Deloitte wins deal worth up to £100M for UK border platform
- Reference: 1688471442
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/07/04/deloitte_uk_border_contract/
- Source link:
The global consultancy bagged the three-year contract to help design, build, operate and maintain "a market-leading digital platform," the so-called "Single Trade Window" (STW), which the government hopes will create a single gateway for all data from traders.
According to a [1]tender notice , Deloitte will "need to work flexibly with the STW Programme and its delivery partners across [government] departments to ensure the service design and delivery of the STW is fit for now and for the future, to enable the range of ambitious border transformations that Government is undertaking."
[2]
Instead of going to open competition, the deal was awarded as a call-off from a pre-existing framework agreement, [3]Technology Services 3 .
[4]
[5]
The STW is described in the [6]2025 UK Border Strategy [PDF], launched in December 2020, following the 2019 election of Boris Johnson as prime minister, who promised to "get Brexit done."
[7]Brexit Britain looks to French company to save crumbling borders and immigration tech
[8]BAE Systems handed £38m Border Force intelligence contract
[9]IBM doesn't think Brexit is such a bad thing these days
[10]UK signs deal to share police biometric database with US border guards
Following the UK's practical departure from the EU at the end of the 2021 transition period, open border arrangements with the EU, by far the nation's largest trading partner, came to an end and border checkers came into place.
The UK had relied on a patchwork of systems to check goods at the border and record information required by customs and traders. Among them was Chief, a system introduced in 1994 and [11]set to be decommissioned by June 2023 , owing to the delayed 10-year project to replace it with IBM's Customs Declaration Service.
"The STW is a fundamental enabler for future change at the border," the tender document says. "It will deliver a set of technology capabilities that make a range of border policy changes possible that were historically not feasible due to the disparate sources of border data across government."
[12]
Systems currently used to record data about goods at the border – which include those from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs – is "not optimised to share useful data between departments," according to the government strategy. The STW is modeled on systems employed by other governments around the world, including New Zealand. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/notice/da844e84-d4b4-46fa-8f40-df5a87866626?origin=SearchResults&p=1
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZKRCKxJCarbLiPg-ukuE1wAAAhI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.crowncommercial.gov.uk/agreements/RM6100
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZKRCKxJCarbLiPg-ukuE1wAAAhI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZKRCKxJCarbLiPg-ukuE1wAAAhI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/945380/2025_UK_Border_Strategy.pdf
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/10/capgemini_uk_border_contract/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/16/bae_systems_get_38_million/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/24/ibm_uturn_brexit/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/04/uk_us_border_biometric_data/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/08/chief_retirement/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZKRCKxJCarbLiPg-ukuE1wAAAhI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Good luck
Working with them on a project at the moment.
All oursourced.
Only work the outsource teams local hours, not GMT/BST
Absolutely shit coding
project currently delayed indefinately as the cannot fix any of their API issues (one "techy" did not get their head around oAuth and then was more confused when we told them the API we had built for them, and why it was not what they were looking at in the documentaiton. We asked them to show us the documenttion, and they were looking at the inbound API for THEIR product
Big4
My knowledge of the Big4 in general is as follows:
- They have some smart people and some not so smart people
- Whether smart or not, most are quite overpaid, and more importantly, vastly overcharged in relation to actual experience
- Their insane bills mean they can often throw vast resources at some things that others can’t
- You might get a speed advantage as a result
- You’ll likely get terrible value for money
- The quality has a high chance of being lower than if you just employed real specialists in whatever field it is you want them to do
- So, as another poster says, you’ll probably rack up huge cost on middle management / project cost and pay peanuts / get monkeys delivering the actual product if outsourced. If not outsourced then the man hours at their rates will likely be far too low compared to what a specialist company would have used
So chances are this is another example of winning work due to their aura, connections, or weighty proposals/promises.
I'm struggling...
..to comment on this without swearing.
If you want evidence that our government is either incapable or unwilling to lift a finger to improve things under Brexit, this is it. To launch a three year (we know it will be five) project SEVEN YEARS after the decision was made is astonishing.
And the thing here is that ignoring all of the stupid politics around Brexit, there is a clear and obvious case for us to digitise our borders and make them as efficient as possible - we're an island nation that trades globally, why on earth would we accept making that any more difficult than is absolutely necessary? If there was a convenient time and excuse for putting some serious effort into it, it was five years ago.. and yet here we are..
The icing on the cake is repeating the usual big government mistakes - do it as one huge project, managed by a consultancy that lobbies the government hard for influence and has no track record of delivering projects like this to spec, on time or on budget (pick 0 out of 3). Set a deadline that is conveniently after the next general election and then retire early for drinks. What could possibly go right?
Re: I'm struggling...
If it had been up to me, I would've asked the people promoting it to explain exactly what "Brexit" meant and how it would be accomplished before the referendum. I mean, whenever I have to present options to management, I have rarely been able to get away with "Dunno but it'll be great" as one of the options.
Epic Chaos, General Chaos imminent
Let's see how many times Deloitte has been fined in last 3 years for mismanagement, lax procedures shall we?
Oh dear, https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=deloitte+fined+tax&ia=web I don't predict this going well, unless you're the account team getting the fat bonus for landing the deal we the taxpayers will probably get screwed...
£100M for UK border platform
I thought that our crumbling platforms might be the responsibility of good old British Rail but on checking them I see "Welcome to the New National Rail Website! We're in the process of building a brand new website that will make it easier and quicker to find whatever you're looking for. We remain your trusted source for train information, so you can still check Live Trains and Status and Disruptions (including planned engineering works)."
So they know nothing about platforms - neither do Accountants,
three-year contract to help design, build, operate and maintain "a market-leading digital platform"
1. It's taken 2.5 years to get from announcing the project to awarding a contract. The design hasn't even begun yet. There's no way they'll get all this done in 3 years if they're that slow.
2. "a market-leading digital platform" : what market will it be leading? The market for the digital customs system the UK is building? Of course they'll be leading the market if the number of customers for that product is precisely one, and they're the chosen supplier.
3. Just useless, clueless, worthless, stupid, reckless government. Oh, we'll only need some sort of adequate system about ten years after we've created the situation that requires one. Rotterdam had all their systems, staff and checks ready the first day they were required. But that's in the decrepit EU, not world beating zingy Global Britain!
I see 2 Sweepstakes here
1 ) How much will it end up costing
2) How long will it actually take before delivery
Actually More
3) Will Deloite ACTUALLY be able to complete it before taking the cash and handing it off to someone else to do
4) How many outages will we see/year once it's running leading to massive shortages in the shops