Optus Business wins $13.6M Dept of Agriculture and Water Resources deal

John Paitaridis - Managing Director, Optus Business

Optus Business has announced a $13.6 million contract extension with the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources for the provision of managed IT services.

As part of the new three-year contract, Optus will deliver a range of managed services aimed at increasing collaboration among staff working remotely across Australia and overseas. That includes the provision of voice, mobile and data carriage services for the department’s 5,500 tablet and mobile fleet.

Optus will also provide managed telephony, video conferencing, unified communications and a contact-centre solution to support collaboration across the organisation’s 150 sites across Australia.

Optus Business will also deliver a suite of new collaboration tools including video conferencing and Skype for Business to reduce the department’s reliance on paper-based workflows and accelerate their move to digital.

“Agriculture is a cornerstone of Australia’s economy. The department has a proud history of ensuring the technology and services we use meet changing industry needs,” the department chief information officer, Peter McKeon, said.

“We’re pleased to continue our relationship with Optus Business to build greater digital capability across the department. By updating our critical technology platforms and investing in managed services, we’re well positioned to achieve our objectives now and into the future.”

In 2013, Optus Business won a contract to provide ICT services to the department.

“Having successfully transitioned and upgraded the department’s network infrastructure, we’re excited to now have the opportunity to underpin the department’s digital transformation,” Optus business managing director, John Paitaridis, said.

“We’re supporting the department’s mission to ensure Australia’s agriculture, fisheries, food and forestry industries embrace new digital technologies to improve competitiveness and sustainability,” he said.

Optus Business partnered with Canberra Data Centres (CDC) in June to deliver a Federal Private Cloud solution with the purpose to deliver cost effective, highly secure private cloud service as Federal Government agencies move multiple services to the cloud as part of their digital strategies.