The BBC has awarded a five year contract to Atos, a French IT company, for enterprise IT solutions and hosting.
The five to eight year deal has been made to aid the BBC with digital transformation and was originally tendered for £400 million to £560 million over eight years.
Last April the British broadcaster issued a tender for the contract to transform into a multi-sourcing approach for its new Aurora system. Aurora is the replacement of the existing £2 billion 10 year deal the company previously had with Atos.
Matthew Postgate, Chief Technology and Product Officer at the BBC, said: “The BBC is reinventing itself for a new generation and the technology we use is critical to that mission. Today’s deal allows us to improve the way we work, making our systems and tools simpler and more efficient.”
“It completes a major piece of work re-sourcing our core technology services, allowing us to drive the use of IP technology in broadcasting and make the BBC internet-fit.”
This new model will see third parties and in-house teams work together to deliver new services and ensure that the BBC is kept up to date with its technology.
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As well as allowing greater flexibility for the incorporation of new technology, the deal will also cover core enterprise IT that will be used every day. The list of these technologies given by the BBC includes laptops, phones, business applications, hosting services and a technology helpdesk.
Although the contract is for five years the corporation reserves the right to extend the contract by another three if it sees fit.
Adrian Gregory, CEO, Atos UK&I said: “I am delighted Atos has been able to secure this new contract with the BBC. This builds on our existing relationship delivering many successful projects together in recent times. The new service will provide a fantastic end user experience taking advantage of new technologies such as automation and analytics, whilst also providing significant cost savings.”
“It will enable staff to be more connected and better able to carry out their work for the BBC whatever their role. I look forward to further strengthening our relationship and delivering many more successful projects together.”
New services are expected to begin later this year.
