ASG clouds Tax Practitioners Board

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blog It appears as though State and Federal Government departments and agencies around Australia are gradually starting to come to terms with cloud computing as a new technology paradigm. NSW has announced a huge software as a service deployment with SAP, the Australian Government Information Management Office has been rather cloud-focused recently, and in a new announcement this week, IT services outfit ASG has revealed it has been chosen by the Tax Practitioners Board to deliver an “all cloud solution” for its enterprise IT needs (although ASG didn’t provide the full details about which technologies it is using). The full announcement:

“The Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) has appointed ASG Group as their new information communication technology (ICT) provider.

Mark Maskell, Secretary of the TPB said the new contract with ASG to provide an all cloud solution is expected to increase the TPB’s flexibility, agility and responsiveness to better suit their emerging needs. ‘I am proud that the TPB is one of the first Australian Government agencies to use an all cloud-based solution. This will enable us to be more agile and efficient which will ultimately benefit the tax practitioners we regulate.’

‘The Board regulates over 53,000 tax and BAS agents and an effective ICT system is essential to registering and regulating tax practitioners,’ he said.

This change to the TPB’s ICT provider will mark the start of a physical and logical separation of systems and services from those of the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). ‘This will allow the TPB to make strategic and tactical ICT decisions which meet our specific requirements, while being cost effective given the size and nature of the organisation,’ Mr Maskell said.

ASG’s solution for TPB involves a virtual desktop with all applications and data residing on a central virtual server. The technology will be device independent allowing TPB staff and Board members to access the TPB from any device remotely and securely. The service will be provided across business locations in Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. ASG will manage the framework necessary to establish transition to and maintain a managed ICT arrangement.

Dean Langenbach, Chief Operating Officer, ASG Group, added: ’We’re seeing more government bodies embrace the cloud and realise the inherent value of scalable and flexible systems. We are delighted that the TPB has chosen our cloud-based solution to support its next stage of growth. The responsiveness and security of our system will enable the TPB to spend more time on its core business needs and ultimately strengthen its end-user focus’.”