Kerry Purcell (IBM/Kyndryl)
IBM managed services spin-off Kyndryl is solidifying its presence in Australia as it takes over a Big Blue contract from Victoria’s Department of Education and Training from 2018.
According to a listing on the state government’s Buying For Victoria tender and contract site, IBM Australia was initially awarded the contract with an estimated value of $77.8 million and was to run from July 2018 to 30 October 2025.
Now, according to the Buying For Victoria listing, the novated contract to Kyndryl Australia is worth $21.3 million and has the same end date.
“The contact relates to the supply and delivery of Wi-Fi hotspots, controllers, network switches, software, related products and services to schools,” a spokesperson for the department said.
“These technologies are part of the digital technologies deployed into schools as a fundamental enabler of 21st century learning.”
Kyndryl’s take-up of the IBM contract, and its subsequent reinforcing of its Australian presence, comes months after Big Blue’s former Australia and New Zealand managing director Kerry Purcell was appointed as Kyndryl A/NZ lead in July.
The spin-off was first announced in October under the tentative moniker NewCo, coming from IBM’s US$19 billion Managed Infrastructure Services unit of its Global Technology Services division.
The official name came six months later, a portmanteau of ‘kin’ in kinship and ‘dril’ from tendril, which it claimed at the time represented growth and “advancing human progress”.
Earlier this month, six months after the naming, Big Blue announced that the spin-off would separate from the main business after November 3, when IBM shareholders will receive one common Kyndryl stock for every five common IBM stocks they own.
