CSIRO hunts for procurement portal supplier

Australia's national science agency, CSIRO, is looking for a service provider to create and support a new online procurement portal.

The agency is seeking for a supplier that has agreements with original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and developers in the following categories: networking, unified communications, cyber security and data centre hardware and software.

When completed, the portal is expected to support total annual procurement requests valued at $6 million to $7 million.

According to an approach to market (ATM), the portal will also need to have a helpdesk for user support and be in place for five years, with the beginning of the delivery timeframe slated for September to October.

Some examples of products CSIRO requires the portal to sell include switches and routers, communications and video conferencing equipment, firewalls and server racks and cabling.

The products would be used to upgrade CSIRO’s network, which spans over 60 sites and is used by 5,000 staff and 3,000 affiliates and partners.

“The network is progressively developed, consolidated and enhanced to enable high performance, reliable and efficient IT services,” a request for tender (RFT) document stated.

While not necessary, CSIRO labelled single sign on functionality through Azure Active Directory as a desirable feature.

The RFT is open until 22 June.