Scottish Borders Council awards £92m digital services contract to CGI

Contract will create 200 new jobs and inject £100m into local economy, claims council

Scottish Borders Council has awarded a £92m digital services contract to global IT and business process services provider CGI, in a move that it says will create 200 new jobs and inject £100m into the local economy.

As part of the 13-year contract, CGI will provide the council with new technology in a bid to improve customer services and streamline existing systems. CGI will also establish a Scottish ICT Delivery Centre of Excellence, which is where the 200 new jobs will be created and where the Scottish Borders' 49 existing ICT staff will be located. The council said that apprenticeships will be offered to young people from the area.

In addition, CGI is to "unbundle" six telephone exchanges in the Borders in a bid to provide new high-speed broadband initiatives for schools, businesses and the local community.

CGI will also deploy a new ERP system to replace the council's existing finance and HR systems, and implement a digital platform with the intention of making it simpler for residents to interact with the council and provide feedback.

Council leader David Parker suggested that the award of the contract was a "landmark deal" for the Scottish Borders.

"For CGI to choose the Scottish Borders to base their second UK service centre is a genuinely exciting opportunity. Not only does it mean our existing ICT staff will remain in the Borders, but it will also bring a wide range of benefits and opportunities," he said.

The contract comes on the back of CGI winning a £186m contract with the City of Edinburgh last year to provide "transformational" outsourced ICT services to help the local authority make a shift to digital services.

Scottish Borders said it was the first local authority to use the new public-sector partner procurement process, which was agreed to help save public bodies across Scotland time and money by streamlining the tender and awarding of contracts.

The council was named as a public-sector partner by the City of Edinburgh Council throughout their ICT service re-procurement exercise, which meant it had the opportunity to contract directly with CGI as the winning bidder on the City of Edinburgh Council tender.