LOL ;-) UK govt 2 pay £39m 4 txt msgs 4 less thn 2 yrs
- Reference: 1628083572
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/08/04/uk_govt_text_message_contract/
- Source link:
According to a contract award notice published this week, MMGRP Limited was handed £21.6m to support GOV.UK Notify, a multi-channel digital communications platform.
"These messages will typically be status updates, requests for action, receipts of applications or supporting information, and reminders," [1]the notice said .
[2]
The contract – which offers public-sector employed users to send emails, text messages, and letters to the great unwashed – is set to last just 9 months from 1 July 2021 to 31 March 2022.
[3]
[4]
But the government had [5]already signed a £17.5m deal to get the vendor to run the service from 1 December 2020 to 31 March 2021.
Both deals were "call-offs" from a framework contract signed between MMGRP Limited and government procurement unit Crown Commercial Services.
[6]Equiniti wins Northern Ireland Finance Department contract to build land revenue system... 4 years after project proposed
[7]NHS contracts for document storage, digitisation three years after paperless deadline
[8]Five consultancies with severe branding difficulties win spots on UK government's £580m 'transformation' services framework
[9]Fujitsu wins £9m contract hike for Oracle HR system running nearly 3 years late at Northern Ireland Education Authority
GOV.UK Notify can be used by public-sector bodies including central government departments, local authorities, or the NHS. It also offers the ability to "integrate the Notify API with your web application or back-office system to send messages automatically," according to its website.
But clearly UK tax collector HMRC did not get the message. It separately contracted the vendor for a deal that ran from July 2019 to 31 March 2021 although the details were not [10]published until March this year .
[11]
MMGRP Limited is the registered name of MMG, "a global leader in Secure Enterprise A2P SMS Messaging," according to its website. Its platform has connections to 800 carriers in over 200 countries and allows over 70,000 client connections per second via API. It claims to send more than 30,000 SMSes every second. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/134236b5-c9e8-4378-8af9-19b8ccb90d90
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YQq5tZ-g3mp08uefu7BXGAAAAIY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YQq5tZ-g3mp08uefu7BXGAAAAIY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YQq5tZ-g3mp08uefu7BXGAAAAIY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/00f3defc-0e4c-482d-8995-d758a5b62b4d
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/29/northern_ireland_finance_department_land_revenue_contract/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/13/three_years_after_nhs_missed/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/07/uk_gov_580m_framework/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/29/fujitsu_ni_education_contract/
[10] https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/005618-2021
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YQq5tZ-g3mp08uefu7BXGAAAAIY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Sigh...
Probably a fair bit cheaper than each department sending only letters in far greater quantities, on individually-negotiated supplier contracts. Think of the trees! (And the cost of postage...)
Re: Sigh...
Isn't it the Tories who keep banging on about value for money about taxpayer's money?
Hmm. So come the next election, they can be reminded of this. Not that it matters. They'll simply make some fantasy accusations about immigrants, and the old, white racists will shout, "yeah, you should be more careful with taxpayers' money, but we hate immigrants," so the Tories will get in again.
As for Labour, well we don't want them. They too will spend lots of taxpayers' money, but on the poor. FFS why waste it on those that have nowt. Tories, Tories, Tories...
'Twas ever thus in this scummy country of ours.
That's my prediction.
Re: Sigh...
Err you do realise it was Labour who bailed the banks out as soon as it looked like rich people may become poor? The tories shouldn't be allowed anywhere near government, but neither should any of the main political parties. The sooner the electorate work this out, the better for everyone.
Re: Sigh...
What's the alternative?
Re: Sigh...
No-one voting. The embarrassment that a party got in on such small numbers might be our only chance to rejig the election system.
Of course this will never happen because us plebs are too worried that our little opinion vote will be wasted.
Re: Sigh...
The alternative is campaigning for "None of the above" to be added to voting slips in a General Election. This forces each party to realise that none of them have a mandate to govern us as "least worst" is not something the UK voting population enjoys particularly much and which we've been stuck with for the last ohhhh ..... 30 years? Destroying the two-party pendulum will help tremendously. Giving "cheaper beer" away to win votes, while having a little policy on page 76 of your manifesto saying "we will introduce laws restricting your freedom based on data we don't understand" isn't an appealing option IMHO.
Seems like a good contract to have
Only needs one employee to run, a parent company in Gibraltar and a director in Jersey. Can you let me know next time there's a similar contract going up for grabs.
Re: Seems like a good contract to have
Don't forget to claim the mandatory Tory Party membership as a business expense.
Re: Seems like a good contract to have
Isn't that a conflict of interest? Instead of paying for party membership, you pay a donation.
Re: Seems like a good contract to have
You just need to join the bidding list, aka the Tory party donation list
Re: Seems like a good contract to have
> Only needs one employee to run, a parent company in Gibraltar and a director in Jersey.
from the fine article:
The contract – which offers public-sector employed users to send emails, text messages, and letters to the great unwashed – is set to last just 9 months from 1 July 2021 to 31 March 2022.
How do you propose to send the letters then? Print them out at home and post them from Gibraltar?
Re: Seems like a good contract to have
Moonpig, innit?
Re: Seems like a good contract to have
How do you propose to send the letters then?
Easy peasy, you subcontract the mail handling.
Re: Seems like a good contract to have
How do you propose to send the letters then?
You just hire someone on inside IR35 contract - no need to worry about pesky employment laws and minimum wage.
Something thay could have procured from Twillio, or a similar service, for a tiny fraction of the cost.
MMGRP are probably using Twillio as it is.
Yup. So easy to set this up.
While I understand people making a mistake (we all do) this is only the tip of the iceberg.
Public sector management operate with impunity, safe in the knowledge that there's no day of judgement if they really mess things-up.
An index-linked, final salary pension awaits, nobody will rock the boat and nobody will question upper management. Can you imagine if the people concerned worked for one of the cloudy (or OTT) companies? They'd be on their way home before mid-morning coffee.
The worst part is that it's all of us that will ultimately pay for the mistake (and their relaxed retirement), while scratching around to fund our own.
Often these gaff-prone boneheads will obtain a peerage (of similar honour) for their years steering their ship into the rocks.
MMGRP
" MMGRP Limited is the registered name of MMG, "a global leader in Secure Enterprise A2P SMS Messaging, "
If they've got a contract from the Tories, I'm guessing they're also a global leader in pizza and non-functional PPE in North Essex? And provision of ferries between Brighton and London.
Sigh...
I'm sure it's worth every single penny of OUR money!