One of the main consortia bidding for the £5bn contract to
overhaul the Ministry of Defence's IT infrastructure has warned
that the correct skills mix will be key to project managing the
ambitious 10-year scheme.
IBM has joined forces with BAE Systems and Steria to bid for the
Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) contract, which will
provide IT support to about 300,000 MoD and military staff. It will
also integrate more than 100 legacy systems.
Roger Wyn-Jones, programme director of IBM's DII team, said, "The
success of the project management will be down to having the
correct mix of skills in the team."
Wyn-Jones said IBM is planning to help the MoD keep pace with
future IT trends. "This is a very long-term deal and we will be
contributing our research and development to help the MoD
anticipate where technology is going so that its IT investment is
future-proofed," he said.
The other partners in the bid are hoping to build on their
experience of working with the MoD. Nigel Yard, programme director
at BAE Systems, which works on a number of UK military projects,
including the Royal Navy's Future Carrier initiative, said, "Our
military domain knowledge across all aspects of the MoD will be
particularly important here."
Three other consortia are also reported to be in the running for
the DII deal, and the MoD is expected to draw up a shortlist of
bidders next month. The contract is scheduled to be awarded in the
first quarter of 2005.
An MoD spokeswoman said, "A number of companies have submitted the
pre-qualification questionnaire and we are now in the process of
evaluating them."
The MoD has a poor record of delivering complex technology
projects. A report from the National Audit Office last December
slammed the MoD for underestimating the risks involved in major
projects and for time slippage in procurement programmes.