Inland Revenue poised to ditch EDS
The price of failure
Posted in Hardware, 8th December 2003 14:17 GMT
Free whitepaper – Cooling strategies for ultra-high density racks and blade servers
EDS stands to lose a 10-year deal worth £4bn-£5bn to manage the Inland Revenue’s computer systems in punishment for the fiasco surrounding the introduction of tax credits last year. Hundreds of thousands of people went without payments, resulting in short-term hardship for many families on low incomes.
So far so bad. Then the public purse took a hammering with the Inland Revenue overpaying tax credits to the tune of £2bn. In a report last month, The Public Accounts Committee placed most of the blame for the cock-ups on EDS software.
The board of the Inland Revenue has now recommended that the contract to manage the country’s tax and national insurance IT systems should be awarded instead to Cap Gemini supported by Fujitsu, the FT reports.
In response, EDS has taken advertising space in London’s Evening Standard and The House ( a magazine for MPs) in an attempt to lobby the Treasury to ignore the Inland Revenue recommendation. This ad is “unprecedented for a civil contract”, according to the FT.
In its ad, EDS warns against taking "unnecessary risks", claiming it has "the experience, knowledge and understanding of working with government on large-scale national programmes". It estimates that the transfer of the contract to Cap Gemini will cost £60m. Some 2,500 Inland Revenue staff based in Telford will transfer to Cap Gemini if it wins the day.
EDS’s junior partner in the Inland Revenue contract is Accenture. ®

Straight Talk with Dell: Sending out an SaaS
Analyst Keynote: The Register Agile Data Center Summit
Thermal design of the Dell PowerEdge T610, R610, and R710 servers
Seven ways to lower storage costs
Ensuring high service levels in cloud computing

Apple sues over knock-off power bricks
US Air Force orders 2200 Sony PS3s
HP takes one in the servers