Industry news

Capgemini UK has been awarded a contract to upgrade the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) enterprise resource planning (ERP) system over a two year period, in a contract valued at £6.3 million.

The upgrade programme will see Capgemini provide the latest software to the FCO, the upgrade will allow the ERP system to support a smaller and more flexible team designed to increase cost-savings.

Tim Gardner, FCO corporate services centre director, said: “With the change in approach to service delivery, this new deal with Capgemini will allow us to make significant cost savings, while ensuring systems continue to support a large number of government departments that reside on the overseas platform provided by the FCO.”

Capgemini and Aston University join to provide IT degrees

Capgemini awarded seven year police contract

Non-disclosure agreements in BTs contracts to provide rural broadband have been criticised by MPs sitting on the Public Accounts Select Committee (PAC).

The PAC said that a lack of transparency made it difficult for the government to operate a competitive procurement process and ensure that it was properly informed for future broadband infrastructure tenders.

The members of the PAC said that non-disclosure agreements had: “allowed poor cost transparency and lack of detailed broadband rollout plans to create conditions whereby alternative suppliers may be crowded out”.

The committee chairman, Margaret Hodge, said: “we see the lack of transparency on costs and BT’s insistence on non-disclosure agreements as symptomatic of BT exploiting its monopoly position to the detriment of the taxpayer, local authorities and those seeking to access high speed broadband in rural areas.”

A BT spokesman claimed that the PAC’s comments were unfair being that “BT was the only company willing to accept the challenging terms on offer and make a significant investment in rural areas. This was at a time when others walked away when they realised easy pickings weren’t to be had. Claims that BT is a monopoly are simply inaccurate given more than 100 ISPs are offering fibre across BT’s open network.”

Union defends BT against monopoly claims

Committee recommends application of the Freedom of Information Act to outsourcing contracts

Management and outsourcing company Accenture has been awarded a second contract by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to attract foreign companies to relocate to cities business zone (Special Zone for Asian Headquarters).

The contract will see Accenture continue to seek to bring foreign businesses to Tokyo through March 2015 after Accenture successfully completed its previous contract requirements in bringing foreign firms to Tokyo.

The contract renewal comes as Tokyo continues to raise its international competiveness and investment appeal.

Hiroshi Goto, who leads Accenture’s Health & Public Service, said: “We will do our best to recruit foreign companies, based on the experience and knowledge we’ve gained during the first year of this project.”

Bank of Ireland selects Accenture for outsourced technology role

Accenture extends seven-year with leadership provider

The Highways Agency has selected Thales to provide secure network connectivity to the Agency across 49 sites.

The contract valued at around £10 million will run for a five-year period and will provide services across the Department of Transport including the Highways Agency.

Under the contract Thales will provide connectivity at government Public Services Network (PSN) standards, services include encryption, local area networks, wide area networks and remote access capability.

Met Police unveils £160m radio services framework

As covered in my last blog, with the public sector asking for more from their outsourcers, providers are having to find new ways of working together to bid for projects. This is happening in a variety of ways, for example consortia, joint ventures or partnerships. But finding the right partner is just the first step in the process. Once the best partner has been identified a successful way of working must be established quickly to maximise the chances of winning the bid.

1.Invest in building the team

Bringing a new team together for the first time always brings challenges, particularly when team members are from different organisations, and even more so when they have very different cultures. It is worth investing in building a cohesive team by spending time exploring and articulating what success looks like, the “value proposition” and how the team will work together. One third sector leader who has successfully bid with a private provider to win government contracts told me that they invested a whole week of team building and planning. This helped her team overcome their cultural suspicion of the private sector and they formed a very successful long term partnership.

2.Mobilise a programme to deliver the bid

Most government bids experience tight timescales, a dispersed team and multiple activities all going on simultaneously which will feed into the end product. There’s a temptation for bidders to neglect programme management discipline because they simply don’t have time. But it’s a false economy: time pressured complex environments make good programme management more important, not less. That’s because programme management will enable bidders to coordinate the development of the value proposition and ensure the product is delivered on time and to budget. A must-win bid should be run like any other programme: underpinned by a robust plan, led by an experienced programme manager, supported by a programme management office, steered via clear governance, and delivered by a team with clear roles and responsibilities.

3.Don’t leave critical conversations until the end

Joint bid teams make two key mistakes which risk the success of the bid; first, they don’t keep senior leaders engaged in the content or direction of the bid, or second, they fail to “seal the deal” commercially. Both these problems lead to unnecessary friction and chaos in the last week of the bid. Yet both are avoidable with good planning. One person from each organisation should be responsible for communicating internally and managing the quality assurance process required by his or her leadership team. Similarly, obtaining the commercial agreement should be a process not an event, led by a designated person from each organisation, beginning right at the start of the bid.

