Accenture taps big bucks from Government

Beverley Head
Tuesday, 16 August 2011 09:56

IT Industry - Deals

State and Federal Governments have delivered millions of dollars' worth of work for Accenture in the last 24 hours which has been confirmed as lead technology vendor for the development of the IT infrastructure to support the personally controlled electronic health record (PCEHR) - a gig worth almost $48 million - and also as the developer of a national e-conveyancing programme.

Accenture stands to win $47.8 million from the PCEHR gig, which it has won in association with partners Orion Health and Oracle. The Federal Government has also allotted licensing fees worth $11 million for Orion Health and $17.8 million for Oracle.

The value of the e-conveyancing deal has not been announced, but that also places Accenture in the box seat as far as delivering the cloud computing platform that will be required to run the national Pexa service from 2013.

To date the Federal Government has earmarked $467 million for e-health initiatives which will be invested in the underpinning infrastructure for the e-health network. IBM has already secured a $24 million contract to create a national authentication service for health (NASH) which will manage and authenticate access to the data held in PCEHRs.

Accenture will lead the team designing and building the PCEHR itself. According to health minister Nicola Roxon Accenture's track record in delivering a national health record for Singapore earlier this year influenced the Government's decision to appoint the company over rival bidders.

The consortium is charged with developing internet portals to provide access to the PCEHR by both individuals and authorised health professionals. The system will also provide an audit trail regarding PCEHR access and usage.

In a media release the minister said; 'A key responsibility of the National Infrastructure Partner (Accenture, Orion and Oracle) will be to ensure that the PCEHR system has high availability, including in a medical emergency, and that it works efficiently and securely for patients and providers alike.'