HP wins $96m contract with agriculture dept

The HP-owned EDS has chalked up a five-year, $96 million outsourcing contract to manage the IT infrastructure of the federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

Under the outsourcing contract, signed in March 2009, EDS will provide desktop, server, storage and IT architecture design services.

EDS will also provide help desk and service desk support to approximately 5000 employees across the department’s 300 locations in a “multi-vendor agency environment”, according to the company.

Managing director at EDS Australia and New Zealand, David Caspari, said the agreement will help the federal government “meet its business and policy objectives and deliver better return on investment to the Australian people”.

Caspari said the contract builds on existing services EDS provides to government departments.