SOE Tender results delayed Till Feb 2008

Results of the mega $1.5 billion tender to standardise the computing equipment used by the Singapore's public sector have been delayed to February next year.

However, IDA said that the first agency to get the standardised equipment would still be in mid-2009 as the implementation timeline for the project, dubbed Standard Operating Environment (SOE), would continue.

The tender results were to have been announced on Tuesday. The delay would give the IDA more time to evaluate the proposals received from the four consortia bidders.

The four consortia bidding for this project are One Team comprising NCS and IBN, InSpire comprising Hewlett-Packard and ST Electronics; NexGenea led by NEC Solutions Asia-Pacific and CSC Computer Sciences and One Meridian led by EDS and Singapore Computer Systems.

SOE will equip most government departments with standardised networked personal computers, office software, Internet browsers, e-mail and helpdesk services. About 60,000 public sector workers will be affected by this, the largest government outsourcing deal.

Installation of the new system with the first government site is expected by mid-2009, and the entire project will be done by end-2010.

The only government departments left out in the exercise are the Ministry of Defence and Defence Science & Technology Agency - which have their own systems - and schools and tertiary institutions, for which a separate tender will be called.