Transport for London picks Atos service desk solution in £6m deal

Three- to four-year contract comes as part of TfL's switch to a SIAM and Towers model

Transport for London (TfL) has awarded France-based services provider Atos a £6m contract to provide it with a service desk solution.

The three- to four-year contract comes as the organisation looks to overhaul its operating model and delivery of services, deploying a SIAM (systems integration and management) and Towers model, which is currently popular in many government departments as part of transformation strategies.

"TfL promised we were going to transform the way we provide our information management services to our business and ultimately our customers," said CIO of TfL, Steve Townsend.

"Atos provided a compelling bid and their approach complemented our transformation plan, making them the ideal partner to take our plans forward," he added.

Work on the new system is due to begin in March 2015.

In September last year, TfL selected four UK IT suppliers to provide computer hardware, software and services across the organisation.

That contract is expected to be worth between £40m and £80m. The duration of the agreement is two years with the option to extend for a further two, one year at a time.

Computacenter, CSC, Insight Direct and Proband have been placed on a Reseller and Associated Services Framework for services and products such as desktops, laptops and mobile devices for which TfL claims it can request competitive quotes.