After UK’s city councils, including Cardiff and Lancashire, plans to modernize their citizen services and gain efficiency, IT firms such as TCS, Wipro, Infosys, Patni, IBM and HP-EDS are competing for their share of this lucrative opportunity.
A senior executive of Indian tech firms said, “UK is where the action is now. Unfortunately, we can’t talk about these public sector contracts openly, but the size and scope of these contracts are attracting all of us.”
This move surprises lot of people in the industry, as in the current situation private sector customers are taking more time to flesh out contracts, and are even breaking down large deals into smaller transactions, UK’s mega public sector outsourcing contracts are witnessing intense bidding. In an interview to Economic Times, a local consultant, who advises government buyers on procurement of services, said, “TCS, which is already building an HR and payroll shared services centre for Cardiff, has opened the doors for other rivals from India. Wipro is already doing some government projects that it can’t talk about. Infosys, Patni and several others are exploring almost all big opportunities.”
Three months ago, TCS had won a 15-year technology services contract worth nearly $250 million from the Cardiff City Council, UK’s Lancashire, along with a dozen other borough councils. The company is seeking suppliers for shared services projects worth almost $3 billion.
Reduction in operating costs, lack of capital for new investments and lack of technology expertise are among top factors driving these city councils to explore outsourcing and shared services model. After adopting a common and shared services model, these city councils will be able to save individual capital expenditure of acquiring new technology systems and outsourcing.
Source:http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/IT_majors_competing_for_shares_in_UKs_city_councils_project-nid-64397-cid-3.html
