The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has signed a £6.3m,
four-year deal with ICL to build a knowledge service that will
enable its staff around the world to share information.
Officials have described the scheme as a "knowledge programme"
which will provide the department with a global pool of information
via a secure intranet.
A spokesman for the FCO said, "One of the aims of the project is to
get better information to our staff so that they can help ministers
and the public better."
The service is designed to cut down on information overload and
keep decision-makers in both Whitehall and the FCO up to date with
accurate information. It will encompass the FCO's 14,000 staff, who
are based in more than 200 offices worldwide.
The FCO spokesman said, "The Foreign Office has traditionally been
very good at keeping electronic records, but they are currently
kept in separate document stores around the world."
Officials estimate the FCO will be storing between one and two
terabytes of information within five years.
Documentum's 4i platform will be used for content management as
part of the deal.
