Anittel Group Limited has signed an agreement to provide Managed Voice Services to the Tasmanian Government. The services will be provisioned through Anittel’s Hosted Cisco Unified Communication (UC) infrastructure.

The 5 year contract has a minimum value of approximately $7m with 3 x 3 year options to renew. The value of the contract is expected to increase to a maximum of $17m over the initial term as the current Telstra provided Spectrum endpoints are replaced. If the full contract extension options are undertaken the value of the contract would be in the order of $45m. The final contract value depends upon the number of endpoints deployed and the type and feature set enabled for each endpoint. As the new agreement involves a progressive rollout, the full services revenue impact will not be reached until FY14.

Anittel’s Managed Voice Service for the Tasmanian Government is based on the Cisco UC Call Manager platform and will be provisioned through Anittel’s hosted infrastructure including servers, routers, switches and handsets.

The agreement follows a competitive tendering process which commenced in late 2011. Key factors in the Government’s decision to award the contract to Anittel included, cost efficiency, network infrastructure, benefits of the Hosted Cisco UC Call Manager platform and Anittel’s presence and knowledge in the Tasmanian market. The ongoing business under the agreement is conditional on the successful completion of testing and finalisation of Service Level Agreements.

TMD General Manager, Piero Peroni said, “Anittel’s managed voice service represents a bold and innovative technology direction.  It enables us to build a service for the Tasmanian Government which will be a platform for integrated communications for the future.”

Cisco Managing Director of Public Sector in Australia Ken Boal stated “Cisco shares the Tasmanian Government’s vision to create a more efficient government and transform delivery of services to the community.  Cisco is delighted to work with Anittel and the Tasmanian Government, providing a platform that supports Tasmania’s public service and communities to connect and work together to create a better Tasmania.”

As part of the deal Anittel will expand its infrastructure to include locally hosted nodes of the Cisco based platform in Tasmania. The platform will also enable other managed voice services to be cost-effectively delivered to other Tasmanian enterprises, expanding the benefits of the system to the wider business community.

To support the project, Anittel will increase its local Tasmanian business operation, engaging additional project, technical and support resources across the state. Anittel Tasmanian Manager, Karen Murfett added, “Anittel in Tasmania has worked closely with the Tasmanian Government for over 15 years, and positioned itself as a true partner, not just a reseller.  This opportunity to provide Managed Voice Services complements our existing offerings, and will continue to strengthen our reputation in the Tasmanian market as a true end-to-end solution provider.”

Anittel Chief Technology Officer, Steven Crockett outlined, “Cisco’s end-to-end portfolio of infrastructure offerings perfectly suit our IT and Telecommunications business.  As the clear market leader in enterprise IP Voice systems, Cisco was a natural choice for our business and for our voice services.  We are very excited about the capabilities of our platform and product roadmap, and believe that this win cements Anittel as a voice services partner of choice in the enterprise space.”

Anittel Managing Director and Executive Chairman, Peter Kazacos commented, “Our strategy to invest in network infrastructure solutions is paying off. This deal provides a platform for further growth in Tasmania and in other states. It will also boost our plan to make Cisco Hosted UC a highly attractive solution that is available to all clients across regional and metropolitan Australia.”