The Australian Electoral Fee has squandered no time forging forward with its at the time-in-a-technology core IT units overhaul just after very last week’s federal finances windfall.
Just days just after $96.7 million in first funding for the extended-awaited overhaul was verified, the agency has discovered plans to tender for the very first phase of perform ahead of the 12 months is out.
In a pre-release recognize to sector on Monday, the AEC said the foundational infrastructure for the modernisation software, dubbed the Indigo Method, would be sought in Q4 of 2020.
Methods integration, business integration, business assistance management, enterprise process management and supply chain management are the high-degree abilities that are anticipated to fall below the tender.
The modernisation is considered “necessary to underpin the ongoing integrity of federal electoral functions, specially in relation to the ever more sophisticated cyber protection environment”.
The AEC has been preparing the overhaul of the country’s thirty-12 months-old election IT units for the very last two many years to mitigate towards future cyber protection threats and deliver enhanced services.
The integrity of electoral IT units have been in the spotlight for at minimum the very last four many years, when an inquiry in the aftermath of the 2016 federal election elevated significant issues.
The overhaul will see the agency substitute the 93 units and supporting subsystems that guidance elections, as nicely as supporting mainframe infrastructure.
It is anticipated to get position about the subsequent seven many years, slicing throughout two federal elections nominally scheduled for May possibly 2022 and May possibly 2025.
Original finances funding will go in direction of the AEC’s speak to centre modernisation and a new process to handle the ninety,000-potent momentary workforce for the duration of an election.
Future investment – probably in 2022-23 or 2023-24 – will protect the substitute of the hugely-customised legacy electoral roll and election management process.
The finances funding follows a hiring spree for the modernisation software in May possibly, with the AEC calling for twenty developers, engineers and other IT professionals to start out perform this money 12 months.
The recruitment travel incorporated a style direct to guidance the core units overhaul for up to two many years.
Given that then, the AEC has entered into six ‘ICT contractor’ agreements worth a blended overall of virtually $1.3 million. The contracts vary from five months to ten months in size.
It has also put in $527,692 on a Microsoft Azure developer for 18 months’ perform, as nicely as $230,000 on a info migration specialist for just about three months’ perform.
