We’ve spotted a couple of UK public sector SITS procurement notices worthy of mention this morning.
The first is the next in the increasingly long line of SIAM (Service Integration & Management) opportunities. The Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) and the Driving Standards Authority (soon to be merged into a single body), follow in the footsteps of the likes of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ - see Lockheed preferred SIAM bidder at MoJ) and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO – see BAE Systems Detica bags FCO SIAM contract). In a tender notice giving a potential contract value of between £5m and £35m over three years, the agency states that the SIAM supplier “is to deliver a single, clear, and concise interface to all Authority nominated users in support of all their ICT operational needs, regardless of which Tower Service Supplier delivers the specific Tower Service capabilities”. The SIAM will also be responsible for managing the transition of all ICT services currently supported by VOSA and DSA’s incumbent suppliers to a joint VOSA/DSA multi-sourced IT Tower Service environment. Atos and Capita are the current ICT services partners at VOSA and DSA respectively; both contracts expire at the end of 2014. There is a short timescale for the procurement, with the winning bidder expected to be announced in April 2014.
The second notice is a PIN for a ‘Transactional IT Procurement Solution’ (TIPS) – a commercial solution for basic low value, standard, high volume transactions and the management of the supply chain providing those commodity products - and has been issued by “the Minister for the Cabinet Office acting through the Government Procurement Service”. The other two notices will address more complex or higher value requirements (IT PASS) and commodity software requirements through specialist providers. The notice supports the objectives of the new Crown Commercial Service, which was first announced in July this year (see ‘Musings on Government Procurement’), to provide an integrated commercial service to public sector organisations enabling the centralised purchasing of common goods and services.
Both of today’s notices support our view that the Cabinet Office is continuing to maintain momentum across Whitehall as it seeks to alter the way UK Government procures and manages ICT.