Soca signs £157m IT outsourcing deal

Deal will see crime-fighting agency consolidate its datacentres, networks and desktops

The UK's mob-busters, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), has agreed a 10-year, £157m IT outsourcing deal with the i2d consortium of services firm Logica.

Over the course of the contract, Soca aims to consolidate its datacentres, networks and desktops to reduce its operating costs in line with government cost-saving targets.

But Soca will also be hoping that the deal will improve its case management and data analysis capabilities.

"It will improve secure collaboration with our partners and make everything run more smoothly," a Soca spokesman told Computing.

As previously reported by Computing, Soca completed an overhaul of its IT systems in 2009.

But with the coalition government's laser sharp focus on delivering better services at lower costs, it was always likely that Soca would need to revise its IT strategy, said Anthony Miller, managing partner of market watchers, TechMarketView.

"Public sector IT spending may be squeezed, but as this deal clearly shows, it's far from moribund," he added.

"This contract secures an efficient and sustainable IT platform which will enable us to modernise and enhance our technological capabilities in fighting crime and improve the effectiveness of UK law enforcement in dislocating criminal markets," said Trevor Pearce, director general of Soca in a statement.

The i2d consortium comprises Logica, QinetiQ, Detica and Cable & Wireless.