The ATSB's IT outsourcing contract is up for grabs

The Australian Transport Security Bureau (ATSB) is on the hunt for a service provider that can offer the agency everything-as-a-service after its contract with current IT outsource partner ASG ends.

It is only the second time Australia's national transport safety investigator has gone to market for the provision of its IT environment; the agency split from the Infrastructure department in 2009 and continued to have its IT needs provided for by the agency until appointing ASG in 2013.

The contract saw the ATSB move to a cloud and managed services arrangement, establish its own WAN and LAN network, as well as upgrade to Windows 8.1 and Surface Pro devices for end user computing.

With the ASG contract about to expire, the ATSB is now scouring the market for someone to manage its corporate and business systems, infrastructure, data communications, end user computing, and all managed services.

It wants to maintain the IT and managed services it is currently being provided while gaining access to innovations in both products and delivery that have popped up since it last went to market.

While "not a mandatory requirement, the ATSB would prefer to procure all services in the form of 'as-a-service" where it has little or no ownership of assets and licenses, and can pay via a consumption-based billing model.

The agency is currently upgrading to Windows 10 with Office 2016, and expects the migration to be complete before transitioning to its new chosen supplier.

Work for the money

The ATSB indicated it will implement a discount scheme to ensure its chosen contractor performs.

It has outlined key "critical" service areas that will fall under the service rebate scheme: business application availability; platform-as-a-service management of business and corporate platforms; incident resolution; reporting; and service desk.

Where its provider fails to meet any minimum service levels for three months in a row, the ATSB will claim back up to 20 percent of its monthly charge. Rebates will be calculated based on the contractor's performance.

"The ATSB wishes to develop a strong relationship that will be based on the contractor adopting a continuous improvement approach and the ATSB having realistic expectations and an understanding of the problems and difficulties in delivering ICT services," the agency said.

"In order to facilitate this, the ATSB proposes that service levels be set and measured as an overall indicator of service quality.

"In addition to compensating the ATSB for a lower than agreed service, service rebates are to act as an incentive for the contractor to meet the service level."

The agency has for now only put out a request for information from suppliers; it expects to progress to a full request for tender in May should the initial scour of the market be successful.