News from NSW Health
Microsoft wins biggest health deal Karen Dearne APRIL 11, 2006 NSW Health will standardise its information technology systems on Microsoft products under a $36 million, three-year deal to upgrade core infrastructure and provide a platform for the state's e-health record system.With an option to extend the agreement to six years, Microsoft will potentially earn $72 million, making it the software giant's largest-ever contract in Australia. NSW's IT shared services agency Health Technology general manager Frank Cordingley says it is the first time NSW Health has settled on a single vendor, a move expected to save millions of dollars. "Health Technology allows us to pull together statewide contractual arrangements for a range of products that historically have been contracted at the area health service level," Mr Cordingley said. "While Microsoft has held the lion's share of our business across the state, we've tended to have different products and versions in use in different areas, and we haven't had good connectivity between them." ADVERTISEMENT Taking a "consolidated approach" meant suppliers could "no longer play us off one against the other", he said. "We can use that market power to our advantage." Microsoft will supply software for more than 90,000 employees, 40,000 desktops and 2500 servers, based on Windows and Office 2003 Professional as the desktop standard with Windows and Exchange servers. Other technologies include Microsoft's SharePoint Portal, Active Directory, Systems Management and Microsoft Operations Manager, MSDN and SQL. Microsoft's .NET will be adopted as NSW Health's main development platform. Mr Cordingley said NSW Health would standardise on the "latest version of the Microsoft products we use" and from then on, the software and licensing would be managed centrally. "There is a cost in managing the myriad Microsoft licences in the areas, so this arrangement will be much simpler," he said. "We will save money just on the management side of it, apart from the savings we'll be getting from using the latest technology and having better connectivity." Microsoft's public-sector director Kevin Ackhurst wouldn't confirm whether discounting had played a part in NSW Health's decision. "We've made sure we're happy with the deal, and they're happy with the deal," he said. "They're looking for a significant amount of savings, as well as savings in management costs and infrastructure maintenance." Mr Ackhurst said the negotiations formed "a basis for a significant partnership that can deliver better outcomes for health over the next few years". "One of the advantages of .NET is its interoperability with other platforms," he said. "NSW Health has a variety of platforms in use and, as a consequence, they need an environment that allows them to interoperate with existing systems." Mr Ackhurst said Microsoft had proven its interoperability, as well as scalability and reliability, in a number of customer sites across Australia. The Australian
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