The Australian Bureau of Statistics has hired CSC under a $7.4 million, 15-month contract to supply skilled IT workers to help out with its large-scale transformation effort.
This time last year the statistics agency was successful in its plea for funding to overhaul its ageing systems, winning $250 million in the 2015 federal budget.
The money will help implement an "efficient enterprise-wide approach" to the more than 500 systems the agency currently maintains. Some of its platforms are over 30 years old.
The agency has previously classed one in three of its IT applications as unreliable - experiencing daily or weekly issues - and one in six as being out of support.
Off-the-shelf solutions will be able to address some of the ABS' requirements, but it has previously said it will need custom solutions for niche areas.
It will also need skilled staff for these trickier implementations.
The organisation has asked CSC to provide a contingent IT workforce over the next 15 months to address skills gaps in the ABS's IT shop. The agency has an internal IT workforce of around 380.
"Among other things, this will provide the ABS with highly responsive and flexible access to specialist ICT skills to supplement its existing technical workforce as well as bringing new ideas and innovation to the delivery capability," a spokesperson for the agency said.
"The contract provides ABS with an avenue to rapidly source these capabilities as required."
The ABS singled out skills in IT architecture, testing, and continuous delivery, but said it has not cemented a specific size or cap for the contingent workforce CSC will provide.
The contract commenced last month and will run until October 2017.
