Download d IT Consultancy Tender - Case Management System Maintenance

HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA
IT Consultancy Tender Case Management System Maintenance
Introduction
The High Court of Australia is the highest court in the Australian judicial
system. Established by the Constitution, the Court hears and determines
constitutional disputes, as well as appeals from federal, state and territory
courts in all areas of law.
The seat of the High Court is in Canberra, where it is located in its own
building within the Parliamentary Triangle. The High Court building houses
three courtrooms, Justices' Chambers, and the Court's main registry, library,
and corporate services facilities. In addition, there are offices of the High
Court Registry and a courtroom located in each of Sydney and Melbourne.
The High Court Registry case management system (CMS) has been in
operation since 1998. The CMS comprises several interconnected Lotus
Notes databases:
 The cases database holds information about cases in the High Court.
 The representatives database holds information about the
representatives of parties to matters in the Court (firms of solicitors, or
self-represented persons).
 The practitioners database is the register of legal practitioners who are
entitled (by virtue of their ability to practise as practitioners in one or
more states or territories) to practise in any federal court, including the
High Court.
 The letters database holds correspondence and certificates generated
by the system.
 The reports database generates statistical tables suitable for inclusion
in the High Court's annual report.
 The private database holds information about cases that is accessible
to only a few High Court officers (e.g. the real name of parties to a
matter that involves the custody of children or applicants for a refugee
visa, who are otherwise know by an alias). Storing sensitive information
in a completely distinct database means that Notes' full text searching
capability cannot be used to circumvent restrictions the system places
upon access to information. This feature is in addition to Notes' built-in
security mechanisms.
The Lotus Notes based system was designed to:
 facilitate workflow;
 have a graphical user interface;
 be intuitive to use;
 allow "objects" to be embedded within its databases;
 be robust;
 be secure;
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have an open architecture, and be capable of running on a variety of
platforms;
be flexible enough to allow routine changes to its database structure to
be made by Registry staff;
integrate seamlessly with existing desktop applications;
provide extensive statistical information; and
have advanced reporting and ad-hoc query functionality.
The CMS is a stable environment which serves the Court’s current needs
well. It is possible that changes to accommodate amendments to legislation
or enhancements will be required from time to time.
Key goals
The Court requires a contractor to provide system support to the CMS.
Specific goals include:
 Provision of technical services to support and enhance the CMS;
 Provision of enhanced problem resolution skills;
 Provision of high level technical assistance to Registry Staff in the use
of the CMS;
 Development of a technical manual for the CMS; and
 Provision of general IT advice and consulting services.
Computing environment
The High Court of Australia operates approximately 80 desktop and 50 laptop
computers and has 10Mbps WAN connections to registry offices in Sydney
and Melbourne as well as 2Mbps connections to Judges Chambers in
Brisbane and Perth. The High Court building in Canberra boasts a modern
structured cabling system providing 100Mbps1 to the desktop and with
Barracuda spam firewall and Content Keeper web filtering devices in use to
manage inbound internet traffic. VPN based remote access is also available.
HCA uses Novell Netware on SLES 2.0 for file and printer sharing and
desktop PCs are Dell Optiplex 760's (Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @3Ghz, 2Gb
RAM, 160Gb HD) and running Windows XP Professional SP3. Laptops are a
mix of Dell E5500's (Intel Core 2 Duo T7250@2Ghz, 2Gb RAM, 80Gb HD)
and Dell E4300's (Intel Core 2 Duo [email protected], 2Gb RAM, 80Gb HD).
Desktop application software includes the MS Office XP suite and Mozilla
Firefox as the preferred web browser. In addition, HCA uses a number of key
business applications including:
 Case Management System (Lotus Notes based)
 Finance One FMIS
 Aurion personnel (bureau service)
 Innovative Interfaces Millennium integrated library system
 TRIM records management
 Joomla! supporting the staff intranet and HCA internet sites
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Planned switch replacements will increase this to 1Gbps by the end of 2012.
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Technical details of the CMS
The High Court Lotus Notes server environment consists of 4 servers. The
first server (HCA1) is the SMTP server and is located in the DMZ section on
the network. The second server (HCA2) is the main mail / database server.
The third server (HCA3) is a replication server and is in a cluster with HCA2.
The fourth server (HCASYD) is located in out Sydney office. This server is
due to be decommissioned in the near future.
All servers are running on a Windows (2003 / 2008) platform with Domino
version 8.5.3 - Fix Pack 1
Usage
The CMS supports concurrent user access by staff from all three Court
registries as well as read-only access by additional court staff in the library
and chambers.
Format of responses
No specific format is required for the response to this request, but the
following should be provided:
 suggested support services including whether any support staff are
Canberra based;
 details of any relevant experience and achievements in projects of this
type;
 the curriculum vitae of the person(s) nominated to provide support
services;
 details of at least two (2) referees, with a contact name, title and
telephone number;
 tenderers should demonstrate that they have the financial viability and
organisational stability to deliver the support required;
 tenderers should provide full details of their proposed processes for the
following:
o Engagement with the High Court as a client;
o Communications with the High Court;
o Dispute resolution and escalation; and
o Management of contract variations.
 Tenders should provide details of any contingency plans in an
emergency.
In addition, the following schedules must be completed and included with the
response:
 Declaration by contractor (at Attachment A)
 Contractor details (at Attachment B)
 Statement of compliance (at Attachment C)
Costs
The response must provide details of any support services and resources that
may be required to be provided by HCA together with all costs with respect to:
 professional charges (a fixed price contract would be preferred with
any GST component separately identified); and
 preferred payment schedule.
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Contract
The contract for this tender will be based on this specification, the successful
contractor’s proposal and HCA’s standard consultancy contract (at
Attachment D). Any contract would be for an initial period of 2 years with
options to renew for two more 1 year periods.
Further Information
Proposals are due by 3:00pm on Friday, 13 July 2012 and should either be
submitted by e-mail to: [email protected] or sent to:
Ms EmmaJane Will
National Registry Manager
High Court of Australia
PO Box 6309
Kingston ACT 2604
For queries in relation to this tender please contact Ms Will in writing by email
to [email protected]
Please note that information provided in response to queries may be
published on the High Court of Australia website at
www.hcourt.gov.au/about/tenders