Fujitsu plucks $60 million TAFE deal from Unisys

Fujitsu has plucked a $60 million managed services deal with TAFE Queensland from Unisys, which had held the contract for 18 years.

Under the new arrangement, Fujitsu will be the principal ICT support partner for TAFE QLD, taking over the organisation's service desk, end user computing, infrastructure and network management.

The transition to Fujitsu has already begun and is expected to complete by early 2017.

TAFE QLD began a multi-year marketing-testing process for its managed services back in 2013 to squeeze more value out of IT. The last contract refresh with Unisys was in January 2013 worth $29.4 million over two years.

Fujitsu said it would provide "significant cost savings" from new services that weren't available under the previous arrangement, including applying cost benchmarking metrics to the TAFE's IT environment.

Fujitsu will also hire up to 50 new back office administrative staff in Queensland and another 38 staff who already cover TAFE work to service the new customer.

TAFE Queensland chief executive Jodi Schmidt said "it is essential we have access to the most innovative, efficient and effective ICT services".

"We’re excited to begin this new relationship with Fujitsu and to have their support as we continue to provide the market’s best training experience."

A Unisys spokesperson told CRN: “We are very proud of our work with TAFE Qld and the Australian-based team who supported them.”