Post Office signs 'over £100m' end-user IT deal with Computacenter
The managed IT services contract is for its 11,500 branches and 4,000 head offices across the UK and will cover equipment, support services and a new core workplace platform, hosted in a private cloud.
From January next year, Computacenter will replace the Post Office's legacy hardware with over 30,000 devices as part of an 18-month hardware refresh.
This includes desktops, laptops and the introduction of tablets in a bid to provide better customer service.
Computacenter will migrate Post Office employees to a new workplace platform, which includes Microsoft Office 365, which will be hosted in a Computacenter private cloud in its Romford datacentre.
Computacenter beat former contract holder Fujitsu and HP for the four-year deal.
The firm was forced to investigate a Fujitsu-built IT system, Horizon, following fraud accusations due to accounting errors in 2012.
Lesley Sewell, CIO at the Post Office said: "The end user computing contract with Computacenter will help us modernise our IT systems and make our business more responsive and customer-focused.
"Our aim is to build an IT ecosystem of best-of-breed partners. Computacenter will bring greater efficiency and agility to end user computing at the Post Office, which will empower our staff and help digitise our business."
Computacenter will deliver support services based on the vendor's shared services pay-per-use model. It will also introduce managed print services to reduce costs.
While the cost of the contract was not disclosed, TechMarketView analyst Kate Hanaghan estimated the deal to be worth "more than £100m" to the supplier over four years.
Last year the Post Office said it would adopt a service towers operating model, to split its IT services and put them out to tender. Atos IT Services UK was selected as its Service Integrator and Service Desk (SISD) provider, responsible for managing the service towers.
It launched a mobile network offering using provider EE's services earlier this year.
Image: Post Office