UK.gov's centralised buying agency wafts £1.2bn of taxpayer cash in return for a bevy of back-office software
(2020/11/16)
- Reference: 1605531612
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/11/16/ukgov_back_office_software_contract/
- Source link:
The UK government's Crown Commercial Services (CCS) has issued a contract for back-office software with an estimated street value of £1.2bn.
A [1]tender document published last week said the government is on the hunt for a smorgasbord of enterprise software including but not limited to ERP, human capital management, financial accounting, procurement, reporting, customer relationship management, and workflow technologies.
The four-year framework is expected to have a value up to £1.2bn, or about a [2]third of the cost of an aircraft carrier .
Keen-eyed readers will notice the government has already had a cosy fireside chat with the vendors – sorry "market engagement" – for all back-office software required by central government departments which put the value of the work at something like [3]£400m for two years with a two-year extension.
CCS was set to hold "market engagement sessions" with suppliers during June and expected to publish a contract notice on 22 September. Where the extra £800m came from is not revealed in the tender documents.
The Cabinet Office has been contacted for comment.
As with the prior information notice, the latest £1.2bn contract is designed to "provide a route to market for organisations wishing to purchase software subscriptions and licence support for back office systems direct from the software vendor."
It continued: "Buyers will be able to award specific call-off contracts through two order procedures including direct award and further competition."
Those vendors wishing to participate must get in touch by 10 December.
The CCS has already signalled a move away from "bespoke systems" towards "efficient, industry-standard processes, enabled by commercial off the shelf software" and procurement for [4]business transformation consultancy worth £100m .
In March, the CCS [5]tendered a £15m contract for consultancy services to shift central government ERP to a software-as-a-service model. It was looking for a partner to "facilitate an operations and technology transformation across finance, HR, payroll and procurement and move to a SaaS solution."
In an earlier strategy document
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[1] https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:547346-2020:TEXT:EN:HTML&src=0
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Elizabeth-class_aircraft_carrier#:~:text=scheduled%20maintenance%20period.-,Costs,estimated%20at%20%C2%A30.6%20billion
[3] https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:258312-2020:TEXT:EN:HTML
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2020/06/02/government_dangles_100_million_for/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2020/04/03/uk_govenment_sop2saas/
[6] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/844390/Government_Shared_Services_Strategy_Refresh.pdf
[7] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
A [1]tender document published last week said the government is on the hunt for a smorgasbord of enterprise software including but not limited to ERP, human capital management, financial accounting, procurement, reporting, customer relationship management, and workflow technologies.
The four-year framework is expected to have a value up to £1.2bn, or about a [2]third of the cost of an aircraft carrier .
Keen-eyed readers will notice the government has already had a cosy fireside chat with the vendors – sorry "market engagement" – for all back-office software required by central government departments which put the value of the work at something like [3]£400m for two years with a two-year extension.
CCS was set to hold "market engagement sessions" with suppliers during June and expected to publish a contract notice on 22 September. Where the extra £800m came from is not revealed in the tender documents.
The Cabinet Office has been contacted for comment.
As with the prior information notice, the latest £1.2bn contract is designed to "provide a route to market for organisations wishing to purchase software subscriptions and licence support for back office systems direct from the software vendor."
It continued: "Buyers will be able to award specific call-off contracts through two order procedures including direct award and further competition."
Those vendors wishing to participate must get in touch by 10 December.
The CCS has already signalled a move away from "bespoke systems" towards "efficient, industry-standard processes, enabled by commercial off the shelf software" and procurement for [4]business transformation consultancy worth £100m .
In March, the CCS [5]tendered a £15m contract for consultancy services to shift central government ERP to a software-as-a-service model. It was looking for a partner to "facilitate an operations and technology transformation across finance, HR, payroll and procurement and move to a SaaS solution."
In an earlier strategy document
[6]PDF
, the government said it was looking to move departments to one of three application providers and named Oracle, SAP, and Workday as the vendors that meet the government's requirements. ®Get our [7]Tech Resources
[1] https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:547346-2020:TEXT:EN:HTML&src=0
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Elizabeth-class_aircraft_carrier#:~:text=scheduled%20maintenance%20period.-,Costs,estimated%20at%20%C2%A30.6%20billion
[3] https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:258312-2020:TEXT:EN:HTML
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2020/06/02/government_dangles_100_million_for/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2020/04/03/uk_govenment_sop2saas/
[6] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/844390/Government_Shared_Services_Strategy_Refresh.pdf
[7] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/