Maude talks cuts with ICT suppliers

A spokesperson for the Office of Government Commerce told GC News that on 8 July 2010 19 major public sector ICT suppliers were involved in "an initial meeting to discuss how money can be saved from the services they provide to government." "This is the first part of a wider process with respect to efficiency measures that are the responsibility of the Efficiency and Reform Group," he said. "Other suppliers will be invited to take part in the process over the next couple of months." The negotiation programme is designed to include the majority of government suppliers. The OGC said it will be conducted either "centrally" with top suppliers, or with the smaller suppliers, sub-contractors and with individual departments. The companies at the initial meeting with Maude were: Hewlett Packard, BT, Capgemini, Fujitsu, Capita, IBM, Telereal Trillium, Atos Origin, CSC, Logica, Steria, Oracle, Siemens, Cable & Wireless, Microsoft, Accenture, Serco, G4S and Vodafone. Shortly after taking up his new ministerial post, former Conservative Party chair Maude promised a view of ICT projects, to be followed by a contract renegotiation exercise to be undertaken at supplier level. "Targets by contract have not been defined as each will need to be individually reviewed and negotiated," said Maude.