The Scottish Government has appointed Version 1 as digital support partner for the digital and data vision of its Agriculture and Rural Economy (ARE) Directorate.
They have agreed on a contract that could run for up to seven years with the spend anticipated to be between £60 million and £85 million.
Version 1 said it will involve the use of digital and data technologies to directly support farmers and crofters, to protect and enhance the rural environment, and deliver sustainable economic growth in agriculture and trade.
ARE provides a broad range of payments and support services to rural customers across Scotland, with a variety of schemes and digital services.
The award notice says the contract is focused on the support and further development of existing services, including the underlying technical architecture and the digital platform that supports rural payments.
It also highlights ARE’s role in delivering climate change and sustainability initiatives and its Vision for Agriculture and Agricultural Reform Route Map.
Complex environment
Nick Downes, chief digital and data officer at AR, said: “We operate in a complex environment that is subject to market pressures, policy changes and the steady introduction of new measures that deliver high quality food production, climate mitigation and adaptation, and nature restoration.
“These challenges run in parallel with the imperative, in common with all digital services organisations, to ensure that technologies remain reliable, up to date and cost-effective to operate.
“To meet these challenges, we embarked upon a procurement process to replace the two longstanding, support and maintenance contract arrangements that we had in place to ensure good value for money for the public purse.
“We were impressed by their (Version 1’s) expertise in their grasp of our environment and, critically, how to bring fresh learnings and digitally enabled approaches for improvements such as data led policy planning, vitally important for rural land use.”
