Atos was confirmed on Friday as the Ministry of Defence’s new Defence Communications Networks Services Strategic Partner (DCNS SP). Atos is partnered with Vega, part of the Finmeccanica group, and Information Services Group (ISG), for the role which is worth £25m over three years, with the potential to extend to seven years.
As strategic partner, the Atos-led team will be working closely with the MoD’s Defence Equipment and Support Information Systems & Services (ISS) division. Atos brings expertise in managed procurement, technical architecture and migration transition. ISG has expertise in the SIAM (service integration & management) model and managed procurement, whilst Vega has a strong track record in defence and security. Their success will mean disappointment for PA Consulting, which was also shortlisted for the contract.
To date Atos’ footprint in the UK defence sector has been entirely through Atos Consulting, so it falls well outside our Top 10 for the sector with relatively low revenues from defence last fiscal year (we estimate c£10m – PublicSectorViews subscribers can read more in our recent UK Defence SITS Supplier Landscape 2013 report). This deal is therefore a significant win both in monetary terms and, importantly, because it puts Atos at the heart of all decisions made regarding the MoD’s future ICT environment. This in turn suggests that Atos has settled on a client-side role within MoD, but we believe it’s still possible it could pick up SIAM-type work in defence through future procurements.