Next week I’ll be writing about how to make the relationship with partners work for the duration of the contract.

Josie Cluer is public sector lead at Moorhouse, the transformation consultancy.

The University of Southampton has begun a two-year infrastructure programme valued at £4 million, designed to provide wireless access across the University campus.

The infrastructure programme is being overseen by IT services provider Logicalis, they are also helping to establish a Cisco network and data centre.

The project is designed to facilitate high performance computing projects within the university including the use of a supercomputer now located on site.

Pete Hancock, director of iSolutions at the University of Southampton, said: “We see our network as the key building block to helping us grow and operate as a major university and further support our work in the international research arena.

Probation staff working in Bath and the surrounding areas are to strike over the governments national outsourcing program.

Staff will walk out over a tow day period in response to the government’s move end probation trusts and outsource 70 per cent of the probation service to voluntary and private sector groups.

The strike is expected impact local services and justice services with Justice minister Jeremy Wright commenting: “It is very disappointing that Napo has chosen to strike when we are making positive progress towards the implementation of these vital reforms.”

The plans to transfer 250,000 offenders are expected to be completed by the end of this year.

The head of National Association of Probation Officers, Ian Lawrence, said: “It’s not something our members take lightly but they feel that these proposals will have such an impact on public safety that they have no choice.”

Probation Officers to strike over outsourcing plans

Steve Morgan, commercial operations director at the MoD, has been appointed as the new Welsh National Procurement Service (NPS) Chairman.

Mr Morgan is expected to drive efficiency within the NPS based on his past experience and knowledge, with the NPS looking to save £25 million from reduced expenditure and the development of a more sustainable procurement model for public sector spending.

Mr Morgan will also be charged with helping local businesses bid for increased public sector contracts in line with the government’s agenda of increasing procurement transparency and SME involvement.

Finance minister of the Welsh Government, Jane Hutt, said: “The NPS has a crucial role to play in helping the public sector get value for money for every pound it spends on common and repetitive goods and services. With over 70 public sector organisations now signed up to the service it will have a big impact on the amount of money these organisations can save and reinvest in other public services. It will also assist businesses in Wales as the supply chains will benefit.”

Simplification of procurement functions increase Welsh procurement success

MPs criticise civil service

The public sector is increasingly asking more of the outsourcing industry: not only is it outsourcing the “front office” as well as the “back office”, it is demanding greater savings, more service transformation, and more innovative delivery models. In response, many outsourcers are forming relationships with other organisations – to form consortia, joint ventures, or partnerships – in order to bid for government contracts together.

This can be a fantastic way to bring a broader capability to your clients and to help you access new opportunities. But if you get the wrong partner, working together can be extremely frustrating, and ultimately, less likely to help you win that all important contract. So how can you make sure you find the right partner? Here are top three questions that you should be able to answer clearly before you sign on the dotted line.

1. Why do we need each other?

First and foremost, it is helpful to be very clear about what each side needs in order to be successful. The answer is usually about more than capability. It usually involves brand alignment, market understanding, client relationships and capacity too. Being dishonest will lead to tension further down the track: every charity has experience of being used as “bid candy” to win a government contract, only to be ignored after it has been won. Being explicit about what your organisation is looking for and being clear about what your organisation will – and will not – bring to the table will help prevent wasted time and effort on all sides.

2. What kind of relationship do we want?

There are many ways that two (or more) organisations can work together: a consortia of organisations which would work in association; a prime who manages the relationship with the client and then lets subcontracts to other companies; or a “joint venture” – a new legal entity which is co-owned by more than one organisation. These different models all have pros and cons, but you should make sure you’re comfortable with your organisation’s role before agreeing to partner.

3. Do we understand each other?

By definition, you won’t have an in depth understanding of the capability of the organisation you’re planning to partner with: if you were experts in what they did, you wouldn’t need them. But it is worth making sure each side takes the time to understand the other’s capability, both to ensure the client gets a coherent solution and to maximise the impact of bringing it together. Similarly, make sure you understand each others’ culture. After all, the relationship will only work if you can have an open and honest relationship with them and your teams can collaborate effectively. If you can’t, delivering the contract will be a real challenge.

Once you’ve picked your partner, how can you set it up for a win? Next week, I’ll be writing about how to make a successful partnership work during the bid phase.

Josie Cluer is public sector lead at Moorhouse, the transformation consultancy.

An investigation carried out by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has revealed that the public sector still has barriers to entry, with incumbent suppliers having “an inherent advantage” over new bidders.

The OFT report said that IT procurement in the public sector was still plagued by issues of transparency and over complexity in contract arrangements.

The report said that suppliers often had greater information than public sector buyers who failed to: “routinely collect procurement data or make full use of market intelligence”.

The report concluded that public sector buyers need to be more aware of product and service data and that this information needs to be shared across the public departments.