Dept of Environment and Energy to bring IT back in-house

The Department of the Environment and Energy (DEE) has unveiled plans to claw back its IT services from outsourcers in the wake of a review to help establish its own internal service and integration capability.

A number of the department’s IT services have been managed externally through Datacom since 2008, including device management and data and support services.

Now the department is on the hunt for a a design for its new internal service management capability and to deliver and implement “a range of service management support services”.

“The Department’s current ICT resourcing model utilises a combination of in-house and outsourced resources to deliver a broad range of services,” DEE said in documents released to the market.

The ATM also reveals that DEE has a grab bag of supplier arrangements under what it calls “a variety of contractual vehicles, including dedicated service agreements and Whole of Government Arrangements”.

Part of the push to bring IT services back under the wing of the department looks stem from recent cloud initiatives now sweeping across federal agencies.

“The establishment of the Department’s Cloud Services delivery model has commenced, with infrastructure in place to provide synchronisation between on-premises Active Directory and Azure Directory Services. This capability is being expanded and automated by the Active Directory upgrade project,” the department said.

Cloud has been on the radar for a while too. The department’s 2018-19 corporate plan also outlines ambitions to stabilise its network and provide staff in its regional and remote sites across Australia and Antarctica with reliable services.

In terms of seats, the DEE estate totals around 2060 but has staff in many remote or technically challenging locations including Uluru, Jabiru and Kakadu in the NT.

In terms of a future state, the documents reveal that an architecture overhaul is now underway with control and direction of applications and core systems to sit within the department.

Submissions for the tender close 3rd December 2018. The new service arrangements are expected to be delivered over three years from 2019 to 2022.