Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Senator David Feeney has officially opened the new Defence Service Centre in the northern Canberra suburb of Mitchell.
Senator Feeney said the centre is the key to Defence’s plans to consolidate Information and Communications Technology service desks under its new Information Technology Service Management Business Reform Program, which is administered by Defence’s Chief Information Officer Group.
“The move to the Mitchell facility will consolidate approximately 350 staff from four different sites around the Canberra region to the new premises at Flemington Road, Mitchell,” Feeney said.
“This will enable standardisation and rationalisation of service delivery processes, and has resulted in significant savings in operating costs.
“The consolidation of service desks into the Defence Service Centre in Mitchell is already saving Defence over half a million dollars a year in rent.
“The consolidation is in line with the objectives of the Defence Strategic Reform Program and the Defence Information and Communications Technology Strategy, released in October 2009.”
The Department of Defence has signed Fujitsu for the delivery of multiple ICT services for its distributed computing central services (DCCS) contract, including the Defence Central ICT service helpdesk in a deal worth $151.3 million.
The initial contract term runs for three years, with extension options up to 20 years.
Fujitsu will provide support to Defence’s 90,000 desktops around Australia.
The deal is one of two ICT contracts with the department worth more than $180 million.
Defence has also signed Dimension Data in a two-year, $29 million deal to provide network hardware maintenance support.
Both contracts are said to be part of the SRP.