College signs £4.3m outsourcing deal

The east London further education college, one of the largest of its type, operates approximately 2,500 PCs across all of its sites with 100 servers and two replicated HP 4 000 SANS for data storage. Capita, which beat four other competitors to win the contract, will provide services to the college's sites in Newham, but also at other locations in east London. A contract award notice in the Official Journal of the European Union on 22 September 2010 says that, although the deal was originally estimated at between £3.5m and £4.5m, the agreed value is nearer the larger figure at £4.3m. Alan Mo, senior analyst at Kable, said: "Our recent research in the FE sector identified outsourcing as a growth market. When we questioned colleges about their attitudes to ICT outsourcing, 23% said they already outsourced parts of their operations, and a further 42% stated they would consider doing so."