CSIRO to spend up to AU$7 million annually through new procurement portal | ZDNet

The eProcurement Portal will be used to procure network, unified communications, cybersecurity, and data centre hardware, software, and services for the next five years.

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is looking to build an online procurement portal that the agency's IT team will use to procure network, unified communications, cybersecurity, and data centre hardware, software, and services for the next five years.

In its request for tender, CSIRO said it anticipates to spend on average between AU$6 million to AU$7 million annually through its eProcurement Portal to support the organisation's network infrastructure.

"CSIRO IMT provides foundation services that enable the organisation to perform and deliver against current and strategic directions … the network is progressively developed, consolidated, and enhanced to enable high performance, reliable, and efficient IT services," the agency wrote.

The portal is expected to enable the agency access to a full catalogue of hardware, including servers, storage arrays, core, edge, and data centre network equipment, firewalls, as well as software for network management, server virtualisation, data analytics, cybersecurity, and networking provisioning, from "leading suppliers".

CSIRO currently purchases hardware, software, and services from the following vendors: Cisco, Palo Alto, Juniper, Opengear, APC by Schneider Electric, Citrix, Splunk, Poly (Plantronics), Jabra, F5, and Logitech.

The tender document specifies how the successful company will need to provide access to the same or equivalent brands.

CSIRO said the portal would need to feature a web-based graphical user interface so that it's easy to navigate and is not sluggish or slow; be able to provide access to product catalogues for hardware, software, and services that are on offer, securely register users for portal access; and have the ability to submit additional feature requests for consideration.

The portal must also have a suite of shopping and order tracking features to provide transparency to users about the ordering and delivery process, the tender said.

The tender added the solution would be hosted externally to CSIRO on a secure server or via a cloud platform, can only be accessed via a secure login to prevent unauthorised access to the system, and be able to undergo cybersecurity assessments, in which the results will be made available to CSIRO every 12 months, or upon request.

Additionally, CSIRO said the successful company would be expected to resolve any reported issues, including replacing items or parts where assets are covered under maintenance and warranty.

Submissions for the tender close June 22, with work expected to begin in September.

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