UK Gov Major Matrix Procurement
In February this year, the UK government launched the new Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) a department created to assist the UK in becoming an innovative economy. The department brought together five ‘future’ technologies – quantum, AI, engineering biology, semiconductors, future telecoms – along with life sciences and green technologies, into one single department for the first time.
Back in March 2021, Government Business Services had launched the ‘Shared Services Strategy for Government‘, a strategy that created the concept of five clusters of departments. Under the strategy, each cluster (Matrix, Defence, Overseas, Synergy and Unity) would share a common set of process, common cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and ancillary systems under a single shared service centre to deliver corporate services across finance, HR and payroll.
The newly formed DSIT will now be the lead contracting authority on the large and complex project to design, develop, and procure new technologies and capabilities that are required to help modernise the office systems of the UK Government Business Services clusters. Their aim is to deliver a high quality system and support service to help streamline the transactions that underpin the way departments are run, starting with the Matrix cluster.
Departments within the Matrix cluster include the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, the Attorney General’s Office, the Cabinet Office, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, the Department for Education, the Department of Health & Social Care, the Department for International Trade and HM Treasury. It also includes 20 ‘arms-length’ bodies including the UK Space Agency.
This week the first contract notice has been published, Matrix Programme – Technology (including ERP) & Systems Integration Services Procurement (Jaggaer Project: prj_1484) for a single “bundled procurement” of a SaaS solution along with a systems integrator. ‘Bundled’ meaning the SaaS solution and systems implementation solution will be developed to work together from the outset to provide cohesive delivery.
This huge procurement project proposes to combine up to 48,000 users across the UK on 15 instances of nine different software solutions, and ten service providers, in a contract worth up to £216 million over 10 years.
The Matrix programme will act as an enabler for change within the corporate service landscape, replacing end-of-life technology and overcoming challenges of existing arrangements within each department, and delivering better services.
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