UK Foreign Office to Build Global IT Infrastructure

The UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and Hewlett-Packard (HP) on 16 February signed a ground breaking partnership contract to upgrade the IT infrastructure, known as "Firecrest," creating a single online organization for all FCO locations in the UK and overseas. Firecrest is the FCO's secure global IT desktop infrastructure. It connects FCO staff in the UK and overseas and is critical to the delivery of the FCO's corporate vision and objectives.

The seven-year deal -- which will cost in excess of USD$600 million, nearly half of which is the HP portion -- is the largest contract the FCO has ever signed. It will see HP take on overall responsibility for the IT infrastructure in partnership with in-house IT providers FCO Services, original developers of the "Firecrest" system. Through a joint service delivery model, the FCO and HP will work together to design, plan, implement and operate a global IT infrastructure called "Future Firecrest." This will include a rollout of new hardware, software and services to FCO offices in UK and over 200 posts overseas over a two-year period.

Signing the contract, FCO Permanent Under Secretary Sir Michael Jay said: "This has been a ground-breaking procurement, which represents a genuine partnership as opposed to a more traditional outsourcing arrangement. I am confident that HP represents the right choice for us in providing a solution which is flexible yet secure, resilient yet mobile. Having the right IT and high quality services to support it will be critical in helping us realize the FCO strategy over the next decade. We believe that the contract achieves excellent value for money for the taxpayer, enabling us to draw on HP's experience and access to technology to maximize potential business benefits for the FCO."

Speaking at the signing Stephen Gill, VP and Managing Director, HP UK and Ireland said: "HP is delighted to be working in partnership with the FCO on this project. The new infrastructure will provide flexible working practices and mobility for FCO employees and enable a faster, flexible and more efficient service"

Future Firecrest is a major upgrade of the existing global IT infrastructure and will put in place new arrangements for the design, build, operation and refresh of Firecrest over the next seven years. The contract represents the culmination of two-year competitive procurement. The contract is not a typical outsourcing arrangement and breaks new ground in public/private sector relationships. Under the terms of the contract, Hewlett Packard and FCO in house IT Service providers, FCO Services, will form a Joint Service Delivery Team under joint management.

While Hewlett Packard will take on responsibility for overall management of the service, lead responsibility for individual services elements has been allocated on the basis of which member of the partnership is best placed to deliver.