Service integration a key element of nuclear outsourcing deal

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is the latest public sector organisation to adopt the service integration and management (SIAM) approach of managing service tower providers. SIAM will be part of a £140m contract awarded by the Shared Services Alliance (SSA), a collaborative procurement initiative within the NDA. The new contract, awarded to Atos, is the first estate-wide IT contract awarded by the SSA and covers all IT services for its four members: Sellafield, Magnox, National Nuclear Laboratories and Low Level Waste Repository. It is a multi-service contract, comprising 18 service towers, including networking, desktop, applications and hosting services, as well as SIAM. The NDA is a non departmental public body reporting into the Department of Energy and Climate Change. It is responsible for decommissioning and the clean-up of the UK's civil nuclear legacy in a safe, secure and cost-effective way. The SSA was set up in 2009 to ensure all members can achieve the best value for money by aggregating demand for common services, such as IT. Under the contract, Atos will consolidate and modernise the existing infrastructures to further improve service for more than 18,000 end users located at around 30 separate locations. The improvements are expected to deliver savings of more than 30% over five years. The SIAM element will cover areas such as application development where Atos will be managing other suppliers' involvement. The SIAM approach is currently being followed by departments such as the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and also the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. They plan to award contracts to SIAM providers that can successfully demonstrate the ability to integrate services and manage a number of tower service providers delivering commoditised services including data hosting, LAN/WAN provision, applications management and support and some security related services. The SIAM approach shows that the UK public sector is now requesting the same oversight adopted in other industries, with departments looking to award contracts to managing agents to help deliver and manage critical ICT services back to departments and agencies. Speaking on behalf of the joint project team that managed the contract award, Keith Gibson, project manager, said: "This is a very significant contract for all the businesses involved. It signals a period of significant change with the new contract having a strong focus on investment and future benefits realisation. It will reduce costs by simplifying IT support arrangements and provides a solid platform for future developments." "The bidding process considers all the bids against a wide range of factors, including technical capability, benefits realisation (including cost savings), cost, experience, service levels and innovation." This article is published by Guardian Professional. For weekly updates on news, debate and best practice on public sector IT, join the Guardian Government Computing network here .