The Business Systems division of Philips Telecommunications and Data Systems UK has been chosen by the UK government to supply hardware and software for the Inland Revenue’s Office and Management Support System, OAMSS. Philips won the UKP2m contract at the expense of final contenders ICL and Nixdorf; over 100 companies were given initial project consideration. On the hardware front, Philips will supply 700 of its Motorola 68000 family P90X0 Unix workstations, and a range of 200 desk-top-to laser printers. Software installations comprise Uniplex Corp’s Stock Control, Purchasing and Procurement software, and an Informix relational database. The contract also covers the provision of X25 links to IBM and ICL mainframes, via the Government Data network, and an X400-based electronic mail system. Full scale installation at 19 different Inland Revenue locations is due to begin in March; national sales manager Richard Blake believes the majority of the systems will be up and running by October. Hand-in-hand with installation comes an training programme for some 500 employees; with OAMSS, the Inland Revenue aims to place a workstation on all professional and managerial desktops. Marketing manager John Williams claims that top priority has accordingly been given to ease-of-use and system integration considerations, primarily through the provision of consistent user interfaces, and the automation features offered under Unix 5.3. The contract is the first major government contract to be won by the Colchester-based Business Systems arm, which contributed UKP100m of the UKP2,000m turnover reported by the Telecommunications and Data Systems division last year. The latter has now been identified by Philips, with components, defence, and mobile radio, as one of the company’s four key areas for future growth.
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