Atos has emerged victorious in a £150m DEFRA device management tender previously hailed as a landmark for second-user IT.
As reported by IT Channel Oxygen in October, DEFRA’s Future End User Services Procurement Project (FEUSPP) was held up as one of the first times a government department has asked for reused IT in a tender of this nature.
This week it emerged that Atos has bagged the five-year, £150.6m contract, which is designed to boost the efficiency of DEFRA’s service desk, which manages 34,000 users.
It will work in partnership with remanufactured laptop outfit Circular Computing, which is still basking in the afterglow of last summer’s 60,000 Irish public sector device win.
Circular Computing CEO Rod Neale characterised Atos’ DEFRA contract as “a clear stepping stone towards wider inclusion of second-life IT within the public sector”.
“It continues our collaborative approach with Atos to spread the word on remanufacturing and the benefits it presents,” he added.
“Landmark moment for us”
Talking to IT Channel Oxygen today, Stephen Haskew, Group Director of Sustainability at Circular Computing, said the Irish public sector and DEFRA wins are “as significant as each other”.
“The difference with the DEFRA contract is that it’s a single client,” he explained.
“The volumes withstanding, having a central government department doing this is a landmark moment for us, and for the industry.
“We’ve been doing this for ten years and it was a case of noone wanting to be first across the line. Having customers that are really vocal about what they’re doing with us has been important. That allowed us to win the Irish tender, because we had the historic evidence to prove the product is what we say it is.
“That then gave Atos and DEFRA the confidence to look at what Ireland did and say ‘clearly the due diligence has been done by a similar organisation’.”
Atos’ success in unseating incumbents Capgemini and DXC from the contract is a “big boost” to UK&I Head Michael Herron’s efforts to turn the business around, TechMarketView reported.
“We are delighted to be working with DEFRA on their end user services enabling their team to concentrate on the important work they deliver,” Herron said in a statement.
“We have a track-record of success in this area providing best-in-class services supported by cutting-edge technology platforms that focus on people, planet and productivity.”
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
