The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) signed an innovative partnership contract to launch a brand new FCO web presence under the guidance and support of PA Consulting Group (PA) who acted as procurement and commercial advisor. PA will continue to support the FCO during the implementation phase in establishing a world class web presence to meet the growing needs of the FCO’s target audiences.
The FCO web presence is a first point of contact for British travellers seeking guidance before going overseas, as well as a valuable international diplomacy tool and resource for visitors and investors in the UK. It handles up to 24 million visitors per year, and at peak demand times, such as around the Asian tsunami disaster in 2004, site traffic can increase five-fold.
The contract was awarded following a rigorous procurement process. The process has followed relevant EU regulations and ensured that FCO’s business requirements will be met as well as achieving value for money. The procurement process was conducted in multiple stages at each of which appropriate evaluation criteria were used to identify the most appropriate suppliers to move to the next stage. After looking at over 30 potential providers, FCO selected LogicaCMG. PA provided best practice procurement advice based on our extensive experience of the public sector.
The new global web platform is expected to go live in 2008, and will be hosted across two sites, in the UK and the US.
Tracy Green, the project’s executive commented:
“PA has provided considerable professional support to our FCOWeb procurement - they have demonstrated a deep appreciation of our business, insight of the market and the formal processes required to help move our project forward. They have worked in close partnership with our team to achieve our objectives and ensure value for the FCO ”
Steve McKenzie, Member of PA’s Management Group, commented:
“Working on client side advisory always provides for new and interesting challenges and we are delighted to have supported the FCO in this key initiative. Being able to blend our corporate knowledge and expertise in public sector procurements with the FCO’s service knowledge has been an essential ingredient in helping to select the best supplier to implement the new global platform.”
Notes for Editors
For further information please contact: Cherilyn Wilson, tel: 0207 008 8240
- The new Web Platform will increase the resilience and performance of the FCO’s public facing websites
- The importance of the web over the next 5 to 7 years has been recognised by the FCO in delivering information and services.
- Thirty-one companies bid to supply the products and services for the Web Platform.
About PA Consulting Group
At PA Consulting Group, we transform the performance of organisations.
We put together teams from many disciplines and backgrounds to tackle the most complex problems facing our clients, working with leaders and their staff to turn around organisations in the private and public sectors. Clients call on us when they want:
an innovative solution: counter-intuitive thinking and groundbreaking solutions
a highly responsive approach: we listen, and then we act decisively and quickly
delivery of hard results: we get the job done, often trouble-shooting where previous initiatives have failed.
We are an independent, employee-owned, global firm of 3,000 talented individuals, operating from offices across the world, in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia, and Oceania. We have won numerous awards for delivering complex and highly innovative assignments, run one of the most successful venture programmes in our industry, have technology development capability that few firms can match, deep expertise across key industries and government, and a unique breadth of skills from strategy to IT to HR to applied technology.
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