Vic Education pours $500m into new schools IT panel

Victoria has named the 116 suppliers accredited to supply technology and IT support to the state's 2500 schools following a refresh of a 17 year-old procurement panel.

The state's Department of Education this month released the names of the IT suppliers enlisted under its service delivery and specialist technician panels, which combined are worth $495 million.

The panels are refreshed every five years, and the program - known as eduSTAR.TSS - has operated since 1999. This latest renewal marks the program's fifth refresh.

Mid last year the department went out to tender for a refresh of the existing panels in the lead up to their expiry earlier this month.

The former panels comprised a combined 93 members and all were invited to reapply. Most have made it onto the new list.

The service delivery panel has grown by one member. Service providers Empired and Charterhouse were replaced by My Tech Helper, Network Performance and TLS Network Solutions.

The specialist technician panel grew by 21 members to 110.

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NEC and JB Hi-Fi Education Solutions (which was created from the acquisition of former panellist Network Neighborhood) are new additions to the list, amongst a host of smaller providers.

The panels will operate for at least the next two years, and have two potential extensions of two years each. Engagement of suppliers is at schools’ discretion.

Education said it did not expect any individual contract signed through the panels to exceed $10 million.

The department is currently preparing for hearings into its failed Ultranet student portal project, which commence next month as part of the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC)'s investigation into the $180 million initiative.

Late last year IBAC said it would delve into relationships between department executives and the CSG and Oracle consortium engaged to deliver the project.

The investigation follows claims of serious corruption within the organisation.