Edinburgh council name preferred bidder for moving business online

City of Edinburgh Council are set to name global IT giant CGI as its preferred bidder to oversee a large-scale transfer of its business online.

The Canadian firm will provide information technology services to the whole city, including enabling residents to engage and transact with the council digitally in a contract worth £186m.

The move could save the council £45m of savings over seven years, as it looks to cut costs by £107m over the next five years. It is thought over 1,000 jobs are being lost as part of the “transformation programme”.

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Edinburgh council say the new contract will generate 221 new jobs and 60 modern apprentices in the city.

It is hoped CGI will provide faster broadband speeds to city schools and support small businesses, in a deal which is expected to provide savings to over 50 organisations.

Councillor Alasdair Rankin, Convener of the Finance and Resources Committee, said: “This level of proposed saving is very significant and IT will be vital to help us transform and meet our savings challenge. If approved, this contract will make us more efficient and effective when delivering services.”

It is hoped the new contract will raise confidence in the transfer of services online after last month the council was hit by a cyber-attack which saw 13,000 resident’s email addresses stolen.

CGI is the fifth biggest independent ICT services firm in the world. It provided IT services during the disaster relief programmes in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the USA.