The panel was established to improve the speed of seeking quotes and selecting developers.
The move has reduced the department's overall cost of development and the three year contract has a two year option to extend it through to August 2014. Other companies on the panel are Tripoint, BearingPoint, HCL, Oakton and Satyam. DHS is Victoria's largest state government department, responsible for the delivery of health, housing and community services. It employs more than 11,000 people and had a total human services budget of approximately A$10.5 billion (US$9.45 million) in 2006-07. The department needed to supplement its internal resources for ongoing development, maintenance and support of solutions based on the PeopleSoft CRM and Tibco EAI architecture.
Development services include the full lifecycle of software development, strategy development and upgrades. Tripoint CEO, Ian Woollett, CEO of Tripoint, comments, "This is a tremendous result for Tripoint and we're thrilled to be included as one of DHS' preferred suppliers side by side with Australia's best IT service providers. The contract is also evidence of our expanding Victorian and Government sector footprint." The panel has been established by DHS' Information Services Branch, which has management responsibility for Information Communication and Technology (ICT).
The department will no longer need to invite tenders by public advertisement for each project. Instead a project specification will be developed and forwarded to each company on the panel.
Tripoint and the other suppliers will then be requested to submit a fully detailed and priced proposal for evaluation.