NEC will take over the job of manning the helpdesk for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s international communications network, stealing the tech support deal off incumbent Fujitsu in a $36.6 million contract win.
The support deal was the first major procurement put to market under DFAT’s $216 million international communications network (ICN) program in August last year.
The ICN project will see the core systems and infrastructure within the existing secure Australian telecommunications and information network (SATIN) progressively replaced over the next three years.
SATIN links DFAT’s 140 global sites including embassies, consular services, visa and passport offices and Australian partner agency locations.
NEC will take over DFAT’s ICT global support centre, the 24/7 helpdesk service supporting users of the international comms network. The centre also manages IT assets and and licensing, voice services, testing, desktop support and VIP support.
Tenders documents issued last year revealed DFAT expected the support desk to be manned at all times under a “follow the sun" model. The new contract is also expected to deliver a new suite of service management tools to DFAT users, as well as new self service options.
The new deal represents a big loss for Fujitsu, which has held the global support centre deal since November 2009. The contract grew in increments over its six years to be worth a total $21.3 million.
It formally expires at the end of December.
The NEC deal will run until July 2023, well beyond the scheduled completion of the ICN replacement program.
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