DXC lands Metropolitan Police outsourcing deal that could climb to £1B
- Reference: 1775644193
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/04/08/dxc_met_police_contract/
- Source link:
Set to support a number of related organizations as well as the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), the contract includes ERP, resource management (RM), and business process outsourcing services (BPO) under the banner of Met Business Services (MBS).
DXC will support the current Oracle E-Business Suite and act as systems integrator for the move to Oracle Fusion SaaS on a completely new architecture.
[1]
An [2]award notice said the company had won the work for the "provision of managed services for HR, finance, and commercial operations… [including] technology enablement, process optimization, and service delivery."
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It said the deal was awarded to EntServ UK Limited, the registered company that operates under the name DXC Technology.
With a budget of around £3.8 billion last year, the Met began the search for a new service provider to support its technical estate in December 2024. [5]In a notice to the market , the Met said it wanted to re-tender a number of services under the banner of MBS, "primarily the existing Business Processing Outsourcing Services, ERP, and resource management requirements."
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It said it was looking for a "Master Vendor" to "bear the full risk for all subcontractors. However, MPS may require the ability to enforce the Supplier's contracts directly via third party rights in subcontracts."
The [7]business case for the new contract, signed off in January 2023, said it would replace the incumbent supplier, Shared Services Connected Limited (SSCL), owned by French services company Sopra Steria.
[8]DXC staff to strike in Australia after some go without pay rise for five years
[9]West Sussex's Oracle rollout pushed back again as costs balloon 15 times
[10]UK council digs deeper into capital assets to keep Oracle project afloat
[11]DXC paid 50% more than original contract value for disastrous public sector Oracle project
The SSCL outsourcing agreement began in 2015 under a "Business Support Services Transformation Programme." The deal was worth £234.5 million over ten years and was expected to accrue savings of £101.4 million in that time. However, the Met increased its value by £89 million in 2019 to account for "volumetric changes." Now the force has extended the arrangement again, adding a further £105 million to the cost, bringing the total contract price £428.5 million. It is set to end in 2027.
SSCL supports the ERP system called P-SOP, a policing version of Oracle E-Business Suite. The rationale for the move to SaaS points out that the existing system requires 55 separate interfaces, including interfaces with other legacy systems. The Met employs around 46,000 officers and staff.
In the [12]contract notice that kicked off the competition in January last year, the Met said the estimated contract term is up to ten years, including two years for design, build, transition, and implementation; five years to run the service; two years of potential extensions; and up to one year of termination assistance.
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The notice said The Met will cap the award at £370 million "based on pre-market engagement projections and an expected increase in automation by the market."
However, it added that the value could increase to £1 billion to "allow other associated organizations to access these services." The new award notice prices the deal at £1 billion.
The Register has asked the Met which authorities might access the service. ®
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[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2adZ7rHDfU-BnrrSXJq9RMAAAAAc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/030026-2026
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44adZ7rHDfU-BnrrSXJq9RMAAAAAc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33adZ7rHDfU-BnrrSXJq9RMAAAAAc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/17/met_police_seeks_business_services/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44adZ7rHDfU-BnrrSXJq9RMAAAAAc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.london.gov.uk/pcd-1357-met-shared-services
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/30/asia_tech_news_roundup/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/16/west_sussex_oracle/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/06/west_sussex_oracle/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/20/dxc_oracle_uk_contract/
[12] https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/001429-2025
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33adZ7rHDfU-BnrrSXJq9RMAAAAAc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Oracle
Do they never learn? Or is the first tranche of the overrun included in the billion?
Re: Oracle
As the forces are merging , I would say that this is the right time for something new, and the IT jobs will be security cleared so UK jobs. Also there is no way to plan it as the forces merge is still undecided.
Re: Oracle
Having worked on JDE and unravelling a system , I would say Oracle is a bit better than SAP , and this gives us time to understand a system when we are also merging all police forces, Oracle were helpful with unravelling JDE , and gave us , well me insight to how the ERP works, so I think it's a positive in the world of pretend SaaS and AI vibe coding, people will learn something as they have to.
Re: Oracle
Oracle may have been helpful in the years before they laid off a massive proportion of their workforce to pay for their crazy bet on AI. I wouldn't necessarily assume that the same applies going forward
Re: Oracle
" Oracle may have been helpful in the years before… "
I suspect "useful" only in the sense that if you had peripheral gangrene and needed toes removed.
Re: Oracle
Ah forgot about this , don't think it's AI just that a big recession is looming.
DXC lands Metropolitan Police outsourcing deal
" Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate "
DXC isn't even the first circle of Hell but Oracle itself has major tenancies on most circles.
figures
I see the original provisioning for SSCL was £234.5m, expected to accrue savings of £101m over the 10 year period. That is almost half the contract's worth, what kind of idiot would believe you could claw back half the contract in cost savings and the total ended up being double the original price. Maybe the scope changed but no details in the text to say why.
I've spent many years working in the city with outsourcing , never heard of a 43% savings on any outsourcing , in fact any saving at all, everything springs way out of the original budget but we still hope and pray it's going to happen one day like water into wine....
They should get pre 11 plus kids to do these figure estimations they would be much closer to the real cost.
Is it going to be any better with the estimates for DXC going by their past articles on this website , No fucking way :) , in fact double those current estimates and then add more quarter , half etc and savings don't even bother asking, it's a guaranteed no.
Oracle
What could possibly go wrong here ?
So in about 3 years time there will be no bobbies on the beat in London as their budget is going on the huge overrun on cost that will happen