Media Releases

16 February 2007

Telecommunications and information technology tenders backgrounder

Background

The Ministry of Justice announced in November 2006 that Gen-i would be the preferred supplier of telecommunications and information technology support services for the Ministry.

The announcement was the result of parallel tender processes started in December 2005 to select suppliers of the two work streams.

The Ministry currently has over 14 suppliers of telecommunications and information technology support services, a legacy of the merger between the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Courts in 2003.

The Ministry has significant telecommunications and information technology needs as a large organisation with almost 3,000 staff in over a hundred sites across New Zealand.

Scope of telecommunications services tender

The tender for telecommunications services includes:

• mobile phone services
• private telephony network infrastructure
• contact centre technology
• wide area network infrastructure
• local area network infrastructure.

Scope of information technology support services tender

The tender for information technology support services includes:

• desktop computer hardware and software support
• file, print, and email servers
• firewall and proxy servers
• content and anti-virus scanning
• helpdesk support services.

The tender process

The tender process started with a request for expressions of interest issued in December 2005 and will be complete when the new supplier is in place by July 2007.

Value of tenders

The work is expected to cost around $11 million a year, a little under half of the Ministry’s operational spending on technology.