The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has chosen IBM and Oracle to provide systems integration services for the Synergy shared services programme for central government.
It has published an award notice for a contract with the two companies, indicating that it will run for 10 years beginning last August and is valued at £710 million.
The agreement marks a significant step in the development of the Synergy programme, in which DWP is acting as the lead department for the cluster that includes the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice – which between them have around 250,000 employees.
The departments are moving towards a set of shared corporate services that will involve them all using a new common operating model and single operating platform technology including an enterprise resource planning system (ERP). This will be backed up by common data standards.
The procurement of a systems integration service is aimed at enabling the transition to the relevant technologies, most notably the software-as-a-service ERP platform.
Ambition for transformation
Synergy is aimed at supporting business transformation, most notably in finance and HR, across the four departments.
The award notice says the common operating model and associated benefits will evolve over time, supported by the technology providing more robust data.
In March of this year an accounting officer’s assessment of the programme indicated that it requires a large upfront investment but promises to deliver a positive net value over the 15 years of the business case.
It also emphasised the complexity and risks, with significant pressure on its timelines and competing for scarce resources in the marketplace.
The overall assessment was that the programme meets the four tests of regularity, propriety, value for money and feasibility.
