NHS awards £500m everything-and-the-kitchen-sink framework to a long list of resellers
(2020/10/22)
- Reference: 1603361409
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/10/22/nhs_award_500m_framework/
- Source link:
NHS Shared Business Services, the joint venture between the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care and French outsourcing firm Sopra Steria, has awarded a £500m framework to an army of resellers and technology firms.
Released because of the “consistent and growing market for one-stop solutions”, the framework requests a long list of IT services, software and hardware: everything from antivirus software to mainframe computers, according to [1]the contract award notice .
So long is the list of winners (28 in all, see box), it could raise questions over the value of being on the framework at all, since the lucky firms might not actually get work from it. Frameworks are supposed to get better prices for the public sector by securing volume deals from suppliers, while also easing the pre-qualification process for procurement.
Complete list of £500m framework winners:
Amicus ITS
Bechtle Direct
CDW
Centerprise International
Cisilion
Computacenter
Dacoll
Dell Corporation
EACS
European Electronique
Insight Direct
Khipu Networks
Mother Technologies
Novosco
Nviron
Phoenix Software
Proact IT
Riomed
Six Degrees Technology Group
Softcat
Software Box
Specialist Computer Centres
Switchshop
TET
Total Computer Networks
Trustco
Trustmarque Solutions
XMA
The [2]prior information notice for contract said that “whilst the framework is looking for a full solution, please note that contracting authorities will be able to buy pieces of hardware and/or software as required through the framework.”
Hardware on the framework includes servers, storage, LAN, WAN and SAN networking equipment, switches, back-up and recovery, and client devices. The software includes virtualisation platforms, virtualisation management, session brokers, desktop operating systems, and other third-party software including bespoke/niche software.
NHS: Remember those patient records we didn't deliver? Well, we found another 162,000 [3]READ MORE
But it is not just hardware and software that NHS Shared Business Services is shopping for. Earlier this month it [4]published a contract notice to create a supplier framework for AI software that supports stroke treatment. The aim is to "provide AI solutions that support the analysis of medical imaging for... strokes and to support clinicians [to] diagnose and treat strokes faster and more reliably," the tender said.
Last year, the procurement joint venture [5]launched a list of pre-approved cloud services suppliers for public sector organisations “to provide a simpler way for the NHS and other public sector organisations to make sense of an extremely complex market.”
SBS is best known [6]in these pages for a massive patient records ballsup that saw over half a million confidential pieces of correspondence go missing between 2011 and 2016, including test results and changes of address forms. The documents were apparently left gathering dust in a warehouse, as a result of which thousands of cases were sent for a full clinical review. ®
Get our [7]Tech Resources
[1] https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:500554-2020:TEXT:EN:HTML&src=0
[2] https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:331311-2019:TEXT:EN:HTML
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2017/10/17/nhs_finds_another_162000_unprocessed_patient_records/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/08/nhs_offers_15m_for_ai/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2019/09/10/preapproved_cloud_services_list_uk_public_sector/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2017/10/17/nhs_finds_another_162000_unprocessed_patient_records/
[7] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Released because of the “consistent and growing market for one-stop solutions”, the framework requests a long list of IT services, software and hardware: everything from antivirus software to mainframe computers, according to [1]the contract award notice .
So long is the list of winners (28 in all, see box), it could raise questions over the value of being on the framework at all, since the lucky firms might not actually get work from it. Frameworks are supposed to get better prices for the public sector by securing volume deals from suppliers, while also easing the pre-qualification process for procurement.
Complete list of £500m framework winners:
Amicus ITS
Bechtle Direct
CDW
Centerprise International
Cisilion
Computacenter
Dacoll
Dell Corporation
EACS
European Electronique
Insight Direct
Khipu Networks
Mother Technologies
Novosco
Nviron
Phoenix Software
Proact IT
Riomed
Six Degrees Technology Group
Softcat
Software Box
Specialist Computer Centres
Switchshop
TET
Total Computer Networks
Trustco
Trustmarque Solutions
XMA
The [2]prior information notice for contract said that “whilst the framework is looking for a full solution, please note that contracting authorities will be able to buy pieces of hardware and/or software as required through the framework.”
Hardware on the framework includes servers, storage, LAN, WAN and SAN networking equipment, switches, back-up and recovery, and client devices. The software includes virtualisation platforms, virtualisation management, session brokers, desktop operating systems, and other third-party software including bespoke/niche software.
NHS: Remember those patient records we didn't deliver? Well, we found another 162,000 [3]READ MORE
But it is not just hardware and software that NHS Shared Business Services is shopping for. Earlier this month it [4]published a contract notice to create a supplier framework for AI software that supports stroke treatment. The aim is to "provide AI solutions that support the analysis of medical imaging for... strokes and to support clinicians [to] diagnose and treat strokes faster and more reliably," the tender said.
Last year, the procurement joint venture [5]launched a list of pre-approved cloud services suppliers for public sector organisations “to provide a simpler way for the NHS and other public sector organisations to make sense of an extremely complex market.”
SBS is best known [6]in these pages for a massive patient records ballsup that saw over half a million confidential pieces of correspondence go missing between 2011 and 2016, including test results and changes of address forms. The documents were apparently left gathering dust in a warehouse, as a result of which thousands of cases were sent for a full clinical review. ®
Get our [7]Tech Resources
[1] https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:500554-2020:TEXT:EN:HTML&src=0
[2] https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:331311-2019:TEXT:EN:HTML
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2017/10/17/nhs_finds_another_162000_unprocessed_patient_records/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/08/nhs_offers_15m_for_ai/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2019/09/10/preapproved_cloud_services_list_uk_public_sector/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2017/10/17/nhs_finds_another_162000_unprocessed_patient_records/
[7] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Sopra Steria ?
Pascal Monett
Another failure in the making, then.
Oh, but it's the NHS. Carry on, then.
A license to print money (for the resellers)
hoola
The trouble with all these frameworks is once they are in there is never any meaningful follow up audits to ensure that the selected resellers are delivering value. There are names on the list that have been on other frameworks that ended up with public sector bodies being fleeced. Any reseller that gets in just wants the largest slice of the cake that they can get, reliant on ill-informed management to assist them in there efforts to extract money.
The point of these frameworks was a good concept that has sadly been completely abused by both sides, laziness on the part or the purchasing organisations and greed on the part of the resellers.
Salami slicing of the NHS goes on. Chop, chop, chop until nothing is left.