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By Tony Hallett, 23 November 1998 16:21

NEWS A consortium comprising UK-based IT services companies, ICL and CMG, has won a 10 year, £200m contract to meet various IT needs at the UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). The consortium, known as Unitas, won the contract under the UK government's Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme, the successor to the previous government's much-criticised Private Finance Initiative (PFI). Alan Gibson, executive director ICL, explained: "We will provide services and equipment for the DTI - for example, running helpdesk operations - but the whole thing will be owned by us. This means there is a chance in the future that we could use the infrastructure for someone else, assuming there are no security problems." Gibson said the project is the result of over a year's negotiations. It will be known as project Elgar (Electronic government through administrative re-engineering). Ian Taylor, UK chairman of CMG, said he believed Elgar will lead to the DTI being held up as a prime example of government and industry working together under PPP. The Unitas bid was chosen over others from major outsourcing players including Siemens Business Systems, and a team consisting of EDS and PricewaterhouseCoopers. ICL's Gibson said the relationship the company struck this year with Microsoft - leading to the e.workplace portfolio of IT and communication services - was a "contributing factor" to the contract win.