Credit: Department of Defence
IBM has been awarded a $14 million contract with the Department of Defence through its $1 billion whole-of-government agreement with the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA).
The new contract covers installation, software maintenance, hardware and support over a five-year time frame.
Deployment is expected to begin in late 2020 and end in 2021, with support expected to continue for the following four years through to 2025.
IBM signed its whole-of-government deal with the DTA in 2018 with the expectation of delivering more than $100 million in budget savings.
During the announcement of the agreement, then-Minister for Human Services Michael Keenan said the purchasing agreement was designed to provide the “best possible prices” for all departments and agencies, regardless of size or spend.
"As a major buyer of IBM’s products and services, the deal enables us to maximise the return on our ICT investments and ensures that taxpayers are always getting the best possible value for money,” Keenan said at the time.
Terms of the agreement see the tech giant offer services including software solutions and IT support, cloud services, alongside the building and maintenance of IT systems.
The contract with Defence is the latest to come out of the IBM agreement and follows on from the Australian Tax Office (ATO) taking out a considerably larger $158.3 million contract in June from the arrangement for the ongoing support and maintenance of services on its existing IBM software.
However, this contract win also follows the IBM arrangement, three procurement arrangements and the DTA’s Digital Marketplace panel all coming under scrutiny from the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) in August.
In a report, ANAO claimed that DTA was not able to show that the agreements showed value for money.
