Bell, CGI, win $398m contract to consolidate government email

BCE Inc. division Bell Canada and an IT company won a $398-million contract to implement a single email system across the federal government, Shared Services Canada said. The federal government now uses 63 different email systems that will be replaced with the single system, Shared Services Canada said in a release Tuesday. The department was created in 2011 to streamline, consolidate and standardize IT services in government. Bell won the contract in partnership with CGI Information Systems and Management Consultants Inc., the release said. The system will be implemented by March 2015, and four qualified vendors bid on the contract. They were Bell, Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company and IBM Corp., the release said. The contract is worth $398 million over seven years, with an additional option year, said a Public Works Department official on a background basis. “We are clearly pleased by the success of our bid and look forward to working with Shared Services Canada and our partners as we implement the project,” said Jacqueline Michelis, a spokeswoman for Bell, by telephone. A consolidated email system was the “first priority” of Shared Services Canada, the release said. The Wire Report reported in March that the department will also look at government-wide software contracts, and that mobile devices and network services could follow. The federal government is the country’s single largest employer with more than 260,000 employees. Ted Francis, spokesman at Shared Services Canada, said in an emailed statement that Bell’s role in the contract will be to “develop the architecture and design of the new email platform” as well as operate the new system and transition users to it. In 2011, BCE announced plans for a new data centre in the National Capital Region to support co-location, hosting and cloud computing, and software services. —With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Simon Doyle at sdoyle@thewirereport.ca

Bell, CGI, win $398m contract to consolidate government email

News | June 25, 2013

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Bell, CGI, win $398m contract to consolidate government email

News | June 25, 2013

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