Onesource fills in the missing bit

By ADAM GIFFORD

Photocopier and phone system supplier Onesource has joined Australian outsourcer and computer assembler Ipex to enter the desktop PC market.

Onesource, which is part of Eric Watson's Hanover Group, was set up as an "office integration company" by combining the U-Bix photocopier business with telecommunications supplier Cogent.

The missing bit was the desktop and associated networks.

Chief executive Elaine Ford said Onesource would invest $1 million over the next three months to be the first customer for the Onesource Managed Services outsourcing business.

It will hand over responsibility for all its office equipment, networks and system.

Although the new business would compete against another Eric Watson-owned IT services company, gen-i, "the profiles of each company are quite different even though, short term, there may be the occasional overlap".

Former gen-i chief information officer Peter Westerveld, who has been working in Australia for giant law firm Minter Ellison, will head the new business.

As well as supplying PCs and servers, assembled at its Melbourne plant, Ipex will provide its systems and processes for IT outsourcing.

The Ipex system includes a customer enterprise service centre and billing systems, as well as Computer Associates' Unicentre product to handle remote management.

Ipex benefited from the Australian Government's policy of outsourcing IT to private companies, picking up a A$350 million, five-year contract in 1999 to manage IT for seven Commonwealth agencies.

It also won a subcontract from EDS to manage desktops at the Australian Tax Office.

But a Department of Information and Technology review this year found Ipex and the four other major Government IT outsourcing contractors - CSC, EDS Australia, Telstra Enterprise Services and IBM Global Services Australia - did not meet industry development targets in their contracts.

The Onesource tie-up may help Ipex meet its commitment to create A$40 million in net exports over the five years of the service agreement.

The Department of Information and Technology this year discounted its $7.4 million export achievement claim after an independent auditor said the company's claims "cannot be reliably measured based on supporting information made available by Ipex".