JV with Sopra Steria wins contract
Credit: mrgarethm/CC BY 2.0
The Ministry of Defence has awarded a £300m contract to improve access to armed forces pay, pensions military HR and administrative services to a joint venture set up between the Cabinet Office and Sopra Steria.
Billed as the biggest contract of its kind in Europe, the seven-year deal with Shared Services Connected Ltd (SSCL) comes after seven government departments last month signed a three-year contract extension worth £100m with the JV, in collaboration with Government Shared Services.
SSCL, which was set up in 2013, said the Future Service Delivery Contract would see it provide new platforms and more modern ways of working for MoD Defence Business Services. The ministry said the agreement aimed to “fundamentally transform” IT services for several million military personnel, reservists and veterans.
Minister for defence, people and veterans Johnny Mercer said service-users would get easier and more modern options – such as smartphone-accessible webchat – to contact Defence Business Services, while ex-service people would benefit from an improved veterans portal.
“Providing our veterans and serving personnel with first-class pay and pension services is only right considering what they have done and continue to do every day for our country,” he said.
SSCL said it had been awarded the contract following a comprehensive tender process, which determined that the JV provided “the best all-round quality solution in terms of quality of service and value for money”.
Chief executive John Neilson said the organisation was committed to working with colleagues to ease the transition to the new ways of working the contract would involve.
“SSCL has a track record of successful large-scale transformation and delivering digital technology services to the public sector,” he said.
“We look forward to working with the MoD to achieve its vision to transform core payroll, HR and pensions services for active military personnel across the Armed Forces and veterans.”
SSCL was set up as part of the Government’s Shared Services Strategy for Smarter Government programme, which was refreshed last year, and operates from centres at Blackpool, Newcastle, Newport, and York.
According to the business, its 2018 turnover was £153.8m.
