Human Services Dept renews $484m contract with IBM

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news The Department of Human Services (DHS) has renewed a contract with IBM for the delivery of new technology that is aimed to drive new products and services.

The deal, worth $484m over five years, “will enable the DHS to realign hardware, software and services to critical areas of need”, Alan Tudge, Minister for Human Services, said in a statement. “This will ultimately achieve savings for the taxpayer while delivering better outcomes for Centrelink, Medicare and Child Support recipients.”

The department’s investment is aimed to provide better IT services for the millions of Australians that a range of DHS online services for payments.

“The IBM technology and related services will underpin and support a range of key government programmes, on both internal and external facing platforms, the minister said.

These services include the myGov interface to the Australian Taxation Office, Centrelink, Medicare and Child Support systems, and My Health Record (previously known as the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record), which shares patient information amongst healthcare providers and government agencies.

According to The MandarinDHS CIO Gary Sterrenberg said: “This innovative and flexible agreement allows the Department to use products, services and expertise through an on demand model. It ensures value for money for government in maintaining the Department’s existing spend with IBM, with the opportunity to realign technology and services to areas which provide better outcomes for our customers over the five year term.”

The DHS’s integration with IBM software, hardware, and support will play a “major role” in deploying and improving apps, channels of engagement and other digital services, he added.

In 2014-15, the DHS managed 123.9 million self-service transactions and delivered $165.8 billion in payments to customers and providers, according to the department’s own figures.

“To continue to progress in the digital age the Government needs integrated and cognitive technology that enables quick transformation, streamlined services and constant adaption to customer needs,” Tudge said.

“This will also ensure the Government is prepared to transition to new infrastructure with more dynamic capability to support future programmes,” he concluded.

Image credit: Patrick, Creative Commons

3 COMMENTS

  1. Is Gary Sterrenberg the one who takes ultimate responsibility for the myGov rollout? The one which may be taken away from DHS and given to another department instead?
    What about the replacement for the Child Support systems… when is that meant to be released?
    He must have the confidence of the minister so he can be making these half-billion dollar deals. What has his track record been like recently?

  2. Let’s put it this way – someone was sold on SSO for the myGov system – they can’t even do that properly. They are late to the virtualisation game by about 5 years (or more), although I have seen some citrix employed on the customer facing side.

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