A new IT procurement framework for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) could potentially be worth up to £70m a year to the channel after it goes live this week.

The Defence Equipment & Support’s (DE&S) new ICS Catalogue will come into force on 1 May, with SCC, Centerprise and Software Box among the nine selected suppliers. It will run for between two and four years.

In a bid to widen its commercial appeal to public sector buyers outside of the MoD, DE&S’s new framework combines hardware, software and services. It also features a new ‘purchase to procurement’ option, forcing listed suppliers to offer electronic procurement.

The framework is divided into three lots containing four suppliers.

OCE, Canon, Xerox and Infotec were the suppliers selected for the printing-related lot. There is also a lot for encrypted IT, which features SCC, Centerprise, Software Box and Akther and a lot for unencrypted IT, which features SCC, Centerprise, Software Box and Trustmarque.

Phil Boyes, government and secure account manager at Centerprise, told CRN: “We have been
successful with our secure facilities in Wales. Last year, we had a 40 per cent market share with this contract and it was worth £20m to us.”

Boyes claimed that corporate reseller Computacenter, which does not feature in the new framework, was the MoD’s second biggest supplier last year.

When contacted by CRN, Computacenter declined to comment.

Another reseller that made the framework, but wished to remain anonymous, told CRN: “Previously, it was really just the MoD that was using this, but [DE&S] is trying to make the framework more commercially attractive. The DE&S told us it could be worth £60m to £70m per annum.”

Boyes said he understood that government officials are in high-level talks with a view to merging the DE&S framework with rival Catalist’s framework by 2010.

DE&S was unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.