DfT’s shared services project
Information about the Department for Transport’s (DfT) procurement process to divest its Shared Services Centre in Swansea.
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On 1st March 2013 it was announced that arvato, part of the Bertelsmann Group, has been awarded the contract to operate the Shared Services Centre in Swansea which provides the department’s transactional services in finance, procurement and Human Resources.
On 18 July 2011, the Department for Transport (DfT) commenced the procurement process for divestment of its Shared Service Centre by issuing a contract notice in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). Those companies interested in buying the Shared Service Centre were asked to respond to the OJEU and complete a pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) assessed their suitability to be invited to continue in the procurement process.
The Department for Transport’s board believes that another organisation whose core business is in shared services will be much more likely to grow the business successfully, taking full advantage of the Shared Service Centre’s spare capacity to help it grow far faster. For the department this means cost savings as we become one customer of a larger operation.
It is intended that the successful tender would acquire the DfT Shared Service Centre in Swansea (including accommodation, staff obligations and its assets). Once divestment is complete, we have agreed with the Cabinet Office that the DfT’s Shared Service Centre will become one of a small number of centres that will provide these services to government departments. Each of these centres will be serving substantial numbers of users to maximise efficiency for government providing further opportunities for the centre and its staff once in the private sector.
On 17 August 2011, the Department for Transport received completed pre-qualification questionnaires and following a full evaluation and moderation process, a long list of potential bidders were invited to continue in the competition. On the 29 September they were issued with an invitation to participate in dialogue (ItPD) and an invitation to submit an outline solution (ISOS).
The ItPD gives an overview of the DfT family’s requirements and the procurement process. The ISOS is each potential bidder’s plans to grow the existing business. These outline solutions will be used to select a minimum of 3 and maximum of 5 potential bidders to continue to take part in the procurement process and be short-listed.
All potential bidders had until Thursday 10 November 2011 to submit their outline solutions. Following this there was a period of several weeks during which the outline solutions were evaluated and moderated. On 19 January 2012, the department is inviting 3 of the 11 potential bidders to continue in the competition. The successful organisations - in alphabetical order - at ISOS are:
- Arvato AG
- Capita Business Services Limited
- HP Enterprise Services UK Limited (HP ES UK Ltd)
These shortlisted bidders have been issued with an invitation to continue in dialogue (ITCD). This starts the next stage of more detailed dialogue which is expected to formally start in February 2012 and last for a period of 3-4 months.
Trade day
Further to the prior information notice, issued on 9 March 2011, the department held a trade day in respect of the government Shared Services (Swansea) project on Wednesday 6 July 2011 at Great Minster House, London.
Slides from the event are available on request from: governmentsharedservicesswansea@dft.gsi.gov.uk