Defence looks for data-as-a-service for industrial intelligence

The Department of Defence wants a data-as-a-service (DaaS) provider to deliver an industrial intelligence capability (IIC), to be operational in early 2024.

In a tender published in late September, Defence explained the creation of the IIC will help it meet the Defence Strategic Review’s “recommendation of improving speed to capability” - in other words, to improve its acquisition processes.

The current RFP is a market sounding designed to assess what providers and capabilities are available. It will be followed by an invitation-only RFT.

“Defence requires accelerated collection and access to information to support the identification of vendors who can deliver capabilities and identify any risks that Defence should know about during a selection process," the documents state.

The department added that the IIC will “be valuable” to its One Defence Capability System (ODCS) acquisition model, particular during risk mitigation and requirement setting: “This includes risk profiling, and potential identification of one credible supplier.”

Defence envisages the DaaS offering will start by combining OSINT and commercially acquired data.

“Future evolution of the IIC may expand the DaaS to include internal Defence data; however, it is not a requirement of the initial offering," the documents state.

It intends to adopt a system that would by hosted by the vendor, and able to cover “the global market for the purchase of goods and/or services in any given industry”.

The tender said Defence would like to be able to have information in the IIC “ingested by Defence Protected Environment and Defence Secret Environment”, as well as interfaces to other systems “with minimal configuration”.