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In other government ICT news this week, 01 July 2013

by Intermedium •
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Deputy Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been appointed Minister for Communications and Broadband in Kevin Rudd’s new ministry. Albanese will take on the portfolio in addition to his ongoing responsibilities as Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Ed Husic has been named Parliamentary Secretary for Broadband.

Mark Dreyfus retains the Special Minister for State portfolio, with oversight of AGIMO, and Penny Wong retains the Finance portfolio.

Victorian schools that are using the Ultranet system will have to make alternate plans or begin paying for use on an individual basis from 1 January 2014, reports Fairfax. The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development has signed a six-month contract extension with system provider NEC for $2.8 million to give schools time to save and transfer data before the system is scrapped. The $180 million Ultranet project has faced a string of problems since it was initiated in 2006, including cost blowouts of $120 million, failed tenders and low take-up.

Victoria’s ICT troubles have also extended to its $65 million student records management system, which is the cause of extensive delays in the reporting of enrolment figures across Victorian TAFE institutes, according to Fairfax. The IT system is currently $35 million over budget, at a total cost of $100 million.

Eight new suppliers have been added to the Federal Government’s Data Centre as a Service multi-use list for cloud, cloud-like and managed computing services, bringing the total supplier list to 57. The next round of applications closes on 15 August 2013.

The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet has signed a $17.3 million deal with Thales for the provision of an event management system. The contract term is from June 2013 to December 2014.

Transport for NSW Director General Les Wielinga will retire on 24 September 2013 after 41 years in the public service. The process for selecting his replacement has begun.

NSW Government shared services provider ServiceFirst is due to begin an email and desktop upgrade across client agencies in June 2013, including a phased move onto a Microsoft Outlook email platform and Microsoft Windows 7 operating environment.

The Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roadshas indicated it will undertake an approach to market on or around 1 July 2013 to appoint a single integrator for its transport information website. The scope of required services includes application development, modification and support, infrastructure hosting, mapping services and managed services.

The Attorney General’s Department (AGD) has signed a $972,000 contract for secure internet gateway and data centre services under the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry’s head agreement with Macquarie Telecom. The deal is due to expire in December 2015.

AGD has also revealed plans to approach the market for a case management system and an electronic court management system in the first quarter of the 2013-14 financial year in its recently released annual procurement plans.

The WA Department of Education has signed a $14.8 million deal with ASG for a modernisation of its Oracle Business Solutions environment. ASG currently provides finance, HR and managed payroll services to the Department.

 

Related Articles:

Victoria could decommission Ultranet and start again

Federal Government straps on its cloud computing training wheels

CIO exits Queensland Transport Department

 

For more information, please contact the Editor (02) 9955 9896.

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