Education Ministry, CA and IBM sign ICT Deal

Ministry of Education, CA and IBM sign one of biggest anti-virus and anti-spyware contracts in Asia-Pacific

Wellington, 10 April 2007 – The Ministry of Education, information technology management software company CA and its reseller partner IBM have signed one of the biggest anti-virus and anti-spyware software contracts in the Asia-Pacific region.

As a result of the contract about 150,000 computers in about 2,700 state schools, an estimated 90 per cent of New Zealand’s school computers, will run the CA Integrated Threat Management Suite incorporating CA Anti-Virus and CA Anti-Spyware software. The software will be free to all state and state-integrated schools and teachers will also have the option of using CA Anti-Virus 2007 at home.

In 2004 the Ministry of Education signed a three-year contract with CA and IBM to supply CA Anti-Virus software to schools. The new contract also includes CA Anti-Spyware thereby offering schools an integrated threat management system that protects against viruses and spyware.

CA New Zealand Country Manager Stuart Preston said he believed the contract to be the biggest integrated threat management software deal in the Asia Pacific region because the New Zealand Ministry of Education had taken an internationally leading role in centralising the buying of anti-virus and anti-spyware software for such a large number of schools.

Ministry of Education ICT Strategy Unit Senior Consultant Douglas Harre said the centrally managed contract would minimise the hassle and cost for schools of installing and using anti-virus and anti-spyware software.

“Following the 2004 contract most schools are now using CA Anti-Virus software,” said Mr Harre. “They will now be able to add CA Anti-Spyware by either installing the packaged upgrade available from IBM New Zealand or by working through their own information technology services providers.”

CA Anti-Virus 2007 will also be available free of charge to teachers for their home use. “Increasingly teachers work on their computers at home and we needed to be able to ensure they had access to anti-virus software at home.”

Mr Harre said spyware was a growing threat for schools. “The clearly identified threat in the past has come from viruses trying to infect and damage information held on computers. Spyware is more insidious as it tries to harvest information like passwords and pin numbers and student information could be compromised. At the most serious end of the scale spyware can be used for identify theft.”

Mr Preston said the deal would remove costs from schools. “The Ministry of Education has negotiated a deal that has secured the CA Integrated Threat Management Suite at a fraction of the normal commercial price but the size of the contract makes it worthwhile for CA and IBM. We are delighted to be making a positive contribution to the education sector as suppliers.”

Mr Preston said the CA Integrated Threat Management Suite was used extensively by other Government and private sector organisations in New Zealand including the Inland Revenue Department and Foodstuffs Wellington.

Mr Harre said the 2004 contract with CA had stemmed from Ministry of Education concern that not all schools were able to cope with computer virus threats. A survey carried out in 2003 showed that around 35 per cent of New Zealand’s 2,700 state and state-integrated schools were operating with no anti-virus software.

“Many of these schools saw software as a discretionary expense or didn’t have the technical expertise to install the software while others thought they were ‘too small’ to be susceptible to viruses. As a result the schools were operating with no protection against malicious code or virus penetration. The Ministry wanted to reduce the number of infected documents being sent from schools.”

Leaving schools to sort out their own computer virus protection had also caused a number of other problems said Mr Harre including disparities in the cost of anti-virus software per computer paid by each school, the quality of product installations and the level of protection.

When the Ministry of Education went to market in 2003 to buy an anti-virus solution on behalf of all state and state-integrated schools, CA in partnership with IBM won the tender against other anti-virus software suppliers including Symantec and McAfee.

Mr Harre said the Ministry of Education sought and gained Government approval for the anti-virus contract renewal and the extension to include anti-spyware software to be negotiated with CA and IBM rather than going to open tender.

Ends

About CA
CA (NYSE: CA), one of the world's largest information technology (IT) management software companies, unifies and simplifies the management of enterprise-wide IT. Founded in 1976, CA is headquartered in Islandia, N.Y., and serves customers in more than 140 countries. For more information, please visit http://ca.com.

About the Ministry of Education
The Ministry of Education is responsible for empowering education in New Zealand from early-childhood through to tertiary. The Ministry’s Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Unit deals directly with primary and secondary schools, providing advice and information on the use of information and communication technologies in a wide variety of curriculum areas. http://www.minedu.govt.nz

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