ATO: EDS deploys 25,000 HP desktops

HP Enterprise Services, formerly known as EDS, will roll-out 25,000 new HP desktops, keyboards and mouses to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) in a long-awaited desktop refresh.

ATO CIO Bill Gibson
(Credit: ATO)

The desktop roll-out began in August and is set to be completed by the end of the year, according to a spokesperson for the ATO. The refresh was part of a contract extension which outsourcer EDS signed with the ATO earlier this year.

HP bought outsourcer EDS late last year and only recently decided to jettison EDS as a brand name, replacing it with HP Enterprise services.

The ATO's new HP desktops will replace its ageing IPEX machines, which according to ATO chief information officer Bill Gibson were in some cases six years old, with high failure rates. IPEX was a former Commander subsidiary that was wound down after its parent went into administration last year.

Gibson had intended the refresh to have been done at an earlier date, but had said other initiatives necessitated by government policy had pushed the desktop back. The delay was one of the reasons that the ATO decided to extend its outsourcing contract with EDS for desktop services and mainframe computing to 2011.

The ATO has been preparing itself to choose new suppliers for both contracts when the extension runs out. CSC, incumbent EDS, Fujitsu-owned Kaz Group, Lockheed Martin Australia and Unisys are the companies shortlisted for the desktop contract, worth around $60 million annually. The shortlisted vendors for the centralised computing contract, worth $160 million a year are Lockheed Martin, CSC, IBM and incumbent EDS.