The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has put out a request for tender as it looks to change its IT infrastructure, currently on-premise, to an as-a-service model.
The contract that is set to result from the tender process will see ANAO’s end user computing devices being provided by an external contractor.
The ANAO also wants to change the way its service desk acts as a first level support and single point of contact for most services to address all IT services.
The Audit Office currently outsources most of its IT functions including the service desk and managed services, and has managed these arrangements in this way for more than 20 years.
Under the current arrangements, IT infrastructure is also owned by the ANAO and operated onsite.
The services sought also include the provision of workplace-as-a-service, business applications including software-as-a-service and infrastructure-as-a-service.
It expects those to be delivered via a managed service that centrally manages all services and applications to ensure seamless service delivery to the ANAO.
The initial contract will be for five years with the possibility of extension for up to three years. The service desk is expected to be operational from 1 July 2018.
There are up to 440 end users to who services must be made available to. Training to all end users should be provided as part of the contract.
The contractor is required to provide, and where applicable procure, assets from Whole-of-Government panels.
The contractor must provide systems that securely hold information up to PROTECTED level, the same applies for personnel performing such services. The cloud infrastructure provider must be accredited PROTECTED level and the same applies to the system used.
ANAO currently uses, or plans to have in place, the following software: Windows 10; Office 2016; Outlook, Exchange, Skype for Business and SharePoint. One of the requirements is that a unified communications system using Skype for Business is implemented.
Its technology environment is largely based on Microsoft operating systems and Microsoft server virtualisation.
Another request is that the 10 racks located in the Barton Data Centre to be moved elsewhere. ANAO also has two racks located in the Canberra Data Centres.
A preferred tenderer is expected to be announced between late November and early December 2017.
