Highlands and Islands Enterprise moves to shared services

The Scottish government's Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) economic and community development agency has signed a deal with Atos Origin to move to a shared services model.

HIE will join its application management, desktop and IT infrastructure to a shared services model,

under the Skills Development Scotland Information Systems (IS) shared services agreement. Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Development International, and the Scottish Criminal Case Review Commission have also joined under the same agreement.

Alex Paterson, CEO at HIE, said, "Efficient and effective IT systems are critical to support our performance and we are delighted to be part of the provision of shared services by Atos Origin. We believe it is important that organisations such as ours collaborate wherever possible and we expect the new arrangement will generate greater efficiencies for all the partners in the longer term."

Steve Langmead,vice-president Atos Origin, said, "This is a significant expansion of the provision of shared services across the Scottish public sector, and gives Atos Origin the opportunity to increase its footprint across Scotland."