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Minister Announces Preferred Bidder For DII – A Single IS System For Defence Is One Step Closer To Reality
On 2nd March 2005 Lord Bach, Minister for Defence Procurement, announced the Atlas Consortium, comprising EDS as the Contractor, with Fujitsu, General Dynamics, EADS and Logica CMG as key sub-contractors, as the Preferred Bidder for the Defence Information Infrastructure (Future) project.
The DII project will replace numerous individual information systems throughout the MoD with a single more efficient information infrastructure. It will allow many of the defence efficiency measures under the Defence Change Programme to be delivered. DII will also be a component of network-enabled capability - the ability to improve the capability of the armed forces through a single network of information announced in the Strategic Defence Review New Chapter.
The contract will eventually be worth in the region of £4 billion over 10 years. Initially DII (Future) will provide a fully networked and managed service to around 70,000 desktops around the world. That service will range geographically from Whitehall to forward deployed Headquarters almost anywhere in the world. In service management terms it ranges from 24/7 cover to ordinary office hours support.
Lord Bach said:
“This group of companies have international experience of delivery of first class IT systems and we look forward to working in partnership with them over the coming years. We are particularly pleased that, once awarded, this contract will sustain over 2000 jobs in the IT sector in the UK.
“We have conducted a rigorous competition and are confident that provision of an effective, efficient and Value for Money service, vital to the modernisation of Defence and one where payment matches performance, has begun today.
“The negotiation period for this contract has been extremely intensive and hard work for both the MoD team and the staff in the Atlas Consortium. I am satisfied that we now have a Preferred Bidder in place which will enable us to proceed quickly and effectively with this exciting project. I look forward to seeing this project deliver real benefits to Defence.”
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Defence Information Infrastructure 
Defence Communication Services Agency