DWP seeks suppliers in £70m deal

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is looking for suppliers to provide software hosting and support services in a five-year deal expected to be worth Eur100m (£70m).

The DWP is planning a number of IT projects over the next two years to be covered by the contract, the first of which is an installation of Oracle's 11i ebusiness application, starting in 2004. The system will be accessed by 130,000 users in 1,500 locations.

The contract will cover hosting and operational support and working with other suppliers involved in the various projects.

The initiatives are part of a wider modernisation programme across DWP.

'The Department wishes to improve its business management systems, using an enterprise resource planning system. This will underpin a wider programme of business improvement within the Department by allowing enhanced management of resources, better support for decision-making, improved planning and reporting, and enabling greater organisational flexibility,' said a DWP spokeswoman.

This year, the DWP has also signed a £170m deal with BT's Syntegra subsidiary for a managed telephony service for its contact centres, and introduced the first major open-source software installation in central government - a Linux-based online purchasing system.