Capita, Fujitsu and pals tuck into slices of £3bn London NHS framework
What lots are in the public sector pork barrel? Hardware, software, cloud services, security... plus chatbots and blockchain
A group of London NHS trusts has awarded a gaggle of IT resellers, integrators, and service companies a place on a framework contract worth up to a total of £3bn.
Led by Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, as hosts of NHS London Procurement Partnership, the deal is split into lots which include but are not limited to: Information Management, Governance and Technology consultancy, transformation consultancy, data access, security, helpdesk, device management, IT hardware, asset management, general IT software, finance software, procurement software, CRM, and project management software.
There is also a lot for "innovation", which includes, you guessed it, chatbots, blockchain, RPA, and AI, according to the contract award notice.
The NHS London Procurement Partnership includes trust and commissioning groups from across the capital, including London Ambulance Service NHS Trust and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. It also has members from elsewhere in England including Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and NHS Blood and Transplant.
At the time of launching the tender, the partnership said that £3bn was the highest estimate based on market research and consultation with its member trusts and suppliers. The framework will be open for use by any UK public sector organisation. The duration of the framework is expected to be four years.
Among the contract winners are big name firms such as Deloitte LLP, Capita Business Service, Fujitsu Services, Atos IT Services, but also SMEs including Manchester's 4net Technologies, Adappt Ltd and Liverpool's Aimes Management Services.
The award comes on the back of a single-supplier tech framework by University Hospitals of Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust worth up to £1bn over a maximum of four years to Dell Technologies. As well as hardware, Dell is set to sell cloud services, operating software, programmes and applications, auditing and testing, software asset and portfolio management, security and maintenance. ®