EANI have taken the decision to not proceed with the Fujitsu contract which had been awarded in December last year. The contract had been to provide a ‘school management system’ for all schools in Northern Ireland for a 12-year period and required the contractor to ‘deploy, support and manage a modern architecture, technical infrastructure and secure services for schools.’
When the contract was awarded, it sparked controversy due to the post office scandal, where hundreds of postmasters were wrongly prosecuted as a result of errors in Fujitsu’s Horizon IT system used by the Post Office.
At the time of the award, a spokesperson for EANI was asked if it was reevaluating the contract award in light of the scandal, but replied that the robustness of the tender process meant it was confident that Fujitsu would be able to fulfil the 12-year contract. It seems that position has changed.
We have seen a letter to school Principals in Northern Ireland explaining the decision and reproduce this below:
Dear Principal,
I am writing to you with regards to the ongoing development of the EdIS Programme’s Strategic Partner Service and School Management Solution. As you are aware, this contract was awarded to Fujitsu in December 2023 following a robust procurement process.
After an extensive negotiation period between EA and Fujitsu, the parties have mutually agreed on a no-fault basis not to continue with this contract with immediate effect. We thank our colleagues in Fujitsu for their support and partnership over the course of the negotiations.
I would like to provide reassurance that you will not experience any disruption to services as a result of this decision. All existing services delivered through the current managed service will continue to be delivered and supported.
We are pleased to share that schools will still benefit from a new School Management System provided by Bromcom as planned. EdIS staff are continuing with their implementation schedule and the first schools will be migrated onto the new system in this academic year as previously communicated. Regular updates will follow throughout 2025. Due to the extensive package procured with Bromcom, EdIS will continue to work to bring additional services, such as Online Payments, to schools.
We are confident that this process will ultimately be of most benefit to Children and Young People. Work to deliver EdIS benefits will continue to push forward, ensuring best fit solutions for schools in the long term.
The Bromcom school Management Information System will continue, despite the cancellation of the Fujitsu contract, and schools in Northern Ireland will be migrated across to this as previously planned.
It will be interesting to see how EANI manages to continue to provide their schools with the services which are currently delivered under a contract with Capita. This contract has itself been in place since 2012, with Capita receiving an extension to the contract earlier this year taking it through to March 2025. Will EANI go through another full tender process or will Capita’s contract simply be extended further?
Whatever happens, this is a worrying development for the plans to modernise the services to schools in Northern Ireland, and has undoubtedly taken up a huge amount of public resources already in running the original procurement process and through the ongoing negotiations, leading to this final decision not to move forwards with Fujitsu.
It highlights, once again, the need for a thorough and compliant procurement process and careful scrutiny of the companies involved and their ability to deliver the tender requirements.
