Police complaints body plots £50m tech review

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is about to begin a multimillion pound review of its IT strategy.

Its head of IT Steve Gediking said the organisation would be looking at how to make more use of IT while at the same time rationalising its property footprint. The IPCC currently operates out of five separate buildings but up to 90 of its 420 staff are out of the office for part of their jobs.

It is understood the new contract will be worth between £30 and £50m over 10 years.

The IPCC's existing systems supplier Anite has had a £20m contract to supply back-office and case management systems for the organisation since 2003 but the contract is due to end in 2009.

Gediking is keen to see if any mobile and remote working offerings are pitched to him - the IPCC is currently conducting a PDA pilot with MDA handsets supplied by T-Mobile being used by directors and commissioners.

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One of the principal challenges in introducing out-of-office access to data is the level of security the IPCC needs. Gediking told silicon.com its security standards are unusually high, so that it can be authorised to handle police and security services data. He said he is in talks with a number of suppliers about working with them so they can attain those levels of security.

Gediking said he is also considering outsourcing or sharing some back-office processes. This week he is advertising for a project manager to head up the task of reviewing the IPCC's IT contracts.

He said: "We will be looking for people with experience of outsourcing projects within the public sector but in respect of business processes as well as IT, so that we have the opportunity to improve business systems as well as infrastructure."