Infosys gets another $71m for Centrelink calculation engine work

Infosys has landed a further $71.6 million for its work on the country’s new Centrelink payments calculation engine after the 14-month long initial build phase wrapped up last year.

The contract, posted publicly late last month, brings the total value of the overhaul to at least $135.4 million since the outsourcing giant beat IBM and Accenture to the original umbrella deal.

Infosys has been developing the Pegasystems-based entitlements calculation engine (ECE) solution since November 2019, when it scored an initial $18.4 million contract for the proof-of-design work.

The ECE will replace an existing solution embedded in Centrelink’s legacy income security integrated system (ISIS) used to determine eligibility for welfare recipients and how much to pay them.

It is the latest part of the long-running Centrelink payments overhaul, known as the welfare payments infrastructure transformation (WPIT) program, which will officially wrap up at the end of this financial year.

A spokesperson for Services Australia said the new contract covers “programme increment (PI)-1, the initial delivery phase, which is the next increment of the ECE project”, following on from a $42 million contract last year.

Services Australia renegotiated the umbrella deal with Infosys last year to adopt a more incremental model of delivery that would allow for closer planning and monitoring of the build phase.

“In this increment, Infosys will provide additional resources, training and support to Services Australia,” the spokesperson said.

The contract covers a 45-week period between November 2021 and September 2022, meaning Infosys will be paid close to $1.6 million a week  –  or around $6.4 million each month – for the work.

Services Australia would not say how many contractors are working on the project or divulge the total cost of the build to date, saying only that “expenditure remains in line with original budget estimates”.

The contract for the initial delivery phase comes just months after Infosys completed the first phase of the build in September 2021.

The build officially began in July 2020 following a seven-month proof-of-design that involved reimagining the existing solution and decoupling the business rules from ISIS.

As revealed by now chief information and digital officer Charles McHardie in October 2021, Infosys proved the Pega-based ECE could work in a non-production environment and scale.

He said Services Australia had commended planning and preparation work for the next phase of the build, and expected this milestone to be completed for mid-2022.

“Once this phase is complete, approximately half of Centrelink program outlays will then be calculated in the new entitlements calculation engine,” he said at the time.

“This will establish technological capability that is reusable across government.

“It will allow ECE to undertake rules simulation to better inform budget costings and the service delivery aspect of future policy changes.”

In addition to the new $71.6 million contract, Infosys has entered into three other work orders to date, worth $63.8 million.

The company also picked up a $37.3 million contract in February 2021 for the reuse of the ECE solution across Services Australia.