The Australian Taxation Place of work has extended its decade-extensive managed network services megadeal with Optus while it continues searching for telcos to make up a new multi-sourcing arrangement.
The national profits company handed Optus an 18-thirty day period extension before this thirty day period at a expense of $141.5 million that extends the existing deal until finally thirty December 2021.
It delivers the complete benefit of the deal – which handles voice and data carriage, telephony, wide and regional location networks and make contact with centre infrastructure – to $one.13 billion around eleven decades.
The deal was set to expire on thirty June 2020 to make way for six new managed network provider bundles that the agency approached the market place for final December.
Every single of the bundles, which will be presented by a distinct provider service provider, are meant to be “smaller, far more modularised and much better market place aligned” than the latest arrangement.
The ATO claimed this will “enable finest of breed and focussed provider shipping and delivery, in change delivering much better benefit for money”.
The bundles will protect data carriage, set voice, cell services, network administration, unified communications and make contact with centre services.
But with that procurement nonetheless incomplete, a spokesperson instructed iTnews that the Optus deal had been extended for 18 months “to support a prosperous changeover to a new supplier”.
“During this interval, Optus will keep on to deliver services, components, and application to help the shipping and delivery of services … until finally new supplier arrangements take effect,” the ATO claimed.
“This is a very usual business enterprise apply for handling any potential transitioning of services.”
The spokesperson claimed the extension included two function orders, only just one of which has been extended for 18 months: BAU services throughout the changeover interval.
BAU services account for the majority of the deal at $85.3 million, while the next function order for the renewal of managed network services (MNS) application licenses and upkeep is valued at $forty three.3 million.
The renewal of MNS application licences and upkeep is for twelve months, nevertheless the “Cisco A-Flex organization licence arrangement and telepresence” contained inside will stretch for 36 months.
The spokesperson claimed this arrangement was extended for 36 months “as it represented much better benefit for money”.
The spokesperson also stressed that the extension did not indicate there had not been any delays to the procurement, including RFT SPC-2896-one or RFT SPC-2896-2.
“The procurement activity is currently ongoing. We are not able to deliver further information and facts at this time.”
The company has formerly declined to reveal whether any suppliers have been shortlisted, inspite of unique tender files stating that this would come about by May well 2020.
Optus has held the ATO’s managed network services deal given that the company split up its monolithic IT outsourcing arrangement with IT services firm EDS (now DXC) in 2009.
The deal, which is just one of three IT outsourcing agreements slated for refresh around the following year-and-a-fifty percent, is the to start with to be market place tested by the ATO.
The other two bundles are held by Leidos (conclusion person computing), which was extended until finally November 2021 final year at the expense of $87 million, and DXC (centralised computing).
