With out competitors, TCS wins again UK pensions physique in £1.5B mega-deal

The UK’s Nationwide Employment Financial savings Belief (Nest), an occupational pensions scheme, has inked a £1.5 billion ($1.9 billion) take care of TCS with out competitors after sacking off French provider Atos earlier this 12 months.

The brand new deal says the India IT providers big will the construct, ship and function administration providers for the outlined contribution pension scheme, supporting auto-enrolment and be delivered primarily through digital channels.

In February, NEST ended its £1.5 billion ($1.9 billion) take care of French IT providers provider Atos simply two years into its potential 18-year time period.

On the time, The Register was informed Nest and Atos completed their lively program of labor, and Nest was persevering with to work with its present associate, TCS, whereas it opinions its longer-term necessities and plans.

That evaluation appears to have concluded that nobody else on this planet may present the mixture of tech and providers NEST requires.

Within the announcement for the brand new deal — set to final between 10 and 18 years — NEST stated competitors is absent “for technical causes” so it awarded the contract to TCS “with out publishing a previous name for competitors.”

The tender paperwork defined Nest commissioned a market evaluation from accountancy and consultancy agency PricewaterhouseCoopers “to grasp whether or not there’s competitors available in the market able to assembly Nest’s necessities for technical expertise.”

“PwC’s professional conclusion was that, other than TCS, there was no single provider or consortium available in the market now or the brief time period (assessed over the following 12 months) who may meet Nest’s necessities,” the doc stated.

As a public physique, NEST must adjust to public procurement rules, which set out guidelines for honest and open competitors. Nonetheless, the authority stated it was ready to make use of a “negotiated process with out prior publication” for the contract award due to the absence of competitors.

“Nest concludes there’s presently no affordable different or substitute out there and the absence of competitors isn’t the results of a synthetic narrowing down of the parameters of the procurement,” it stated.

Nest famous that its necessities for the service had not modified because it awarded the work to Atos in March 2021 in a contract estimated to be price £1.5 billion over 18 years. That competitors solely attracted solely two ultimate tender submissions in 2021 “regardless of intensive market warming efforts,” the newest tender discover reveals.

Nest’s determination to finish its relationship with Atos in February happened after the French provider argued that product supply deadlines needs to be prolonged as a result of the publicly owned funding belief had requested last-minute design adjustments. Nest refused to renegotiate the supply timeline and cited phrases and circumstances within the contract to attempt to maintain the timetable on monitor, in accordance with particulars seen by The Register.

In an announcement on the time, Gavin Perera-Betts, Nest chief buyer officer, stated Atos had been “instrumental in serving to us transition to turning into a extra data-led group.”

In an e-mail to The Register, John Ainsworth, head of Atos Enterprise Transformation Companies, stated the corporate had “helped set sturdy foundations for the organisation’s digital transformation journey. We’re working with our groups and companions to handle the transition of the contract.”

Nest first signed with TCS in 2010, in a deal set to final till 2020. It seems to be just like the couple can take pleasure in many extra years collectively. ®