Six consortiums make West Midlands and Surrey police partner shortlist

Six consortiums make West Midlands and Surrey police partner shortlist

Bidding groups include Kellogg Brown & Root with IBM and Serco with HP and Accenture

West Midlands and Surrey police forces have picked the bidding consortiums for their shortlist as part of their planned business partnering for police programme (BPP).

The groups include Serco, HP and Accenture working together as well as a team from Kellogg Brown & Root and IBM.

West Midlands and Surrey said that six bidding groups will move to the next stage of the process. The groups are:

€Â¢ BT, Reliance Secure Task Management and Vanguard Consulting.

€Â¢ Capita Business Services.

€Â¢ G4S Care & Justice Services .

€Â¢ Kellogg Brown & Root and IBM.

€Â¢ Logica, Amey Community and Northgate.

€Â¢ Serco, HP Enterprise Services, and Accenture.

Both the West Midlands and Surrey forces said they will now begin discussions with the shortlisted bidders to explore the ideas and innovations that they could bring to policing.

Over the past two weeks police authorities in both Surrey and the West Midlands have agreed to proposals by the forces to move forward with the BPP process, with revised timetables adopted to allow for a public and staff consultation over the summer. The extended timescales will also allow for the incoming police and crime commissioner candidates to examine the proposals.

Dave Thompson, deputy chief constable at West Midlands police, said: "The whole BPP programme is about transforming the police and finding new ways to enhance the way our organisations deliver our service to the public.

"It's pleasing to see a broad range of companies from different sectors of the market, and we look forward to exploring with them how they would use innovation, technology and business transformation for the benefit of the public here in the West Midlands."

In an exclusive interview in May, Chris Price, West Midlands police chief information officer, told Guardian Government Computing the deal could become a benchmark vehicle for other forces to get involved and that he would expect to see larger companies also working with a range of smaller suppliers.

Paul Ridgewell, senior analyst at Kable said, "Following its success with Lincolnshire constabulary G4S was awarded a contract for the provision of various services as part of Lincolnshire's £200m, 10 year strategic partnership contract in April 2012 the question now is whether the company will be able to repeat its success in the West Midlands and Surrey.

"In Lincolnshire, G4S was able to beat off a partnership between Steria and Reliance Security to win the deal, and now faces strong competition not only from Reliance and partners BT and Vanguard but also Capita, among others.

"In addition, there are a number of wild cards, not the least of which is Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) working with IBM, and a host of other enterprise-focused suppliers including HP and Accenture. Despite the apparent lack of SMEs in the procurement exercise, the process looks set to be a fascinating one."