Bidders in dark over Technology Products as CSS goes live

Frustration over yet another apparent delay to government's incoming commodity IT purchasing vehicle

News that formal awards for the government's new Corporate Software Solutions (CSS) framework have finally been dished out to suppliers has been tempered by continued uncertainty over its sister Technology Products framework.

CSS, which covers enterprise software from the likes of Oracle and SAP, went live this week following lengthy delays caused in part by a scoring review.

However, bidders are still waiting for news on Technology Products, the government's incoming commodity IT purchasing vehicle that is part of the same procurement family as CSS. Like CSS, a ten-day cooling-off period for Technology Products was set to end at midnight last Friday after an enlarged line-up of provisional winners was announced last month.

Technology Products had already been delayed once after a legal challenge prompted it to review the initial outcome and add five firms to the line-up.

Unusually, the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) had yet to even acknowledge the apparent delay to any of the suppliers we spoke to.

"They normally say something, even if it's just that they intend to award very soon," said one supplier. "A soft, comforting message would have been nice."

The latest apparent delay also raised questions over whether the £4bn-plus framework will go live before its predecessor, CITHS, expires on 31 October. CITHS has already been extended eight months beyond its natural lifespan and bidders expressed concern that any further delays to Technology Products would leave public sector buyers without a procurement vehicle.

Another succesful bidder, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "The news of further delays and uncertainty in getting this framework live is really going to unsettle the market. Planned customer procurements will be cast into turmoil if there is no clear position on Technology Products or a fall-back plan, should it still be mired in disputes come the end of the month when CITHS terminates. The potential for significant disruption to government IT delivery is getting very real."

Framework agreements for CSS, which is another of the government's next-generation IT frameworks, have now been signed, at least.

Five firms - IBM, BAE, Insight Direct, Methods Advisory and Kainos Software - were added to the initial line-up following a review of the scoring system that saw all scores rounded up to the nearest integer. Some 85 firms submitted tenders for the seven-lot framework, which the government estimates will be worth up to £950m over its two-to-three-year lifespan.

CSS was initially set to go live on 19 August and the incumbent SAS framework expired on 16 September, meaning there has been a three-week hiatus when government software procurement bods have had limited options.

The CCS had not responded to our request for comment as this story went to press.

CRN understands to be the full line-up for CSS to be that of below (additions from first line-up in bold):

Lot 1: Enterprise Resource Planning Software Solutions

ACCENTURE (U K) LTD
ADVANCED BUSINESS SOFTWARE & SOLUTIONS LTD
BRAMBLE HUB LTD
CACI Ltd
Capita Business Services Ltd
Deloitte LLP
Fivium Limited
HCL Technologies
Hitachi Solutions Europe Ltd
HP ENTERPRISE SERVICES UK LTD
IBM UNITED KINGDOM LTD
METHODS ADVISORY LTD
NTT DATA UK Ltd
SOFTCAT LTD

Lot 2: Finance IT Software Solutions

ACCENTURE (U K) LTD
ADVANCED BUSINESS SOFTWARE & SOLUTIONS LTD
BRAMBLE HUB LTD
CACI Ltd
Capita Business Services Ltd
Deloitte LLP
Fivium Limited
HCL Technologies
Hitachi Solutions Europe Ltd
HP ENTERPRISE SERVICES UK LTD
IBM UNITED KINGDOM LTD
METHODS ADVISORY LTD
NTT DATA UK Ltd
SOFTCAT LTD

Lot 3: Human Resources (HR) and Payroll Software Solutions

ACCENTURE (U K) LTD
BRAMBLE HUB LTD
Capita Business Services Ltd
Deloitte LLP
Fivium Limited
HCL Technologies
Hitachi Solutions Europe Ltd
HP ENTERPRISE SERVICES UK LTD
INSIGHT DIRECT (U K) LTD
METHODS ADVISORY LTD
NorthgateArinso UK Limited
NTT DATA UK Ltd
SOFTCAT LTD

Lot 4: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software Solutions

ASIDUA LTD
BRAMBLE HUB LTD
Fivium Limited
HCL Technologies
Hitachi Solutions Europe Ltd
HP ENTERPRISE SERVICES UK LTD
KAINOS SOFTWARE LTD
Northgate Information Solutions UK Ltd
NTT DATA UK Ltd
SCISYS UK LTD
SOFTCAT LTD
TRUSTMARQUE SOLUTIONS LTD

Lot 5: Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Software Solutions

ASIDUA LTD
BRAMBLE HUB LTD
Capita Business Services Ltd
Fivium Limited
HP ENTERPRISE SERVICES UK LTD
INSIGHT DIRECT (U K) LTD
KAINOS SOFTWARE LTD
Northgate Information Solutions UK Ltd
NTT DATA UK Ltd
SCISYS UK LTD
SOFTCAT LTD
TRUSTMARQUE SOLUTIONS LTD

Lot 6: Data Management and Reporting Systems (DMRS) Software Solutions

ADVANCED BUSINESS SOFTWARE & SOLUTIONS LTD
ASIDUA LTD
BAE Systems Applied Intelligence
BRAMBLE HUB LTD
CACI Ltd
Fivium Limited
HCL Technologies
Hitachi Solutions Europe Ltd
HP ENTERPRISE SERVICES UK LTD
INSIGHT DIRECT (U K) LTD
KAINOS SOFTWARE LTD
Northgate Information Solutions UK Ltd
NTT DATA UK Ltd
SCISYS UK LTD
SOFTCAT LTD
TRUSTMARQUE SOLUTIONS LTD

Lot 7: Mobile Application Solutions

ACCENTURE (U K) LTD
Acuma Solutions Limited
BAE Systems Applied Intelligence
BRAMBLE HUB LTD
CACI Ltd
Capita Business Services Ltd
Deloitte LLP
Fivium Limited
HCL Technologies
HP ENTERPRISE SERVICES UK LTD
KAINOS SOFTWARE LTD
Northgate Information Solutions UK Ltd
NTT DATA UK Ltd
SOFTCAT LTD