The Ministry of Justice has decided on its shortlists for two infrastructure projects, which could be worth as much as $500 million over seven years, industry sources suggest.
Gen-i and Datacom are understood to be the final candidates for the IT infrastructure outsourcing part of the projects. Significantly, they are both New Zealand-owned companies. Multinationals such as Unisys, the incumbent desktop services supplier, IBM, which sought to partner with Telstra, and EDS have all missed out.
Telecom and Telstra are short-listed for telecommunications, which will include data and mobility.
The plans include developing infrastructure for the court system, which was merged into an expanded ministry in October 2003.
“The Ministry of Justice is not in a position to make any public comments about the infrastructure outsourcing project at this stage,” was the ministry response to Computerworld inquiries.
The project is certainly the biggest among government departments this year, say industry sources, who base their cost estimates on similar large projects, such as that at Fonterra.
According to the ministry’s website, it has approximately 2,400 staff, working at 103 locations throughout New Zealand.