BT has pulled out of the contest to run the UK courts IT
infrastructure, after previously being seen as a strong contender
in a £1bn tendering programme.
The Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) has confirmed
that BT has pulled out, but maintains its IT upgrade plans for the
courts remain on schedule.
BT has ended its bid to win a big slice of the DCA’s
Development, Innovation and Support Contracts (DISC) tender. The
DCA said BT would now be supporting Atos Origin’s bid for the DISC
work, with the hope of picking up sub-contracted work.
The DCA said, "BT said it was not well placed to win the
infrastructure contract and instead preferred to support the Atos
Origin bid."
There are two contracts covering infrastructure and
applications. Atos Origin is bidding for both. In addition, EDS is
bidding for the infrastructure portion, and Logica and IBM are both
tendering for the applications.
DISC covers the DCA headquarters, local courts and other related
offices. DISC brings together a range of existing IT contracts
which are due to expire between autumn 2006 and autumn 2008.
BT has stepped up its outsourcing activity in recent years and
is a major provider in the NHS National Programme for IT.