Bytes and Computacenter climb NHS IT spend rankings

Guardian FoI request reveals Bytes and Computacenter were CfH's second- and fifth-largest suppliers in 2010/11

Bytes Technology and Computacenter were among the big gainers last year in terms of where the NHS spends its IT buck.

According to a Freedom of Information request by The Guardian, the total amount NHS Connecting for Health (CfH) spent with its 100 largest suppliers fell from £1.064bn to £683.4m in 2010/11.

BT remained CfH's largest supplier, although spending with the telco dropped from £469.9m to £331.5m, the newspaper said.

Microsoft large account reseller Bytes Technology's CfH takings hiked by 15 per cent to £67m, enough to dislodge CSC as the second-largest supplier.

Computacenter was one of the few other top firms to see its CfH takings grow. It came fifth with £31.4m, up a whopping 73 per cent year on year.

Trustmarque and Probrand were among the other channel firms to place in the top 20, finishing seventh and 19th, respectively. Trustmarque's CfH income fell from £25.1m to £19.5m year on year, while spend with Probrand dropped from £6.3m to £3.9m.

National Programme contractor CSC was the big loser, its takings shrivelling from £213.2m to £37.7m, although it was still the third-largest supplier. Atos Origin (£33.7m), Computacenter, Emis (£26m), Trustmarque, C&W (£19.1m), Qui Imus (£11.1m) and In Practice Systems (£11.1m) rounded off the top ten.

A detailed list of the top 20 rankings can be found here.