites before each transition handover began", the company said.

"The success of the recruitment drive for the twelve regions has been a critical factor in achieving the milestones set for the project," said Tony Henshaw, Asia Pacific vice president of global outsourcing and infrastructure services at Unisys.

"More than 80 per cent of the roles were filled by Defence staff already involved in ICT regional service delivery to help achieve a smooth transition of the service delivery from Defence to Unisys".

An additional 14 positions were filled under the Australia-wide Unisys IT Traineeship Program, established in July 2008, Henshaw said.

ZDNet Australia reported last year that approximately 388 internal Defence ICT staff would be affected by the contract being awarded to Unisys.