HMRC picks Capgemini as lead supplier for £600m contact centre deal

Sam Trendall April 28, 2026 in Economics and finance, News - 3 Minutes

While the global IT services player is the lead contractor, the tax agency will also become the second major Whitehall department to deploy telecoms technology from UK SME Route 101

HM Revenue and Customs has selected Capgemini as the lead supplier for a £600m deal to provide the department’s new suite of contact-centre services.

The tax agency first revealed in 2024 that it planned to put in place a long-term engagement to replace ageing telephone helpline systems with a new contact centre as a service (CCaaS) platform offering both voice and webchat support. Following the completion of market engagement and procurement procedures, HMRC revealed yesterday that Capgemini – a familiar and long-standing supplier of the tax agency – has been chosen to lead delivery of the contract.

The deal, which is expected to come into effect on 15 May, will also feature two subcontractors – including Route 101, the Bristol-based SME which last year won a potential £265m agreement to provide the contact centre for another major Whitehall agency: the Department for Work and Pensions. Also working underneath Capgemini is NiCE Systems, which specialises in AI-powered customer service automation software.

The UK player features as a subcontractor to the global IT services heavyweight following previous indications from HMRC that it would only consider bids from the market’s biggest players.

Previous commercial documents stipulated that, in order to be considered for the contract, bidders would require annual CCaaS revenues of £150m. HMRC also specified that the £75m-a-year deal must not constitute more than 10% of a provider’s yearly CCaaS sales.

While the core contractor, Capgemini, has total annual turnover of almost £20bn, the most recent annual accounts for platform supplier Route 101 – for the year ending August 2024 – show yearly revenue of £21m.

Newly released commercial documents reveal that, during the procurement process, Capgemini was one of 13 companies to formally express an interest in the contract, with five of these invited to submit an initial tender, three progressing into a product-demonstration stage, and two making it to a concluding “series of negotiation workshops” with HMRC, followed by final tender submissions.

CGI was the bidder that lost out at this this final hurdle, according to a contract notice published by HMRC.

The chosen provider will now be expected to deliver “a solution encompassing: the provision of product licenses and future acquisition/development of associated add-on products; service design, implementation and configuration services; run and support services, including proactive maintenance and testing; and ongoing optimisation of services with the potential for innovation and transformation”, the notice adds.

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Requirements previously published by the department state that the platform being deployed must be able to support the work of 200,000 agents across the world while handling 20,000 inbound calls, 400 outbound calls, and 3,000 webchats at any given time – while maintaining a 99.99% uptime record.

In late 2022 HMRC launched a review of a contact centre system from Odigo that, in the weeks and months following its implementation, encountered “multiple service incidents”. Since then, there has been much scrutiny of HMRC’s own customer service performance, which has consistently fallen below targets.

The new deal between the department and its CCaaS services suppliers will run until 2034 – plus a potential two-year extension, to be awarded at the department’s discretion.

Also included is “the right [for HMRC] to additional purchases while the contract is valid, [including] additional CCaaS licences and associated capabilities, professional services and associated software-related purchases”.

In response to enquiries from PublicTechnology, HMRC indicated that it could not provide detailed comment as it remains in the standstill period between the decision to award and the agreement taking effect.

A spokesperson added: “We follow government procurement rules when awarding contracts, ensuring value for money for taxpayers. We will publish final details of this contract on Find a Tender in due course.”