Services Australia splashes millions to Aussie channel players

Services Australia has awarded more than $22 million in IT contracts to four Australian channel players of varying sizes.

Multinational giants IBM and NTT Australia scored a contract each, with Canberra-based Canonical Solutions and Melbourne-based Balance Internet also winning multimillion dollar deals.

Canonical Solutions, a data management specialist, was awarded $3.3 million in to provide a business data management capability for projects in the Welfare Payment Infrastructure Transformation (WPIT) Programme.

The company was engaged following a Request for Quotation (RFQ) issued under the DTA’s Digital Marketplace Panel.

Balance Internet, an ecommerce specialist that counts Magento and Adobe as its vendor partners, scored just under $2 million to provide services related to the department’s Recovery Connect portal.

Recovery Connect allows people impacted by emergencies such as bushfires and floods to connect with charities and support services.

Balance Internet was engaged through Services Australia’s Magento Services Panel.

NTT Australia secured $1.7 million to provide Checkpoint software support arrangements for the Services Australia’s data centres and network.

The contract is part of an existing agreement with then-Dimension Data after an open tender in 2006.

IBM took home the largest contract at $15 million to supply and install infrastructure for the agency’s Payment Utility platform.

Payment Utility streamlines inbound and outbound payments between government and third parties, including customers. It allows Sevices Australia and other government agencies and departments make same-day payments and provide recipients with more detailed transaction information.

The department declined to provide specifics but IBM will be providing hardware, software, and services to design, build, install and support the Payment Utility platform.