Dept of Finance calls for SAP HANA cloud platform

The Department of Finance has put out the call for a SAP HANA cloud platform to underpin the federal government’s proposed enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

The department on Thursday approached the market for a “Commonwealth HANA enterprise cloud” platform, the lastest component of its SAP/4 HANA-based GovERP system.

The centrally managed GovERP system is being developed to standardise corporate and financial systems across the government’s six shared services hubs.

The hubs, which were introduced in 2016 as result of the shared service regime, currently serve the corporate services needs of 73 agencies using separate SAP-based ERP systems.

But with most hubs needing to replace their existing systems before they reach end-of-life in 2025, the government has agreed that hubs will coordinate their investment.

Finance will use the new HANA enterprise cloud platform to replace its existing HANA environment, which is currently used to provide services to a number of government agencies.

“Finance maintains a SAP Business Suite on a HANA environment supporting the SAP landscapes for a number of Australian Government agencies,” tender documents state.

“The SAP environment is currently provided through SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud Services.

“Finance is seeking to test the market for this service, with the service to be fully operational no later than 30 March 2021.” 

The HANA platform will be expected to carry official: sensitive level data, which is one classification below protected level data.

It will also be required to use the government’s secure fibre network, dubbed the Intra-Government Communications Network (ICON).

Finance is planning to shortlist tenderers that meet its requirements before awarding a contract for up to two years by July. A virtual industry briefing will be held on March 31. 

Earlier this month, the department went looking for suppliers to provide “complementary capabilities” for GovERP, starting with a government-wide contractor management system.