Three government departments have awarded Xansa a
five-year £27m contract to establish and manage a shared internet
platform to deliver government services.
Xansa is providing fully managed web and content management
services to central government services portal Directgov, the
Department of Health’s corporate web service, and the Department
for Education and Skills (DfES).
The system will be designed to lower the cost of ownership and
reduce the management time involved in maintaining the systems.
The three departments involved are known in Whitehall circles as
“The Club”. They say the contract will allow them to share
development, create common functionality and allow the re-use of
components within the platform, reducing time to market as well as
cost.
It is planned that additional government departments will be
able to join The Club at a reduced cost and risk, when compared to
running their own systems.
Kevin McLean, head of strategy at the DfES technology
performance unit, said, “Our aim is cost-effective, high-quality
public sector online services, so that people can quickly access
what they need.
"This partnership across government will deliver cost
efficiencies and improved quality of e-government services,” he
said.