Computacenter loses grip on £60m-plus Cumbria contract

Integrator fails to agree terms with county council, having been picked as preferred bidder two months ago

Computacenter has lost its grip on a giant deal with Cumbria County Council after failing to agree terms with the authority.

It was announced in January that the UK's biggest VAR had been chosen as preferred bidder for the deal to take care of all the council's product and service needs. Computacenter was due to take the reins from Cumbria's current provider, Agilisys, on 1 April, with the contract set to run for five years with two possible 12-month extensions.

Computacenter indicated the deal could have been worth about £60m.

The authority issued a statement to ChannelWeb, indicating that Agilisys will continue to work with the council in the short term, and that "the county council is now assessing a number of options for long-term service delivery".

"Unfortunately, following extensive discussions with Computacenter, it has not proved possible for the two parties to conclude the finalisation of the proposed contract," added the statement.

"The council is therefore putting in place interim arrangements with Agilisys to ensure service continuity from 1 April. The county council has robust contingency arrangements and is confident that ICT systems will be in place as normal from 1 April, and there will be no disruption to either public-facing services or to county council staff."

Chris Price, director of public sector and SI at Computacenter, added: "We can't discuss the specifics of contract negotiations, however, we can confirm that we haven't been able to agree terms that were agreeable to both parties."