Acting on whole-of-government IT procurements

We have recently worked on two major Commonwealth whole-of-government IT procurement matters.

In the first, we advised the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) on the Commonwealth Government’s whole-of-government agreement with IBM for a range of hardware, software, cloud solutions and other services.

The agreement, signed on 28 June 2018, is worth an estimated $1 billion and harnesses the bulk-buying power of the entire Government to secure the best possible prices for all departments and agencies, regardless of their size and how much they spend, and will deliver savings and benefits over the next five years.

The Maddocks Canberra team assisted the DTA (and Department of Finance) with negotiating the legal terms of the whole-of-government agreement with IBM. The team also advised DTA and a number of other departments and agencies on their individual contracts placed under the agreement, who will now enjoy the same ongoing benefits.

Our team was led by partner Caroline Atkins, with lawyers Belinda Chapman and Bridget Sullivan.

In the second matter, we advised the Commonwealth Department of Finance on its whole-of-government procurement of a new provider for its content management system GovCMS.

Under the new agreement, Australian company Salsa Digital will replace Acquia as the GovCMS provider for the next three years.

GovCMS provides a platform for web channels across the Commonwealth Government, and is also available for state and local government agencies. At present, GovCMS hosts 223 sites across 77 agencies.

The team on this matter was also led by partner Caroline Atkins and included senior associate Janet Courtis, lawyer Sam Haddon and graduate lawyer Amy Chase.