Spark's Revera wins IRD's data centre contract

Spark's Revera wins IRD's data centre contract for business transformation

By Paul McBeth

Feb. 12 (BusinessDesk) - Spark New Zealand's Revera unit has been picked to supply the Inland Revenue Department's data centre services for the new tax system being developed under its business transformation programme.

The 10-year deal is worth between $45 million and $60 million, and will see Revera data centres host essential IRD services including the new tax system, with the first coming online in the next month, the tax department said in a statement. Revera won a tender sought from the all-of-government's panel, of infrastructure-as-a-service providers, which includes Datacom and IBM.

"Revera's solutions means we need fewer services or less storage, we can use just what we need when we need it, and not pay for capacity we're not using," IRD deputy commissioner of change Greg James said. "It is another very important step towards a simpler, more cost-effective tax system to make paying taxes and receiving entitlements simpler and reducing compliance costs for New Zealand businesses."

The tax department is in the middle of a major project to upgrade its information technology infrastructure, replacing a system struggling to cope with a number of responsibilities added over the past 15 years. The programme is expected to come in under budget at less than $1 billion, and at an earlier completion date.

IRD's existing system will continue to be supported by existing data centres, and during the transition to the new infrastructure, both data centre systems will operate.

Spark shares rose 1.2 percent to $3.26, and have dropped 2.4 percent this year.

(BusinessDesk)

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