Last month the department commenced an agreement of four years in length with supplier that will enhance support for its digital, data and technology objectives by offering additional infrastructure professionals

The Home Office has signed a £40m long-term contract to support its digital and data function with enhanced capability in the area of technical architecture.

The deal – which came into effect on 7 January and last for four years, plus a potential 12-month extension – was awarded to IT firm Cognizant.

During the coming months, the supplier will serve the department as a “strategic partner to provide technical architecture [services] to support us in building a DDaT-wide capability on top of our successful delivery model, a hybrid of Waterfall and agile”, according to the text of the contract.

Offerings covered by the engagement include: leadership of architecture teams; strategy development; architectural research, design and proofs-of-concept; advice and support; assurance; and the creation and delivery of standards.

Cognizant will also be expected to “enhance communities of practice… [and] in-house architecture capabilities” across the Home Office.

The contract says: “These services are agnostic of platform or product – primarily we require the right breadth and depth of technical skills to support our technical strategy. We also place community and behaviours at the fore in this work, and the… supplier must integrate with and deliver these elements.”

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The document adds: “We expect extensive collaboration between the successful Supplier, business users and central commercial/professional teams to define specific statements of work (SoWs)). As such, SoW development is viewed as a collaborative activity, and any work which is not sensibly delivered under this contract will be directed to another resourcing route.”

The agreement specifies that it sits alongside other similar “resourcing processes which are being developed under DDaT change programmes”. The department intends that such deals will operate complementarily to enable the Home Office to “a ‘while DDaT’ view” of its digital, data and technology ambitions.

The document provides a definition of the particular expertise being sought throught his deal.

“Technical architects are architects who define technology systems including software application technologies, utilising cloud-based services wherever possible, and including infrastructure design. Technical architects must work with business, data and security specialists – architects and otherwise – to ensure the resulting design is appropriate and complete. Technical architects bring wide knowledge of contemporary technologies, along with various deep specialisms, so that they can make correct decisions around the deployment of technologies to create and support good architectural designs.”