Contract News: Public Sector deals

CAP GEMINI ERNST & YOUNG/FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE

CGE&Y has won a £53m, seven-year contract to supply the Foreign Office with the Prism Programme, enabling it to manage staff and finances more effectively. The Prism Programme is an integrated IT system which brings together the finance, personnel payroll and procurement functions. It will hopefully bring about widespread change to the internal operations of the Foreign Office.

BOTTOMLINE TECHNOLOGIES/UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL LANCASHIRE

The University of Central Lancashire has chosen a billing solution from financial software company Bottomline. The deal, which enables students to sign up instantly over the phone or web, should see the University become one of the most advanced in terms of income management.

TOUCHPAPER/CAMBRIDGESHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

IT support solutions provider Touchpaper has won a £380,000 contract to provide Cambridgeshire County Council with an IT service management system for its 3,500 staff. The five-year deal has seen the Council purchase HelpDesk, AQuire and ChangeManager licences, enabling it to support users and resolve helpdesk queries 25% quicker.

ORACLE/GLASGOW CITY COUNCIL

Glasgow City Council has purchased Oracle9i Application Server, which will eventually wirelessly enable 200 of its field workers. The deal initially sees 80 building services operational managers connect in real-time to the council’s back office systems, via Compaq iPaq devices. The Oracle software will speed up the process, allowing the managers to input data and connect with the department’s database from various locations.

METRON/KENT COUNTY COUNCIL

Metron has supplied Kent County Council with the Athene APR (Automated Performance Reporting) service. The deal allows the council to check up the performance of various systems that it currently uses, enabling it to identify and evaluate any problems.

PARITY/OGCBUYING.SOLUTIONS

Parity has been selected as a public sector service supplier for OGCbuying.solutions, a branch of the Treasury, which aims to achieve value-for-money improvements in the public sector procurement budget. Parity has also been chosen by OGC to deliver application services and managed services through a Government Telecommunication Contract.

BIOMNI/STAFFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

E-procurement company Biomni has provided Staffordshire County Council with management information systems reporting, which has been enabled in six weeks. The system should make it easier for purchasing controllers to monitor budgets, cut transaction costs and track orders.

SX3/NEWHAM COUNCIL

Sx3 has won a £2m contract to supply Newham Council housing service with an integrated system for rents, repairs and other areas of the department’s work. The first phase of the system is due to go live in April.

DAMOVO/LONDON UNDERGROUND

Solutions provider Damovo has installed a new contact centre at London Underground’s St James Park site. The new system has brought together 40 call agents who were previously based in four different locations and contactable via 10 different numbers. Passengers can also make enquiries by e-mail from the London Underground website.

GGP SYSTEMS/WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL

West Dunbartonshire Council has used a Geographic Information System from GGP Systems to locate old industrial sites and identify land that may be contaminated. The system compares Landmark historic maps and digital Ordnance Survey maps, allowing comparison over four different layers dating back to the 1850s.

ICL/FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE

ICL has won a £6.3m, four-year contract to help the Foreign Office build a “knowledge programme”, enabling information to be shared globally across the department. The new service is seen as critical for the day-to-day running of the FCO.

PEGASUS SOFTWARE/INLAND REVENUE

Pegasus is the first software vendor to complete testing for submitting PAYE P14 and P35 forms to the Inland Revenue. The vendor’s payroll software, Pegasus eSubmission Utility, can now be used to send PAYE forms and returns to the Inland Revenue over the Internet.