Microsoft in Oz

Microsoft is still alive and well in Oz, as the company today announced that Australia’s federal department of industry, tourism and resources (DITR) has released plans to implement at least three new customer relationship management systems based on Microsoft software.

DITR currently employs 1900, but should be employing more before 2006. Tender documents released today showed the department to be looking for a supplier to help implement Microsoft CRM 3.0 as part of a system redevelopment program for a tax concession initiative within the department’s AusIndustry division.

According to DITR, the Research and Development (R&D) Tax Concession program was introduced in 1986 to encourage local R&D. It now receives applications from some 6,000 companies annually.

An existing R&D component of the department’s IIPMIS software platform will be replaced with Microsoft CRM 3.0. Afterward, the CRM used in subdepartments such as Invest Australia and the National Measurement Institute. Phase four would involve customization of the software to create a grants management solution.

DITR will choose an integrator in late November for the R&D implementation; the timetable for other systems will be worked out in future.

DITR has approximately 2200 desktop PCs around the nation, running Windows XP Service Pack 2, Internet Explorer, Office 2003 and Outlook, with automated software installation done through Novell ZenWorks. Citrix is used to provide remote access to a small number of users.