Post Office looking for front office IT applications services provider in £530m tender

Services comprise customer-facing transactions across multiple channels including the website and mobile

The Post Office is seeking a front office IT applications services provider in a contract that could be worth up to £530m.

In one of many tender notices that the Post Office has issued since 2012 as part of its transformation programme, the organisation said that the front office application services comprise customer facing transactions across multiple channels, including but not limited to: branches, the website, mobile and call centres.

The Post Office wants the provider to contribute to the transformation of its IT estate by refreshing the front office applications. The specifications for the supplier to follow include:

• Transformation from its incumbent estate of some current systems to the front office tower supplier; and transformation of its front office estate and systems as required to improve its customer experience and meet its 2020 strategy
• Change management activities to deliver the training and business process change that accompanies the proposed solution; service management activities to govern the operations management of the front office tower
• Service management to interact and collaborate with the broader supply chain, the IT organisation and the Post Office's service integrator and service desk (SISD) provider Atos, other towers and supply chain members
• The development and integration with devices, management, maintenance and support for the managed applications that support the front office business operations

Through the front office tower, the Post Office is additionally seeking to acquire services including but not limited to hosting and infrastructure support and management services, it said.

Currently, the Post Office's front office applications and components consist of: banking, branch accounting, branch administration, branch communications, branch support, bureau de change, cash and stock management, electronic top up, in and out payments, postal services, retail and stock sales, management reporting and DVLA transactions.

"A scalable and flexible solution is required to allow the Post Office to grow with customer needs and to support increased product diversity, reduced running costs and faster integration with its partners and suppliers," the tender reads.

"At the end of the contract term the bidder is expected to provide exit management services to transition the services to the winning bidder of the next procurement," it adds.

The contract is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement and is valued at between £140m and £400m for the initial seven-year term. This could rise to £530m if the contract is extended by three optional years. However, the Post Office warns that changes agreed throughout the contract could result in an increase or decrease to the estimated value.