The Ministry of Defence has revised
its procurement procedures for a £4bn IT overhaul, in an effort to
maintain strategic advantage with suppliers and deliver value for
money.
The 10-year Defence Information Infrastructure
(DII) project is being described as one of the world's most
difficult infrastructure projects and will provide IT support to
about 300,000 MoD and military staff. It will also integrate more
than 300 legacy systems.
But instead of awarding the contract for a
full 10 years the MoD will split the project into three stages.
The eventual delivery partners will be
selected on their ability to deliver the complete 10-year
requirement, but the MoD will only initially commit to the first
stage. Commitment to the second and third stages will depend on the
contractors' performance, value for money delivered, and the MoD's
needs.
The project will also be subject to the
Government's Gateway Review for managing major projects.
Air Commodore David Rennison, a member of the
team overseeing the 10-year Defence Information Infrastructure
(DII) project, said the scheme would undergo a Gateway 2 Review
later this year.
He said, "The Office of Government Commerce's
Gateway 2 Review will be looking to see how we match up with common
causes of failure."
The department will also test the programme
against the National Audit Office's review of common causes of
failure for IT projects, he added.
Yesterday (26 June) the government officially
announced the four consortia bidding for the contract. Lockheed
Martin, CSC, IBM and EDS are among the firms challenging to win the
contract.
The consortia will be whittled down to three
later this year and the contract will be awarded in the first
quarter of 2005.
The MoD has a poor record of delivering
complex technology projects. A report from the National Audit
Office last December slammed the ministry for underestimating the
risks involved in major projects and for time slippage in
procurement programmes.
Shortlisted bidders
Atlas consortium: EDS,
Fujitsu, Cogent, General Dynamics, LogicaCMG
IBM consortium: IBM, BAE
Systems, Computacenter, Steria, NTL, Echelon
Lockheed Martin consortium:
Lockheed Martin, Deloitte Consulting, Hewlett Packard, Qinetic,
SAIC, Unysis
RaD11 consortium: CSC, BT,
Thales e-security