Council seeks outsourcing partnership

Swindon Borough Council wants to outsource its IT services in a deal valued at £20m a year.

The council says it has recently improved services, but wants an outsourcing partner to help it make further changes through a major programme of business process re-engineering.

The local authority says the contract could extend for 25 years, giving a potential value of £500m.

‘Swindon Borough Council has invested heavily in all aspects of its client side to the point where it feels it has become a strong business partner and it does not propose to transfer strategy or policy development to the partner,’ the council said in a document advertising the contract.

‘To that end, the council has determined that it wishes to enter into a long-term incremental service partnership with the private sector to help it deliver and accelerate its ambitious agenda.’

The selected outsourcer will cover the development of customer contact centres and drive business transformation in areas such as property management, administration, human resources, IT, finance and procurement.

No start date has yet been set, but Swindon says it wants any successful bidder to be able to start work on the programme as quickly as possible.