Big legacy tech companies in UK govt start to feel pinch – report

Big legacy tech firms are finally feeling the pinch of the government's contract "disaggregation" plans, although Brexit could halt that trend - according to an annual report by analyst firm TechMarketView. BT and DXC (formerly HPE's enterprise services biz and CSC) saw a double-digit percentage drop in their government biz, …

[John Smith 19]

Unless you're a BT or DXC shareholder are you really bothered?

I'd like to see no IT con-tractor holding more than 5% of any governments business.

But while governments remain in thrall to the fantasies of "one stop shops" and "single points of blame" that's not going to happen is it?

[steelpillow]

Do I look bothered?

The Big Corporate lever is not so much single-point-of-paperwork as scale and resources to sort out problems. Government beancounters hate writing off an unsuccessful project and somebody cocking it up is a powerful reason why gov't projects fail. By getting in bed with a Big Boy, you convince yourself that they will be able to throw resources at any cock-up to sort it out and meet your delivery targets. Cost escalation then becomes a blame game between the legal teams, i.e. Somebody Else's Problem. Small fry just don't have that kind of backup resource to call on.

Of course, F/LOSS licensing blows that corporate stitch-up out of the water, but that requires a change of procurement policy, nay even a rewriting of the Preferred List and Approved Catalogue, a painful process which government departments are singularly unwilling to carry out.

[Doctor Syntax]

Looking at some of the recent news they'll be looking for some yet-to be defined temporary customs, frictionless import/export or other magic nostrum to be ready by Brexit. Temporary. Right.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Looking at some of the recent news they'll be looking for some yet-to be defined temporary customs, frictionless import/export or other magic nostrum to be ready by Brexit. Temporary. Right."

Right, nudge nudge, say no more, a nod's as good as a wink to a blind man, cor blimey guvn'r, know what I mean? Hey, is that a parrot out there?