The contract is a welcome piece of news for SBS, which was recently the subject of media speculation over a new round of restructuring as its parent organization, electronics giant Siemens AG, seeks to improve the division’s financial performance.
SBS will provide an integrated payment and accounting system which it said will modernize how the DWP makes, manages, and accounts for the 160bn euros ($20.4bn) of benefits, pensions and allowances paid annually to its 17 million customers. The contract is scheduled to run until 2010.
The vendor will develop a new Central Payment System based on Oracle’s E-Business applications suite, and integrate it with existing DWP systems and processes. The aim of the new system is to provide improved customer service through faster, more accurate payments and greater accounting controls.
Despite attracting negative attention during the 1990s for its work on several troubled UK government contracts, SBS has regained a reputation as a safe pair of hands on delivering large public sector projects through its work with National Savings and Investments, and the Passport Office.
This recovery was confirmed in October 2004 when SBS was awarded a landmark $3.7bn deal with the state-run BBC in the face of competition from higher-profile rivals such as Accenture. However, the resurgence of SBS’s UK arm has been overshadowed by continuing problems of overcapacity at its German operation, which has dragged back profitability in recent years.
