Dimension Data scores $10m Qld software deal

Campbell Newman's Queensland government will utilise the software asset management services of IT solutions behemoth Dimension Data after awarding the company a $9.7 million standing offer arrangement.

The state’s agency responsible for IT – the Department of Science, IT, Innovation and the Arts (DSITIA) – first signalled a shift towards centralised software asset management last August, in an effort to cut costs related to unused licenses.

It also hoped a combined approach to software assets would increase its buying power.

In August 2013 tender documents, DSITIA said the previous method of allowing individual agencies to work to their own licensing requirements had resulted in an “expensive and fragmented ICT infrastructure which often duplicates solutions and impedes the sharing and re-use of services”. 

[Related: Dimension Data appoints new head of outsourcing] 

“Through sourcing a specialist software asset management managed service, Queensland Government will be able to rapidly access the resources, expertise and tools needed to realise significant savings and assist agencies to navigate the legal, financial and contractual complexities of software licensing,” it said at the time.

In late December 2013, the agency awarded the two-year standing offer arrangement to Dimension Data.

Dimension Data will be immediately tasked with putting together a list of savings opportunities based on the data holdings of a handful of Queensland agencies, which will form the basis of a business case around a centralised approach to software asset management.

Following the business case’s approval, Dimension Data will survey all Queensland agencies in order to build a cloud-based software asset management tool.

The tool will be used across the entire Queensland government and will capture and store the deployment, entitlement and usage data of agencies’ infrastructure and systems – which tender documents put at a current total of around 435,000 desktops, 171,000 laptops and 8500 servers.

Under the contract, Dimension Data will also offer services around software licence management as a service, assistance with contract negotiations, advice on industry trends and opportunities, and advice on gaining additional value from existing software consolidation. 

The contract will expire in December 2015, not including a possible one-year extension.