DWP ends Fujitsu thin-client contract

Department for Work and Pensions brings six-year deal to a premature end…

Under the terms of the deal, the DWP was to save money on energy costs using thin-client technologyPhoto: Shutterstock

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has terminated a contract with Fujitsu to manage its desktop computers and replace its PCs with thin clients.

The six-year deal, agreed in 2010, was for Fujitsu to manage 140,000 desktops for DWP's entire workforce and develop a thin-client system.

Under the deal, Fujitsu was to provide the DWP with thin-client machines to replace its desktop PCs, a move Fujitsu said would generate tens of millions of pounds in savings on energy costs.

A spokesman for Fujitsu confirmed the company was still developing the thin-client system when the deal had been cancelled, and that none of the hardware had been delivered.

A DWP spokeswoman said she could "confirm that the contract has ended on Friday 11 March" but declined to explain why the department had decided to cancel the deal.

At the time the contract was awarded to Fujitsu, DWP CIO Joe Harley said in a statement: "This is the first in a series of competitions to replace our existing IT and telephony services contracts by 2015 and it sets the tone by delivering significant benefits for the department and as a framework for government-wide IT."

Harley said, at the time, that the benefit of using thin-client technology included "little or no maintenance required to the kit and reductions in power consumption which supports our sustainability agenda".

Responsibility for managing the DWP's existing desktop estate will revert to HP, which was handling the contract before Fujitsu took it over in February 2010.

The DWP spokeswoman said: "We are now considering how the service will be delivered in future."