Legal Tender: Datacom and Revera win IaaS deal

Deals

The Department of Internal Affairs has signed up Datacom and Revera to provide Infrastructure-as-a-Service to government agencies, allowing the agencies to buy computing infrastructure on demand. The DIA says the deal will be worth between $50-$250 million over 10 years. IBM was previously announced as a third IaaS provider in negotiations with DIA. Those negotiations are reportedly continuing.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has appointed eight organisations to a new IT technical services panel which it will use for "short-term” situations where it requires IT consultancy resources. The members of the MAF panel are: AwaNet Consulting Services Ltd, Integri-T,Hi-Spec Security Ltd, Resultex Ltd, Fujitsu NZ Ltd, PASIS, Starfish Consulting and Datacom. The panel contract is in place for two and a half years with a two-year right of renewal and MAF says the contract is valued at between $500,000 and $600,000.

Statistics NZ has appointed Wellington-based Structure IT to provide consultancy services to assist with the design, implementation and configuration of the technical IT infrastructure platforms to support the 2013 Census. The Census had been planned for earlier this year but was postponed until March 5, 2013 as a result of the Christchurch earthquakes. Statistics NZ’s contract with Structure IT is valued at between $100,000 and $125,000.

Opportunities

The Department of Internal Affairs has released its much-anticipated request for proposals for all-of-government mobile voice and data services. The DIA says government agencies currently spend about $55-$60 million on such services and it bluntly admits that one of the aims of the RFP is to drive down that total cost. It anticipates appointing a panel of providers, rather than contracting a single operator to provide the service and says successful respondents will also benefit from being involved. Benefits to suppliers include the opportunity to boost their market share, to cut the cost of servicing government clients and to participate in future RFPs involving other telecommunications services. Those suppliers wishing to be involved need to lodge a formal notification of intent to respond by October 31.

Statistics NZ is requesting information about invoice workflow and approval applications ahead of the planned issue of an RFP. Statistics NZ is currently using an electronic invoice workflow and approval system which it says it is looking to replace. Responses to the RFI need to be in by October 31.

Wellington City Council has issued a request for information relating to an electronic solution to handle its processing of building warrants of fitness. The council says its current procedures involve desk-based paperwork audits of all documentation provided as part of the building WoF process. In order to better manage both the desk and site audit process, a change to an electronic based system has been proposed. The deadline for responding to the RFI is October 31.

The Defence Force is seeking the supply of a dual satellite communications system. Responses to the NZDF’s request for proposals need to be lodged by November 16.

Details of the above tenders can be found here.