HM Revenue and Customs has re-signed Fujitsu to host a collection of applications on a virtual managed environment (VME) platform.
They have agreed on a contract worth £168.8 million to run for five years, following on from the company’s role as incumbent provider under two contracts: one for support of customs handing of import and export freight (CHIEF), which is due to expire in March of next year; the other for the support of a string of applications and set to run out in June 2022.
It reflects the use of a proprietary VME hosting platform which is heavily integrated with a number of legacy applications, prompting HMRC to decide that no alternative solution could be made ready before the current contracts come to an end.
But the service will contribute to a programme to decommission applications and deploy replacements running up to 2025.
According to the contract award notice, the deal also involves related management and storage ancillary services, and optional services on application modernisation which HMRC can call-off on a non-exclusive basis.
The applications include VAT information exchange services, trade statistics, a computerised environment for self-assessment, and services for accounting summaries, customer overpayments and managing tax.
Image from paulclarke.com
