Provision of ICT SoE Compatible Equipment for WA Schools

⁠⁠⁠The Department of Education is unique in its scale geographically, spanning the length and breadth of the State from the Metropolitan area to remote communities. The Department is one of the largest employers in the State, with the Information Communication and Technology (ICT) Division providing services and support to over 800 schools, comprising more than 27,000 teachers, over 317,000 students from years K-12 and staff located at Central Office and Educational District Offices state-wide. 

As a consequence, the Department is one of the largest users of technology and the ICT Governance and Planning Directorate of the ICT Division provides centralised support to new and established schools by:

• Providing technical and physical scoping of ICT infrastructure requirements;
• Managing and monitoring the Department’s Standard Operating Environment (SOE) to ensure integration with the Department’s Network and ICT Reporting Dashboard;
• Providing procurement services and support for ICT infrastructure required for new and established schools from a SOE compliance perspective; and
• Maintaining a small bank of ICT equipment – routers, servers, switches etc. for replacement at schools at short notice for disaster recovery purposes.

The Department’s SOE has been designed specifically for schools and is based on a break/fix model. Under this model, ICT infrastructure is procured, owned and subsequently replaced on an as required basis. That is, at end of life or in the event of failure not related to faults covered by warranty. For most major, critical infrastructure, equipment operates on a five (5) year lifecycle.

To meet the outcomes of the SOE model, the Department requires the establishment of a panel arrangement for the supply of the following ICT Equipment for Western Australian public Schools:

i. Category 1: X86-64 Windows based Servers, including associated software, support and maintenance;

ii. Category 2: Cisco Network devices and accessories, including associated software, support and where required, maintenance;

iii. Category 3: Fortinet Firewall devices and accessories, including associated software, support and maintenance; and

iv. Category 4: APC Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) devices, including support and maintenance.

The contract is intended to be established for Western Australian public schools only. ICT equipment for Central Office and Regional Education Offices are out of scope of this contract.