Qld prepares IT systems for Commonwealth Games

Queensland has started preparing its IT systems for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, with the Gold Coast statutory body charged with delivering the games going out to market for solutions to support a number of business functions.

The Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Corporation (GOLDOC) was born in January last year under the state's Tourism department to run the April 2018 Commonwealth Games, and will dissolve in 2019. 

Its current ICT set-up includes a multiple data centre design, a Windows-based server environment, Windows 7 desktops, and Office 2010 and Exchange for communication.

The environment is delivered by an external managed services provider as infrastructure-as-a-service, and the GOLDOC expects to continue utilising similar arrangements — in a Microsoft-centric environment — over the course of its seven-year life.

The authority is currently drafting its technology strategic plan for the new environment. At the moment it operates “limited” corporate applications for payroll, marketing and communication systems, the last two of which are provided via a software-as-a-service offering. Payroll is provided by a bureau service.

It uses a “small interim solution” for finance and accounting systems, and OpenText ECM for all document and records management. Manual or spreadsheet solutions are used for all other corporate business functions. 

The entire scope of its new corporate application program will include the vast majority of its corporate functions, including payroll, finance, procurement, HR, contract lifecycle, business intelligence, and CRM.

It wants to standardise on Microsoft server, desktop and office automation products, and would prefer SaaS off-the-shelf solutions due to the corporation’s temporary nature, and subsequent need to minimise IT asset ownership.

It also wants highly configurable solutions that won’t need any customisation.

The finance, procurement and payroll solutions are forecast to be operational by July next year, with the remaining systems to go live no later than 31 December 2014, the GOLDOC said in tender documents.

The contract will be awarded in March and run for up to six years. The GOLDOC would prefer to implement all the solutions under one integration partner, it said.