This appeared last week:
Govt hands Microsoft digital health contract
Denham Sadler
National Affairs Editor
The contract, posted publicly this week and running from 16 June to 24 September, is worth more than $600,000.
The job did not go out for open tender, with the agency saying this was due to an “absence of competition for technical reasons”.
In response to questions from InnovationAus, a spokesperson for the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) declined to reveal what work the contract relates to, but confirmed it was signed through the government’s existing volume sourcing arrangement with Microsoft, inked by the Digital Transformation Agency.
“The Agency has an existing arrangement with Microsoft under this Whole of Government Volume Sourcing Arrangement. Under this arrangement, if the agency requires additional products and / or services the Agency is required to enter into separate orders under a limited tender arrangement,” the spokesperson told InnovationAus.
“The contract you have referred to relates to Microsoft professional services.”
The DTA’s whole-of-government agreement with Microsoft was renewed in 2019 and “gives agencies the tools to support their transition to a modern IT environment through the adoption of cloud-based services”.
At the time of signing, the Microsoft deal was expected to be worth just under $100 million over three years. The deal makes Microsoft 365 available to all federal government agencies and “opens the door to accelerated adoption” of Microsoft Azure and Dynamics 365.
The ADHA is in the midst of the first phase of its project to modernise the national digital health infrastructure.
More here:
https://www.innovationaus.com/govt-hands-microsoft-digital-health-contract/
Here is the Government record:
Contract Notice View - CN3803300
AusTender holds Contract and Standing Offer Notices for the 07/08 financial year forward. For information related to previous years, please refer to https://data.gov.au/dataset/historical-australian-government-contract-data.
Subcontractors: For Commonwealth contracts that started on or after 1 December 2008, agencies are required to provide the names of any associated subcontractors on request. Information on subcontractors can be sought directly from the relevant agency through the Agency Contact listed in each Contract Notice.
Management advisory services
Contact Name: Agency Contracts
Email Address: contracts@digitalhealth.gov.au
Office Postcode: 2606
CN ID: CN3803300
Agency: Australian Digital Health Agency
Publish Date: 9-Aug-2021
Category: Management advisory services
Contract Period: 16-Jun-2021 to 24-Sep-2021
Contract Value (AUD): $607,613.60
Description: Management advisory services
Procurement Method: Limited tender
Limited Tender Condition: 10.3.d.iii. Supply by particular business: due to an absence of competition for technical reasons.
ATM ID: DH3340
Agency Reference ID: DH3340
Supplier Details
Name: MICROSOFT PTY LTD
Postal Address: Level 25, 175 Liverpool St
Town/City: North Ryde
Postcode: 2113
State/Territory: NSW
Country: AUSTRALIA
ABN: 29 002 589 460
Here is the link:
https://www.tenders.gov.au/Cn/Show/0a294c7b-edbb-4928-9b0c-f4bdf956a705
So it seems Microsoft got $600K for Advisory Services for 3 months work basically for being Microsoft.
While it is easy to understand things like licensing or product sales being specific (Windows or Office etc.) are plenty of Australian organisations who can advise on all the surrounding aspects – training, implementation, use, security support etc. etc.
Given the ravages of COVID19 on businesses all around the country it seems to me that the ADHA needs to be much clearer as to why it is buying from a hugely rich multi-national rather than smaller Australian owned fry.
I have heard a few yelps of outrage about this one so would be keen to know more if anyone has some comment or information.
David.
p.s. The ADHA can be pretty big spenders on all sorts of things - like $630K on 'Temporary Personnel Services! in just 18 months!
See here:
https://www.tenders.gov.au/Cn/Show/?Id=7859d90b-bbae-4f6c-83b5-1837139419af
D.
Maybe ADHA are trying to build a system in Excel and PowerPoint
ReplyDeleteIf it is just consultancy services, the. Microsoft provide architecture services but won’t do development, they do or are suppose to give that to channel partners. My guess is a shifting of things into Azure. Doubt this is for business functions, more likely the data analytics services the run for the MyHR and PHN/Jurisdictions. I am sure it is not cheap to do in the cloud, especially knowing ADHA.
ReplyDeleteAllegis Group Australia Pty Ltd, For whom the last link refers, is a processing giant used by state and federal governments; they sit between contractor agencies and departments and their various spin-offs. That figure is not too alarming. I am intrigued as to what the $600k for MS services is. ADHA would indeed be utilising Shared services for most business functions which leave dev-ops and data analytics. My Health Record is primarily done in Adobe products. Terminology service is in AWS, and the crumbling testing and training service is a handful of VM’s.
ReplyDeleteIf you cannot make a teams call by now… maybe they are going to pursue Microsoft Hololens. Certainly fit with their mixed reality approach
Hololens??
ReplyDeleteADHA has enough trouble with real reality, never mind mixed/augmented reality. Maybe they are after augmented spin. Scotty would be proud of them.
Can only imagine the use cases and scenarios. Man with neck injury able to collaborate with care team virtually using halogen. Right up there with the infamous man with two broken legs walking into A&E
ReplyDeleteThe $600K is probably being paid to shift My Health Record data from Oracle to Azure. Is it safe to shift the entire repository of MHR data?
ReplyDeleteWill.anyone notice? And is the data safe as is?
ReplyDeleteNot.convinced this is about my health record data, no one has sent me a letter saying my data is.being lifted and shifted
The ADHA is a symptom of a broader issue with those overseeing the public purse. There is a trend whereby some see it as their budgets their money. Corners are cut, transparency blurred under this banner of Agility and innovation. In In reality, it is a lack of talent and skills. Many inherent positions and oversee complex programs that, if they had gone through formal requirement processes, would not even make it to an interview.
ReplyDeleteG. Carter implies the ADHA behaviour represents a broader public service breakdown of policy and process. I dispute that. Even ADHA is within the “rules”. Yes, there is blatant pork-barreling ( digital health has gone unnoticed here), but that is pollie led not APS driven. Unlike their predecessors, the current ADHA elite is moulded in the image of the public service; the CEO and COO of the past had no care about governance or transparency; it was always about them and their benefits. Having worked under both, I am glad to see the back of them.
ReplyDeleteThe pending AIDH chair election will indicate we are stuck with the Anti-Faxer generation ( ADHA Staffer has no love for) or we get leadership that understands digital.
ReplyDeleteI had my second AZ jab yesterday at my GP. No problems, everything went fine.
ReplyDeleteThis morning I had a look at mygov to see what was in the Immunisation Register.
I logged on to mygov and it showed a big red button that said:
"View and download Immunisation History" which I clicked on. The result was a pop-up that consisted of a large blank, empty box and a button that said "Close"
So I logged off, wondering what had happened.
A while later I discovered in my download folder a mysterious file with the name pdf. No extension just pdf
I renamed it pdf.pdf and opened it and hey presto there was my immunisation record showing that I had had both jabs.
There's only two things I don't like about My Health Record.
1. It doesn't do what the government claims it does
2. What it does do it does very badly. It is very difficult to navigate, the data is very badly orgaanised and it is very user unfriendly. Considering it is supposed to be aimed at the general population and requires them to actively manage it, it is a IMHO totally unsuited for purpose.
Apart from that, it is about as useful as a chocolate teapot.
The way the government defends My Health Record and the COVID-Safe app just makes them look completely out of touch.