Metropolitan Police seeks single IT services provider

The Metropolitan Police is looking for a new outsourcing supplier to consolidate three existing contracts, in a deal that could be worth £650m.

London's police force is to procure services covering its core IT and communications systems, including the development, supply and support of infrastructure, desktop, network and possibly software services.

The contract is likely to exceed £50m per year over the next 10 years, with a possibility to extend it to 13 years, starting in July 2005.

A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police says the force is looking to consolidate contracts that are coming to an end and are up for renewal, covering support services, telephony and crime reporting.

A contract with Sema, now part of Atos Origin, worth £125m signed in 1999, provides technical support and maintenance for desktop infrastructure - some 14 500 workstations. It also covers application support, help desk services and support of local and wide area networks.

A contract to modernise the Met's crime reporting system went to EDS for £60m in 2001. EDS had to consolidate disparate databases to provide access to one central database containing reports on every crime committed in Greater London.

And a £75m, five-year telephony contract with Damovo supports the force's pagers, telephone extensions and mobile phones.

'We are looking at tying together our systems because we believe that it would result in better value for money,' said the spokeswoman.

'Also we are not specialists in these areas and with consolidation and outsourcing we can get the most out of new technologies.'

It is unlikely that the contract will go to an offshore service provider.

'We have to consider all the proposals coming in, but I don't believe that we will be awarding the contract to an offshore company. The criteria for us to go offshore are extremely stringent and it is unlikely that any company will meet those,' she said.