The Ministry of Social Development has signed contracts with Gen-i and Vodafone New Zealand for its telecommunications services.

Under the new contracts, Gen-i will provide all the Ministry's data and voice technology and Vodafone the mobile communications. Gen-i is a system integrator part of the Telecom New Zealand group.

The contracts represent a reduction in the Ministry's overall telecommunications spend, while also introducing new technologies that will benefit the Ministry in its service delivery to clients and enable improved business functionality to be introduced throughout the Ministry.

It will also reduce the overall complexity of Ministry telecommunications systems and, with new broadband services, will lead to better network speeds and performance to the Ministry's remote sites.

The contracts were signed following an open tender undertaken by the Ministry as part of its ongoing commitment to fairness and competition in the market.

"Through the tender process, the Ministry sought solutions that best leverage technology to meet our existing and future business requirements. The successful tenderers put forward the most suitable and cost effective solutions for the Ministry," said Chief Information Officer Tim Occleshaw.

The previous agreement with TelstraClear expired on 30 June 2008. TelstraClear is working with the Ministry and the new vendors to ensure a smooth transition.

"The Ministry enjoys a good relationship with TelstraClear and has benefited over the past 13 years from the telecommunications infrastructure that TelstraClear has provided", said Tim Occleshaw.