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Dimension Data has been handed a $46.2 million multi-year contract by Transport NSW for the supply, maintenance and support of a multitude of server and desktop software products to the agency’s Transport Cluster.
The new contract represents the first time that Transport NSW has engaged a single supplier as its primary software reseller.
The department’s Transport Cluster contains several agencies, including Roads and Maritime Services, Sydney Trains, NSW Trains, State Transit Authority, and the WestConnex Delivery Authority. Its lead agency is Transport for NSW.
According to tender documents, the initial contract extends from 3 May this year to 3 May 2021, and was won following a competitive tender process involving no fewer than four potential suppliers.
“Dimension Data was awarded a five-year contract to act as a reseller for key software licensors' products including Microsoft, Oracle, Symantec, Cirtrix, Veritas and VMware,” a spokesperson for Transport NSW told ARN.
The deal comes as Fairfax Media reports that the management of rail operator Sydney Trains has been concerned about the ability of Transport for NSW to deliver IT services for its operations, appointing external consultants to find and recommend fixes for issues.
According to the report, published by The Sydney Morning Herald on 27 May, Sydney Trains has been suffering an average of nearly two serious IT incidents a day in the wake of a “bungled” $425 million technology overhaul by Transport for NSW.
“Our network is safe and we have business continuity plans in place if an IT incident happens,” Transport for NSW told Fairfax Media in a statement, while Sydney Trains claimed the IT incidents have primarily impacted its back-office system, which are "largely segregated from our operational technology".
As reported by media outlet iTnews in March, a review of Transport for NSW’s long-running technology systems overhaul, originally aimed at centralising the so-called Transport Cluster’s IT services and support, pointed to “critical problems” with the project.
It should be noted, however, that the new software deal won by Dimension Data is understood to be unrelated to the centralisation project referred to in the Fairfax Media and iTnews reports.
In September 2016, UXC Connect – now DXC Technology – joined IBM and NEC in being handed multimillion-dollar deals for services related to the overhaul.
For its part, UXC Connect was handed a $24.15 million contract for the provision of network design and hardware supply services, in a multi-year deal that was set to see over 1,000 sites around the state receive new infrastructure.
According to Mike Ward, who was at the time client director at UXC Connect, the deal was set to see the company undertake the planning, design, procurement of hardware, and staging of new technology for all the entities that fall under Transport for NSW’s jurisdiction.
