The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has issued a request for tender seeking data collection, recognition and remediation software, as well as scanning infrastructure to be used for the 2021 Census.
According to the ABS, the software solution will be used to scan, capture, recognise and enhance written responses from paper-based forms from the Census 2021 household and business collections and the ABS. It will then capture the responses into an electronic format so that the data can be used by “appropriate systems”.
“ABS is looking for data capture, recognition and repair software that offers a range of features that support imaging and data, capturing responses from paper forms using ICR (intelligent character recognition) and/or OCR (optical character recognition) and/or OMR (optical mark recognition) technology and recognition engines for automatic interpretation and digitization of data ,” ABS writes in the tender document.
He added that while the software would be “ideally” compatible with the current Kodak i5850 scanners owned by ABS, the organization said it was open to “alternative scanner recommendations that would provide optimal interaction with the software to be promoted.”
While the deadline for submission of bids is December 9, ABS said it intends to supply the software “as soon as possible” with the aim of evaluating, developing, testing and manufacturing the solution for the Census readiness exercise “by August 2020.”
ABS is seeking to enter into a contract with a provider from early 2020 until June 2022, with the option to extend the contract for a further period of up to two years.
In May, it was revealed that PwC Australia had been selected as the IT partner for the 2021 Census. The ABS said PwC would run the digital census on Amazon Web Services, which was certified to handle Protected workloads earlier this year.
“ABS and PwC Australia will work with reputable organisations, including the Australian Cyber Security Centre and the Digital Transformation Agency, to create a secure solution that manages the high demand expected for the 2021 Census,” the ABS said.
In April, the ABS was allocated $38.3 million over three years in the 2019-20 federal budget.
On August 9, 2016, the ABS faced a series of DDoS, suffering a hardware router failure, resulting in the Census website being shut down and citizens being unable to complete their online submissions.
Census was running on internal infrastructure supplied by IBM. A month later, ABS blasted IBM, saying it had failed to adequately address the risk it incurred under the contract.
“The Census online system was hosted by IBM under contract to the ABS and the DDoS attack would not have disrupted the system,” the ABS said at the time. “Despite extensive planning and preparation by the ABS for the 2016 Census, this risk was not adequately addressed by IBM and the ABS will be more proactive in managing risk in the future.”
