The Australian Department of Defence has dropped plans to consolidate critical IT services provided by Fujitsu and Unisys.

The Department of Defence had originally planned to merge Fujitsu's Distributed Computing Central Services contract with Unisys' regional IT services contract, creating once combined service providing multiple service desk support, networking functions, email, and service management.

The DoD had planned originally to go to market with the joint service bundle at the end of 2013, but the need according to a DoD spokesman, for a “focused and sustained effort” has resulted in the termination of merger plans.

Instead the DoD has decided to extend the renewal of its regional ICT support contract with Unisys until October 2016, with the next two years giving the department time to assess the DoD’s long-term IT plans.

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