Hackney retenders £10m outsourcing contract

The London Borough of Hackney has put a £10m IT outsourcing deal up for grabs as part of the retendering process for its current contract with Northgate Information Solutions.

The five-year Northgate contract will be completed at the end of this year and Hackney Council is looking for between five and 10 IT companies to bid for the deal.

The new five-year contract calls for the provision of IT support services for 4,000 PCs and users, 150 fileservers and a data network serving around 100 locations.

The winning bidder will be responsible for a helpdesk service, database administration, software upgrades, IT security management, back-up and business continuity facilities, and the hosting and support of some council applications including email.

Hackney has had something of a chequered history when it comes to outsourcing and was forced to bring a 10-year £70m benefits administration contract with ITNet back in-house in 2001 over payment and claim processing backlogs.