NEC Australia has won a $39 million networking contract with WA Police. The deal covers WAN, LAN and Cisco IP telephony services at more than 200 WA Police sites across the state.
The deal falls under the state government’s GovNext-ICT procurement framework; NEC along with Datacom and Atos were selected in 2016 to be the three lead suppliers for GovNext.
“The GovNext initiative is all about providing WA government agencies with the underlying ICT infrastructure to better deliver services to the community,” said Greg Italiano, WA’s government chief information officer.
Italiano was appointed GCIO in late 2018, relacing Giles Nunis.
“The GovNext solution being deployed by NEC for WA Police Force will provide the network and communications services to support the future operational needs of the WA Police Force,” the GCIO said.
“This is consistent with the outcomes GovNext is delivering across a range of other agencies.”
The networking deal will provide end-to-end encrypted communications for WA Police, NEC said. The rollout will take place over the next 12 months.
“These new GovNext-ICT services are the foundation of our digital policing capabilities in direct alignment with our vision to continue as an exceptional Police Force for our community,” said Andrew Cann, WA Police CIO.
“Additionally, the very fundamental principles of GovNext driving the best outcomes for the state are being demonstrated with this contract,” Cann said.
The GovNext program was last year subject to an unflattering report from the WA’s auditor general.
Although the program was intended to save around $650 million over 10 years, the audit found that the actual savings are likely to be significantly lower thanks to relatively sluggish uptake of GovNext among government agencies.
“The GovNext business case estimated savings of up to $82 million per year; however the assumptions used did not fairly reflect current agency ICT services or pricing, and presented a best case picture of potential savings,” WA auditor general Caroline Spencer said at the time.