The State Services Commission in New Zealand has chosen IBM as
its preferred supplier of network management and service delivery
for the Government Shared Network (GSN), but nobody will say how
much the contract is worth.
The network will provide an easy and reasonably-priced route for
government agencies to communicate among their own offices and to
share data with other GSN users.
Three "strong contenders" were short-listed, says the
commission's ICT deputy commissioner Laurence Millar. All were
assessed as "capable of delivering the required services", he says.
No one should be thought of as "losing" the deal, rather "IBM came
through as the best of a good bunch."
TelstraClear was rumored to be another of the contenders for
these contracts and some industry sources were looking to an award
in that direction as a competition-balancing move against the
dominance of Telecom.
The network management and service delivery functions are major
portions of a tender that was split into 18 sub-projects. Winners
of other sub-projects include Asnet, Kaon Technologies, Datacom,
BCL, CityLink, Vector Communications, FX Networks, DTS and Revera
(formerly HDS New Zealand). Like IBM, these organizations are also
preferred suppliers subject to contract finalization.
Industry sources suggest that being favored for another large
contract represents a rehabilitation of IBM in the government's
eyes since the embarrassing 1999 abandonment of the Police Incis
project, after cost over-runs of NZ$40 million (US$27 million).
While pointing to a significant IBM role in other major
government projects in the interim, -- such as the Ministry of
Social Development's VOIP network, -- even conservative sources in
the company acknowledge that the GSN recognition is an encouraging
sign of a continued progress towards once again being in
government's favor.
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