Services Australia has settled on the four systems integrators that will carry out its $200 million myGov rebuild, as Deloitte gets to work developing a new mobile application to access the government services platform.
The agency has revealed that IT giants Accenture and IBM, as well as local player Arq Group, have joined Deloitte on the multi-vendor panel arrangement that will be invited to bid for the integration work.
Deloitte was the first of three systems integrators to be named on the panel in February after scoring a $4.6 million contract relating to the work, which will involve developing an integration layer that sits over the existing myGov system.
The consulting giant had already been heavily involved in the development of a Facebook-inspired myGov Beta platform, otherwise known as the government digital experience platform (GOVDXP).
After scoring an initial $1 million contract early last year to build the GOVDXP prototype that currently runs in parallel with myGov, Deloitte’s work on the project has ballooned to more than $40 million.
Services Australia had previously declined to disclose the names of the other members on the panel while the procurement was ongoing, despite establishing the integrator panel in late 2020.
It is not clear when the final of the four panellists was engaged; the standing offer notice for the arrangement is yet to be published.
Commonwealth Procurement Rules require that agencies publish contracts and standing offer notices on the government tendering website AusTender within 42 days.
A spokesperson, who referred to the arrangement as “systems integrator engagements” that had been established via the digital marketplace panel, would not say why the notice had not been published.
“These have been established for Services Australia to draw on for systems integration work relating to myGov,” the spokesperson said.
“As specific deliverables are entered into with suppliers, the arrangements and values are published.”
While four panellists have now been appointed, only Deloitte and Accenture are understood to have scored contracts under the panel arrangement to date.
The most recent, published under the guise of “IT services” late last month, is a $5.4 million contract with Deloitte for “myGov redevelopment work to design, develop and deliver a mobile application”.
The government has talked up the prospect of an app for citizens to access all government services since at least 2019.
Accenture has also scored a $3.3 million IT services contract that InnovationAus reports is related to the myGov overhaul and was sourced from the panel.
The Digital Transformation Agency – which relinquished control of the project to Services Australia earlier this year – first went looking for integrators to work on ‘horizon two’ of the GOVDXP in March 2020.
Horizon two will involve developing an integration layer that sits over Services Australia’s existing myGov system and its services, including for Centrelink and Medicare.
The work is critical for the platform to give citizens a single, personalised view of all of their interactions, and ultimately replace the government’s existing online services portal myGov.
“The platform will collect services, apps and other customer experience capabilities to give users everything they need,” a DTA blog post said last year.
“This will operate on a 'Netflix' model, providing users with what they need to do next based on their previous interactions with government services — similar to Netflix’s 'recommended for you'.”
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Tech in Gov 2024
