The department's former director of information management Max Gentle said the reasons for selecting MXL were due to the software architecture's capacity for "long-term" development, and unlike US or UK-based software which required significant customization at a very high price, the MXL solution met over 80 percent of the department's needs "out of the box".

Customization was required only for some specific needs of the department.

According to MXL, a number of states are looking at replacing their existing student management systems, many of which have been in use for 20 years.

The company claims to be involved in another Australian state-wide tender "materially larger than Tasmania", and several other tenders for state or regional Catholic dioceses, similar in size and magnitude to Tasmania.

MXL's head of government and partner relations Matt Tutaki said the contract represents the coming of age of Web-based solutions and shows local companies are at the forefront of developing solutions for the education sector.