Commander fit for business again: SA government

The South Australian government has given the go-ahead for state agencies to resume business with Commander subsidiary Volante, after it advised them to stop using the company as a supplier for one of its contracts earlier this year.

The suspension came after the government put out an advisory which cautioned agencies to stop negotiating with Volante — an ICT infrastructure and services company — on one of its three contracts due to "uncertainty about [its] ability to supply", a spokesperson for the state's Minister for Infrastructure Patrick Conlon said.

Volante has contracts with the SA government for client computing and server equipment, distributed computing support services and as a Microsoft large account reseller. It was the latter contract which was in doubt, according to a Commander spokesperson.

However, the government has now "conducted due diligence" and has informed agencies they can resume activities with the company, the Minister's spokesperson said.

"Commander confirms that we have a productive relationship with the South Australian government and continue to service the three key contract areas on a business as usual basis," Amanda Lacaze, CEO of Commander Communications, said in a statement.

In October last year, Commander suspended its shares from the stock market as it engaged the services of ABN AMRO to consider a sale.

In December, the company appointed Lacaze as its new CEO, and January saw the announcement of a turnaround plan which involved cutting 600 staff — sparking an investigation by the Workplace Ombudsman — and the selling-off of non-core businesses to focus on high-margin parts of the company.