Treasury hopes to lure in SMB suppliers with £255m IT deal

Department overhauling IT in line with pro-SMB government strategy

The Treasury is looking to ditch its single-provider set-up when it comes to its IT equipment as it looks to include more SMB suppliers in a new contract worth £255m.

The department is looking to implement a multi-source model as part of its ICT 2015 programme and in order to align with government strategy, it is aiming to make it easier for smaller suppliers to provide the kit.

Initiatives like G-Cloud have been set up by the government as part of its aims to level the playing field for smaller IT providers in order for it to rely less on IT giants and gain the best value for money for the tax payer.

The ICT 2015 Core IT, Printing and Media and Wireless Services contract covers a wide range of IT equipment and is split into five sections. A recently published tender document outlines the first three of five lots - core IT, printing and media and wireless respectively.

The other lots - business applications services and ICT services - will be tendered for at a later date.

The core IT lot makes up the lion's share of the tender - accounting for £250m of the total. Companies providing tech for this lot will be tasked with supplying end-user devices, productivity software, business applications and support, as well as maintenance and hosting technologies.

This lot will span 84 months through one of two options: either a three-year period with four one-year extensions or an initial five-year contract with two one-year extensions.

The second lot, Printing Services, is worth £2.5m and tenders for a range of printing hardware, software and services. The final lot, also worth £2.5m, is for media and wireless services such as WiFi and video conferencing technology.