Credit: Dreamstime
Tech giant, Oracle, has been handed almost $120 million worth of IT and software contracts from Australia’s Department of Defence.
In a limited tender process, the US-based software vendor was awarded a $113.6 million, one-year contract, beginning 9 December, for the provision of software licences and support.
The Department of Defence, one of the country’s biggest public IT buyers, makes use of Oracle products for a wide range of purposes, including human resource systems, information management and storage, and identity and access management systems.
The multimillion-dollar deal relates to an agreement between Defence and Oracle for current and future software licenses.
In May 2016, a four year Unlimited License Agreement with Oracle expired, and the two organisations worked through a process to develop an enterprise agreement for the Department to meet current and future software licence needs for extensive database, and identity and access management system requirements.
Additionally, Defence handed Oracle a $6.1 million deal for the provision of cloud-based Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) infrastructure, with the one-year contract also beginning on 9 December.
According to a Department of Defence spokesperson, during the negotiations surrounding the one-year contract, the Defence identified “further opportunities” to utilise Oracle software.
“The parties entered a one-year contract for unclassified cloud services to enable Defence to fast-track prototyping and proof of concept activities,” the Department of Defence spokesperson told ARN in a statement.
“This will be advantageous as Defence continues its progress towards the delivery of significant modernisation and change efforts in line with the First Principles Review and the 2016 Defence White Paper (including the Integrated Investment Program),” the Department said.
The deals come as the Department of Defence undertakes a massive technology overhaul, with the government entity flagging plans to spend up to $20 billion on IT over a 10-year period.
In early November, the Department put out a call for feedback from Australia’s IT providers over its proposed development of a new IT procurement supplier panel arrangement, set to come into place next year.
