The commercial wing of the UK government has named the winners on a £3.5bn framework to provide public-sector contact centres, including enterprise and infrastructure software to support them.

Reading like a rogues' gallery of repeat offenders, the list features Capita, G4S, Serco, and Accenture, which take their place on a framework designed to provide "outsourced contact centre services, shared services and operational business process services," according to a [1]tender document from the Crown Commercial Service.

The framework is set to be used by the UK's central government and wider public-sector organisations, including local authorities, the NHS, non-departmental government bodies, and police, as well as third-sector organisations such as charities.

[2]

The deal is split into two lots: one for contact centres, worth up to £1.5bn, and a second for business services, worth up to £2bn.

Full list of winners

NCO Europe, lot 1

Go Centric, lot 1

Teleperformance, lot 1

Ventrica, lot 1

Hinduja Global Solutions, lot 1

Arvato, lot 1 and 2

Sitel, lot 1

Shared Services Connected, lot 1 and 2

TTEC UK Solutions, lot 1

Capita Business Services, lot 1 and 2

Serco, lot 1 and 2

G4S Facilities Management, lot 1

Charles Novacroft Direct, lot 1

The Contact Company, lot 1

ResQ, lot 1

Accenture, lot 2

Liberata, lot 2

NHS Shared Business Services, lot 2

The procurement dates back to [3]a prior information notice published October 2019 while the UK was still formally part of the EU. That document signalled that total spending through the framework might be as much as £5bn and said a contract notice would be available in August 2020.

In fact, the [4]contract notice did not appear until April 2021 with the maximum on offer shaved to £3.5bn.

[5]British teachers' pensions set to be released from Capita's grasp after nearly 30 years

[6]SWAN-song: Scotland re-tenders WAN framework for up to £350m

[7]Equiniti wins Northern Ireland Finance Department contract to build land revenue system... 4 years after project proposed

[8]North Wales Police seek IT services partners in deals worth up to £41.6m

Outsourcing on this scale has proved a tricky business in government. In 2006, [9]Accenture walked away from a £2bn NHS deal as part of the disastrous National Programme for IT. Capita-run GP back-office services have been [10]dubbed an "unmitigated disaster ." Serco [11]bagged a £322m contract for the NHS Test and Trace pandemic response but struggled to share data with local authorities. Meanwhile, G4S and Serco were involved in a prisoner tagging scheme [12]blasted as a "catastrophic waste of public money" by MPs .

Still, we're sure this time it will be different, eh readers? ®

Get our [13]Tech Resources



[1] https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/020738-2021

[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/paasiaas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YSdmZZ4u-tpNtzOyZnf5KQAAAA8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[3] https://ted.europa.eu/TED/notice/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:502142-2019:TEXT:EN:HTML

[4] https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/006901-2021?origin=SearchResults&p=1

[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/24/teacher_pensions_capita/

[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/18/scotland_retenders_wan_framework/

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/29/northern_ireland_finance_department_land_revenue_contract/

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/27/north_wales_police_it_services/

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2006/09/28/accenture_failure_success/

[10] https://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/technology/capita-run-gp-back-office-services-are-an-unmitigated-disaster-says-gpc-chair/

[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/28/serco_bags_a_322m_contract/

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2018/01/24/electronic_tagging_catastrophic_waste_of_public_money/

[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/