The City of Oslo has selected EDB, ErgoGroup, and InfoCare as its partners for the next three years, with the opportunity of extension for a further two years.

 

"The City of Oslo's foremost duty is to deliver services to Oslo's residents and businesses. By bringing together all our ICT contracts and inviting competitive bidding, we can release NOK 50 million each year to use for more important services," explains André Støylen, the member of the City Government responsible for Finance and Development.

 

The various tasks that are now being opened up to market competition have in part been carried out by the City's own employees and in part by a number of external suppliers. A cautious estimate of the direct financial benefit generated by bringing these tasks together for external operational management suggests annual savings of NOK 50 million, reaching full effect from 2008 onwards.

 

The City of Oslo has used external suppliers of ICT operating services for its shared infrastructure and major central and sectoral systems. The various units of the City administration have been responsible for operating their business-specific applications. In order to underpin this major and important restructuring of the City's ICT function, the operation of these systems has now also been consolidated for operation by external suppliers. The City has accordingly now placed the bulk of its operational ICT tasks with external suppliers, while responsibility for purchasing and management in the ICT area will be strengthened and retained as an internal function.

 

In November 2005, the City invited bidding for three major areas - core operating services, application operations and operating services for PCs and peripheral equipment - to meet its overall ICT operational requirement. Following prequalification, the City has identified suitable suppliers and following detailed negotiations it now intends to sign contracts with the following three selected suppliers:

 

EDB as a supplier of application operations

ErgoGroup as a supplier of core operating services

InfoCare as a supplier of operating services for PCs and peripheral equipment

 

Application operations: Operations of user programs and application migration services.

 

Core operating services (operating e-mail services, human resources services, asset registers etc.) and migration services (transferring programs and hardware etc.).

 

Operating services for PCs and peripheral PC equipment, IP telephony and other peripheral equipment.

 

The City of Oslo believes that this three-way split of competitive bidding and contracts ensures that the City has identified the suppliers that best meet its needs in its various areas of operations. Contracts with the three suppliers will come into force once they are signed following the expiry of the statutory notice period.

 

 

This contract makes EDB responsible for the migration and operation of the City of Oslo's applications portfolio of around 500 applications. This is a major assignment, giving EDB the challenging task of EDB managing the City's applications.

 

Together with the two other contracts being awarded - core operating services and services for PCs and peripheral equipment - this agreement with EDB will help to ensure optimal ICT operations for the City. The agreement also offers an opportunity for EDB to take over responsibility for part of the operating services for the City's servers and databases.

 

The City of Oslo is the second largest employer in Norway, with over 40,000 employees in 55 areas of operation, working from some 1,200 service locations in local offices, central functions and municipal undertakings.

 

"I am extremely pleased that the City of Oslo has selected EDB as a partner. We will do everything possible to be a good operations services partner for the City in the years to come. We look forward to using our experience and expertise in the area of forward-looking solutions for the digital world in the public sector to ensure that the City achieves its objectives," comments Endre Rangnes group CEO of EDB Business Partner.