Eight suppliers on ID card shortlist

A shortlist of eight suppliers has been chosen for the government’s controversial £2bn biometric identity cards programme, out of an original group of 11 bidders.

The successful firms to go through to the next stage are Accenture, BAE Systems, CSC, EDS, Fujitsu, IBM, Steria and Thales.

The initial procurement is expected to take nine months and will establish a group of up to five preferred prime contractors to bid for future deals to develop and run the scheme.

Individual contracts will be let through a series of mini competitions once the frameworks are agreed next May. The first are expected to be a replacement fingerprint system and the enrolment application for passports and ID cards, both due to be signed towards the end of 2008.

Over the coming weeks, the eight shortlisted firms will be briefed in detail on the government’s plans, Identity and Passport Service (IPS) commercial director Bill Crothers told Computing.

“We will start a series of sessions with each supplier covering two strands of work ­ one is the way we plan to do business, both behavioural and commercial, and the other is the specific content of the scheme including architecture, common requirements and so on,” he said.

Depending on the outcome, between one and three suppliers could be dropped at Christmas. But the full eight might continue until the final selection.

Key points to discuss include how the individual aspects of the technical scheme will be separated and what the delivery timescales will be.

“We have all our plans laid out, we will give them to suppliers and then have a conversation and see if there are any better ideas,” said Crothers.

The three unsuccessful suppliers were Indra Sistemas, Internet Computer Bureau and Secure Mail Services.

See also:

Biometrics trial at Gatwick

Checking of visas from Sierra Leone will continue until April  09 Oct 2007

Home Office lets £2m fingerprint deal

More than 1000 biometric scanners will be used as part of biometric visa scheme  21 Sep 2007

Fifty firms at first ID card bid meeting

£2bn of deals will go through the framework contracts now in procurement  17 Sep 2007

Thousands of foreign nationals' fingerprints taken

And more than 8000 have been turned back thanks to biometrics, says the government  14 Sep 2007

Treasury pulls in different direction over ID card technology timetable

Whitehall departments may not agree on the role of the IT infrastructure  23 Aug 2007

Varney assigned to public service transformation advisory role

Influential November report recommended joined up identity management scheme  02 Aug 2007

The Brown era begins as challenges for IT increase

As the new prime minister moves into Number 10 important questions need to be asked about what this could mean for the future of IT in the UK  28 Jun 2007

ID cards deals primed to start

Timetable schedules first contract awards for second quarter of 2008  24 May 2007

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