£30m council outsourcing deal up for grabs

The London Borough of Southwark is to outsource its IT operations in a five-year deal expected to be worth more than £30m.

Southwark has outsourced its IT since 1995 and the new contract will replace a seven-year deal worth around £35m signed in 2001 with ITNet, now part of IT services company Serco.

IT will be a fundamental part of the borough's ambitious 10-year 'Southwark 2016' plan to overhaul the council's services and regenerate run-down neighbourhoods.

The tender states: "ICT is a fundamental business function in Southwark that exists at the centre of service delivery, enabling flexible working within the workforce and provides a solid foundation to generate future service improvements.

The outsourcing contract will cover software development and hosting, infrastructure management, project management and a technology refresh of IT equipment linked with a Citrix rollout.

The value of the deal is expected to be worth around £29m excluding VAT.

The contract will also be made available as a framework agreement to members of the London Contracts and Supplies Group, a procurement body made up of other boroughs, universities, the Metropolitan Police, Unison and a number of charities.

Tendering and shortlisting is expected to take more than a year, with the new outsourcing deal due to start on 31 July 2007. Southwark will also retain an option to extend the five-year deal by two more years.