Atos handed £1.5bn to run IT for UK government-founded pension trust Nest

Atos has been selected to run the UK's National Employment Savings Trust occupational pensions scheme in a contract award estimated to be worth £1.5bn over 18 years. As well as developing and running business processes for the scheme, operated by the public Nest Corporation of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the IT …

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll do it for £10

Just give me a ZX Spectrum and 30 minutes

[Pascal Monett]

"this procurement presents an exciting opportunity for Nest"

Um, I think it presents a much more exciting opportunity for Atos, which will be milking NEST for two decades and maybe more if things don't go IBM.

Of course, the £1.5bn will have been spent in 10 years instead of 18, because of all the stuff that will be added, but hey, it's a UK Gov IT project, so nobody will be surprised.

[s. pam]

What the actual????

Is there no competent U.K. based firm who has the skills, knowhow and fortitude to run this?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What the actual????

UK IT services giants?

They are all long gone, absorbed into multi-nationals. It was always going to be one of the usual suspects winning this deal.

And each government tender specifies whether it is suitable for SME's, so "Bob and Trev Gardening and IT services" couldn't bid for this.

[Chris G]

Re: What the actual????

Crapita? Serco? One of Baroness Hardup's startups?

I think I prefer the French, and look at it this way; a non functioning track and trace was valued at £1.5 billion so 18 years of alleged pensions management looks like value for money in comparison. Of course the final reality could differ by an order of magnitude over 18 years and a variety of governments/leaders.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What the actual????

Ahhh yes, I forgot about Crapita or Serco... probably neither of which would have been a good choice but I bet one of the two bid...

I'm just surprised it didn't go to Matt Hancock's neighbour or a ferry company operating from a takeaway pizza joint.

[Duffaboy]

Re: What the actual????

There is a very long list of companies it shouldn't go to that's for sure

[leadyrob]

Re: What the actual????

It'll more than likely be Atos IT Services UK Limited who'll be delivering this, with little involvement from the French parent company.

[Eclectic Man]

Re: What the actual????

"Is there no competent U.K. based firm who has the skills, knowhow and fortitude to run this?"

Back in the day, BT would have been bidding for this (probably at a loss making price), hoping to make a profit on changes to the spec during the contract lifetime.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What the actual????

In any contracting, the money is in variations. Civil Engineering, IT, you name it.

You always hope your client can't figure out what they want on day 1.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What the actual????

You beat me to it, why do they keep bloody outsourcing everything !

[FlamingDeath]

Re: What the actual????

Because we don't have a functioning technological government, oh and capitalism

Plenty of advisers and consultants though

[Roger Kynaston]

stupid question

Did the analysis actually look at the benefits (or not) of running it in house. Sorry, I said it was a stupid question.

[AMBxx]

Re: stupid question

Better still, scrap the whole thing and give businesses the option to use a regular life company to manage their pensions.

[A Nother Handle]

Re: stupid question

Er, businesses can use their choice of private pension provider.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: stupid question

"Sorry, I said it was a stupid question."

Given in-house means DWP, yes it was a stupid question.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: stupid question

In house via DWP effectively still means outsourced IT tho surely?

[JDPower]

ATOS? Running a pension fund?? They'll be refusing to pay out to anyone under 100 for not being old enough.

[Eclectic Man]

Pension fund access

There was a recent item on one of BBC Radio 4's consumer programs about a major pension company 'apologising' for delaying access to people's pension funds for several months, despite being warned over a month in advance of the owner's need for access. This is actually more common than is publicised, and quite a scandal really.

[Roland6]

Re: Pension fund access

Well given this January 2021 press release:

Atos and OVHcloud announce a strategic partnership to create a trusted, 100% European cloud solution

This might be the least of your worries.