We understand that the Ministry of Justice’s End User Computing (EUC) ‘tower’ procurement (part of the department’s FITS programme) has been halted. The procurement had progressed a significant way. We understand that suppliers recently submitted their BAFOs (Best and Final Offers). Bidding costs for each of the shortlisted players – Fujitsu, HP, Atos and Computacenter– will have hit hundreds of thousands of pounds (if not more).
Although not confirmed it looks as if the Cabinet Office has become involved and determined that the procurement wasn’t closely enough aligned with the UK Government’s ICT strategy. From what we can gather, the MoJ will now seek to disaggregate the contract into smaller components with a view to attracting a broader range of bidders.
The shortlist for the ‘tower’ as it stood was made up of the ‘usual suspects’ for desktop services in central government (Fujitsu, Atos and HP) plus Computacenter. We had always assumed that Computacenter, if it played its cards right, had a very good chance of winning the deal, as the Government sought to spread the spoils. Indeed, when we spoke to Computacenter a few weeks ago, they seemed cautiously optimistic about their chances. Ironically, of all four, it is probably Computacenter that is most likely to be carefully considering whether it can warrant the additional investment required to continue bidding for the business in a different form.
When the department retenders for the contract at a later date (yet to be confirmed), it will be looking for some other names on the shortlist. Whether it achieves that goal will depend on how it restructures the deal and the size of the components on offer.