IBM wins £1.4bn Defra deal

IBM has won the £1.4bn deal to run the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

The supplier has been announced as the preferred bidder, over shortlisted rival Capgemini, and is expected to sign the deal within the next month. The contract will run for seven years, with an option to extend to as many as 17.

The e-Enabling Defra programme is at the heart of government policies to devolved the delivery of rural services to local and regional bodies. IBM will manage both the department's desktop infrastructure and business applications, and the development of nationally accessible systems to underpin the new strategy to separate Defra's policy-making and delivery functions.

Minister for Rural Affairs Alun Michael said: 'I am confident that IBM will play a key role in supporting the Department's transformation and improving our service to customers.

'The agreement will create capacity to accelerate our pace of change, while reducing costs and increasing the quality of service delivered to staff.'

Defra programme director David Myers said: 'This has been a very competitive process with both the shortlisted companies demonstrating strong commitment and enthusiasm. I would like to pay tribute to both of them for the professional and thorough way in which they have approached this procurement.

'Building on the solid base of an excellent Defra IT strategy, this approach contributed to a very smooth procurement process which has been completed on time, with all delivery dates being hit.'

The foundation of the programme is three data repositories created around Defra's primary areas of responsibility - land, animals and customers. Information held in the repositories will be available to anyone who needs to use it to deliver rural, environmental or land policy, including agencies, non-departmental public bodies and regional development agencies.

Implementation will include development of the databases and roll out of better networking to access the new systems.