ATO partners with AppDynamics partner Epicon to improve tax lodgement

Canberra-based system integrator Epicon has landed a deal with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to deploy AppDynamics to monitor the department’s MyTax and other applications.

This deployment is part of the ATO’s recent investment to modernise its application architecture and move to the cloud.

"The ATO are well known for being at the forefront of enterprise monitoring solutions, often leading the way in the federal government sector,” Epicon managing director Yair Tzur told CRN.

“In today's dynamic and transformative IT environment, they continue to break new ground with their innovative and modular approach to enterprise IT management.”

MyTax, a web-based platform used by citizens and tax agents to digitally lodge tax returns, will be monitored with AppDynamics with the intention of creating uninterrupted service by identifying issues before impacting end-users.

"Very few people enjoy doing their taxes, so it’s important we make it as easy as possible,” AppDynamics ANZ country manager Simon Horrocks said.

“With AppDynamics, the ATO now knows what is going on across the business, and can act early on issues to avoid disruptions to customers."

The ATO previously used a legacy application performance monitoring (APM) solution, which AppDynamics called “complex to deploy and configure” and that the department was “unable to keep pace” with changes happening internally.

Epicon, who has been a partner with the ATO since 2008, also deployed AppDynamics with Commonwealth Bank in 2014 and is still providing ongoing APM support and expending the deployment to the bank's new business services. 

Headquartered in the nation’s capital, the system integrator’s core focus is with the federal government, with customers including the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP), Department of Human Services (DHS) and the ATO.

“Epicon have been a trusted advisor and strategic partner to the ATO for the last 9-plus years, providing specialist monitoring, configuration management, ITSM, analytics and enterprise architecture consulting services and solutions,” Tzur told CRN.

“Combined with the ATO's well established internal capability Epicon are modernising and transforming the ATO's IT management architecture to accommodate for a new wave of digital services and cloud offerings.”