The Australian Department of Health is extending its IT outsourcing contract with New Zealand-headquartered tech firm Datacom for three more years.

According to a media release, the extended contract will add a number of new capabilities, including the use of AI and automation, while maintaining existing IT infrastructure and support.

Datacom said its AIOps (AI for IT Operations) will use AI-driven insights to enhance the operational delivery of IT services while up to 80% of the department's cloud workloads will be automatically provisioned. Aspects of application development and monitoring will be automated using a CI/CD (continuous integration/continuous delivery) approach.

Teams involving personnel from both Datacom and the DOH will employ Agile methodology and SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) across their operations, as well as use new digital channels to drive employee experience. 

Moreover, Datacom said that cybersecurity will remain a major pillar of its work with the department.

WHY IT MATTERS

Datacom shared that it made some significant investments in its capabilities that enabled it to have a profound impact on clients' service delivery capability and on their bottom line.

Its increasing use of AI and automation will help hasten the migration of the over 1,000 production workloads of the department to the public cloud, as well as streamline the release of new applications and deliver improved functionality for the department's employees, said Datacom Chief Innovation and Technology Officer Matthew Gooden.

The company is confident it can deliver "significant" cost savings for the government agency through its migration to the public cloud while further efficiencies will be achieved by automating the configuration of workloads on cloud platforms.

"We had a lot of dialogue with the [DOH] about how we could drive service improvements while lowering costs over the next contract period. Datacom understands agile ways of working and how to build scalable systems that allow the [DOH] to expand its digital services to meet emerging needs," said Data Associate Director for Customers Nick Brennan.

THE LARGER TREND

Datacom's contract extension brings its partnership tenure with the DOH to ten years. The federal agency first signed a five-year deal with the IT firm in 2015 for A$242 million ($182 million). It replaced the services of IBM which had held the contract for 15 years. 

The department's contract with Datacom was extended for another two years in 2020 amid the global pandemic, bringing its total value to over A$500 million ($345 million). A major focus of Datacom's work over this time was the reconfiguration of the department's IT infrastructure to help it deal with the impacts of COVID-19. This included the design and implementation of a remote working solution for its employees; deployment of a vaccine management system; and scaled contact centre operations.

Entering a new contract phase, Datacom expects support calls to its IT helpdesk to decline as forms and chat tools are now increasingly used to submit queries.