Paris-based Steria was announced as preferred bidder for the contract in September, after it beat Fujitsu in the final negotiations, and has now signed the contract, which will initially run for six and a half years but could be extended to 10.
Steria has been the incumbent ICT supplier to the NPS for the last four years, but had to re-tender a competitive bid for the new deal, which is called the Offender Management National Infrastructure (OMNI) contract.
The NPS said that OMNI is larger in scope than previous engagements and includes several enhancements. The NPS’ 43 data centers will be consolidated to just three, and it will move to a multi-protocol label switching network. The NPS believes the deal will give it a more flexible WAN infrastructure, improve its helpdesk facility and give better network and data reliability.
The deal is a further boost to Steria, which in September revealed a 28% increase in half-yearly net profits to E16.2m ($19.8m) in the six months ending June 30, 2005, on revenue growth of 21% to E583.6m ($713m). It also said that it was on target to reach an operating profit margin of 7% in 2006.
Just days before winning the NPS contract, Steria won a GBP10.5m ($18.5m) renewal of its managed services contract with insurance giant Lloyd’s.
