update Western Australia's Water Corporation utility has renewed and expanded application support arrangements with outsourcer CSC, for a potential value of AU$190 million over the next five years.
Under the deal, CSC will continue to provide application support, maintenance and some development services to Water Corp, a CSC spokesperson told ZDNet Australia, but will also now take on all the development work.
CSC will coordinate and partner with specialist vendors such as global vendor SKM, and Perth-based minnows NGIS and Systemic, who have specialist skills in the geospatial applications key to Water Corp's business.
"What was happening previously was that they would at times go out to market for the enhancement work, or the application development work," the spokesperson said. "Now they'll come to CSC first."
The spokesperson said CSC would support specialised utility applications for Water Corp's business, but also "the day to day materials and asset management, and payroll and so on".
The new contract -- inked this week -- includes a six-year base period and four one-year extension options, and has a potential value of AU$190 million if all options are exercised.
In CSC's statement, Water Corp's manager of Information Services, Dave Currell, said CSC had beaten others to the deal due to its "low risk" option, an excellent understanding of Water's operations and the ability to deliver on all required services.
According to CSC, the work was put out in a hotly contested formal tender process, with some five parties bidding for the work.
The spokesperson said Western Australia was currently a "very buoyant" IT services market, with both the public and private sectors expected to be putting substantial contracts on the market this year. The state is currently in the throes of a mining boom.
Water Corp provides water and related services to close to two million Western Australians, with more than 2,200 staff.
