The good news just seems to keep flowing for Atos. Since it announced impressive results for the UK business in Q1 (see Atos UK: sales focus paying off), we have commented on its wins with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (see Atos goes nuclear at SAA) and Historic Scotland (see Atos wins ‘historic’ deal in Scotland). Now, we hear confirmation that the company has sealed an extension of its longstanding ICT outsourcing contract with the Welsh Government. The win is also good news for subcontractors to Atos at the Welsh Government, including Capgemini. The extension, though, is worth c£70m over five years (through to 2019), which looks like a reduction in the annual value of the deal compared to the original signing in 2004 with Siemens – it was then worth £200m over ten years.
This win just goes to show the benefits of having a spread of business across the public sector i.e. not just in central government. With the Cabinet Office closely monitoring all contract signings, it is proving increasingly hard to extend relationships with Whitehall departments. Local and regional government organisations are not, though, subject to the same centralised scrutiny. Indeed, speaking for the Welsh Government, Dame Gillian Morgan, Permanent Secretary, states “As well as securing value for money and the services we need for the Welsh Government, we were particularly keen to ensure that we didn’t jeopardise the potential for longer term developments that could provide benefits across the public sector”.... is that a veiled dig at the current Cabinet Office approach to supplier selection?