£3bn tax system handover will go smoothly, says Cap Gemini

Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (CGEY) has dismissed a warning by EDS that the handover for the Inland Revenue's £3bn Aspire IT contract could result in interruptions and delays in tax credit payments.

In an interview with silicon.com, Martin Cook, CEO of the Aspire team at CGEY, said the company will be mobilising between 200 and 400 people to ensure the handover goes smoothly ahead of the formal switch in July next year.

He admitted that convincing current staff with knowledge of the Revenue's IT systems to move over to CGEY is one of the main priorities.

"The key is to move fast to ensure the workforce on the ground are going to be reassured they have a future with us. We'll be moving really fast on that," he said. "It is their right to choose and they have five or six months to do that."

Although he would not predict how many of the 3,500 staff will move over from EDS, Cook said past experience on large outsourcing deals indicates that well over 90 per cent will make the move.

"We would expect the vast majority of staff to transfer. The rule of thumb is the larger the deal the larger the proportion who come across," he said.

Out of the 3,500 IT staff there are approximately 200 senior people whose knowledge and experience will be vital to CGEY.

"It's terribly important to us. These are people with a lot of experience," said Cook. "We will either get the key people across or gather the information so we can fill the gaps."

Cook declined to comment on speculation surrounding EDS' statement earlier this week on losing the Revenue contract, which hinted that there will be service interruptions due to the handover between IT suppliers, but said he expects EDS will "behave in a professional way".

The Inland Revenue shocked the IT industry when it announced last week that it is ditching incumbent supplier EDS because of its poor track record with the Revenue for CGEY in a £3bn 10-year deal.