HMRC signs up Fujitsu for two years of user computing support

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has extended a desk-side IT contract with Fujitsu for two years, under a managed desktop services contract.

Fujitsu has been an HMRC supplier since 2004, delivering critical national infrastructure (CNI) services including datacentre management, infrastructure and platform management services, cloud services, incident resolution, UK desktop support, device refreshes, and mobile managed and unified communications.

The two-year extension to the managed desktop services contract aims to support the department’s goal to continue to deliver a professional, efficient and engaged organisation. 

Through the agreement, Fujitsu said it would provide IT support for HMRC’s 65,000 employees, covering user and network services. Fujitsu will also provide HMRC with dedicated service management, on-site support desks and what it describes as “committed project services”.

“We are delighted to agree to this significant extension, which will play an important role in our ongoing strategic partnership with HMRC,” said Christian Benson, vice-president and client managing director at Fujitsu UK.

“By continuing to deliver flexible, modern workplace services and high-quality user support, we are helping our customers design and deliver a professional, efficient and engaged organisation, one of HMRC’s key strategic objectives.”

The contract is part of HMRC’s strategy to rework its Aspire contract, in which Capgemini was the key IT provider, supported by Accenture, Fujitsu and BT.

A National Audit Office report published in 2016 stated that, as part of this plan, HMRC proposed bringing in-house up to 3,100 staff from Aspire suppliers. This was due to happen in several phases up to June 2017. HMRC was also planning to run re-procurements so that it could replace the other Aspire services at the end of the contract.

As Computer Weekly has previously reported, HMRC reached a final agreement with Fujitsu and Capgemini on the exit of its £800m per year Aspire outsourcing contract in 2016. The Aspire contract was extended and restructured in 2019, to secure the current services while enabling HMRC to continue with its plan to break the contract down among more suppliers.

At the time, an HMRC spokesperson said: “The revised agreement provides continuity for some of our key services while we continue to progress our technology sourcing programme, which will increase our flexibility to work with a growing range of providers.”

Through the in-sourcing and restructuring, HMRC has taken over direct responsibility for the relationships with Accenture and Fujitsu.

In a blog post describing the transformation of IT services at HMRC, Peter Schofield, who was CIO at HMRC between October 2018 and August 2020, wrote: “Until recently, the teams in our network of digital delivery centres operated as a discrete part of our IT organisation, designing and delivering services for our customers, and handing them over on completion.

“As part of our new model, we’ve reorganised around our internal customers and brought all of the teams supporting their services from end to end into one place,” he said. “For our key internal customers, this means all of the people who support them are now in one multi-disciplined and customer-aligned team. We believe this will mean much greater collaboration within the IT organisation and, ultimately, a highly improved service for our users.”

Schofield added that IT has become a trusted partner at HMRC. “We deeply understand not just what our internal customers want, but what they really need, because we understand the nature of their business.”