Post Office on hunt for partner in deal worth up to £430m

Duo of contract notices outlines Post Office's IT-based business transformation plans

The Post Office is looking to its IT department to drive strategic change across the company and is set to splash out up to almost £0.5bn to make its plans a reality.

According to two contract notices published over the festive period, the Post Office is looking to continue its transformation – which saw it split from Royal Mail in 2012 – partly through an overhaul of its IT infrastructure.

As part of the changes, the Post Office said it had "undertaken a review of the existing supply chain and [had] chosen a strategic IT supply chain and optimal target operating model that adopts industry standards and good practice."

The first of its contract notices – Post Office IT and Change Transformation Programme: Back Office Tower procurement – will be worth up to £230m over a possible nine-year period.

The Back Office contract tenders for a range of IT services as well as software, hardware and additional supplies to help run its back-office functions such as finance and payroll divisions.

"A scalable and flexible solution is required to allow Post Office to grow with customer needs and support increased product diversity, reduced running costs and faster integration with its partners and suppliers," said the tender document.

"At the end of the contract term the bidder is expected to provide exit management services to transition the services to new suppliers."

The estimated value stands between £50m and £180m for its initial seven-year term, but two potential one-year extensions could see it rocket to £230m or beyond.

On top of its Back Office tender, the Post Office is also planning to splash out up to another £200m on network services, which would take the duo's value close to £0.5bn.

The Network Tower Procurement portion of the Post office IT and Change Transformation Programme sees the organisation seek a range of WAN and LAN products as well as network security, unified communications and mobility technology.

The Post Office added that although it seeks hosting tech through this procurement, the main vehicle for its infrastructure services procurement is its Datacentre Tower tender which is currently in procurement.

The Network Tower contract is set to be worth between £85m and £160m for its first eight-year term and up to £200m including two potential extension years.