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Public sector IT systems and business process services specialist Civica is celebrating having secured a £34m+/10-year ICT outsourcing deal with Luton Borough Council. Following hot on the heels of its landmark business process services deal with Gloucestershire last month (see Civica delivers platform-based BPS at Gloucester), the contract confirms that Civica has earned the right to be considered as a competitor to much larger rivals in local government outsourcing including Capita, Serco, BT, Liberata, Northgate and Steria.
This latest deal will see Civica partnering with the Luton Learning and Community Partnership to deliver all core ICT operations for the council. Over time 60 council staff will TUPE across to Civica, which will also be working with Luton Borough Council to create a ‘centre of excellence’ in ICT service delivery.
There’s no doubt this is a significant win for Civica, which is primarily known for providing applications to UK local authorities – some 90% of which it already counts as software customers. With such a broad installed base, Civica would not need to convince many more existing software clients such as Luton to outsource services to it in order to deliver good growth in the sector. As we’ve said before, one size doesn’t fit all in UK local government (see our UK Public Sector SITS Market Trends & Forecasts Report from September) and we fully expect to see further authorities opting to do more with specialist partners that they know well, such as Civica, rather than embarking on huge, all-encompassing outsourcing deals. Clearly there are risks for Civica, which is relatively new to these larger outsourcing deals, but we’re reassured that the company’s strategy is to stick to outsourcing and managed services in areas where it already has specialist expertise and software. Moreover, the track record of CEO Simon Downing and his team suggests that any risks will be well managed.
