By Dan Ilett, 30 August 2006 12:00
NEWS
The government has struck a deal with IT suppliers that will allow the public sector to buy hardware with up to a 45 per cent discount.
OGCbuying.solutions - the government's e-procurement arm - conducted the competition for desktop, laptops and monitors.
Suppliers were asked to give prices against a common set of specifications, resulting in savings of over 45 per cent.
Hugh Barrett, CEO of OGCbuying.solutions, said the PC specifications are designed to handle current software packages and subsequent releases. He said the deal meant laptops can now be bought for around £430 and desktops £280.
The "highly competitive" pricing applies regardless of the volumes purchased.
Seventeen companies involved in the initiative will have to update their deals every three months, the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) said. The deals are available to all public sector customers.
Earlier this year an online auction saved 12 public sector organisations a combined £2.7m on the purchase of IT hardware.
The auction, the fifth of a series run by the OGC, led to a 41 per cent reduction in purchase price against the starting bid of £6.5m.
The auction ran for just over seven hours and led to a total of 400 bids from seven IT suppliers. Among the 12 public sector bodies to use the auction to procure IT hardware were various NHS Trusts, a social housing body and a primary school.
Comments
There are 3 comments. Join the discussion
1. Bruce Sandeman
This is ridiculous, no wonder the government's got soooo much debt they really have no idea how much things cost!
50% discount is insane!
I can buy cheaper from many web sites out there, including Dell!
Somebody's been clearly telling the government some lies, and I'm surprised that Silicon didn't pick up on this.
2. Rosaleen McCarthy
At a time when Tesco's are advertising Acer laptops at £299 (complete with operating systems) - and many other companies (eg., Staples) are selling acceptable and "name" brand laptops at less than £400 - the Public Sector deal does not look especially good value. But perhaps there are details of specification, support and software that this short article could not cover. Surely the Public Sector couldn't over-spend on IT - could it?
3. anonymous
The public service specifies technical and quality standards for their PC's - components and architecture, not reliably available in the cheap home PC market. Guarantees include kit that is clean and new, of a trustworthy and reliable standard and not reconstituted from re-used or salvaged components and re-sold as new.
The e-gov price is below commercial book price, discount on volume sales applies across the Public sector and the system offers a choice of suppliers.
A centralised public sector purchasing site reduces contract and tender costs, and will serve a small volume request and the large purchaser well.