Bull wrestles contract from IBM

Bull has won back a service contract for a Scottish Justice outfit from IBM, two years after Big Blue usurped the French company over the same account.

The French company has been awarded a #1 million five-year contract to provide replacement maintenance Unix systems, hardware maintenance and system support to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in Scotland.

The contract was snatched from incumbent IBM as the company looked to reposition itself as a services organisation and generate more sales from the sector.

Derek Miller, account manager at Bull, claimed that the company had wrested back the contract after losing it to IBM a few years ago 'on a technicality'.

But despite losing the contract, Bull staff had kept in touch with the service and Miller said it was the constant contact that developed goodwill and opened up the contract when the contract was retendered.

'We believe we did a good job (when we had the contract). We stayed in touch and we got Brownie points for staying in touch in the time we weren't the primary supplier,' said Miller.

The contract joins Bull's other contracts, such as its #10 million deal with the Scottish Criminal Records Office and a large number of police forces.

Drew Sweenie, account manager at Bull, said IBM had made efforts to create a presence in the criminal justice sector, but without much success.

Jim Stirling, Bull Scottish general manager, said: 'We actively looking to grow our market share in Scotland and a win like this helps us achieve that goal.'

Bob Donaldson, Crown Office head of information systems, said Bull beat IBM with a better package which represented better value for money. 'A factor in our decision was that Bull is already well established in the Scottish criminal justice market,' he said.

IBM was unavailable for comment.