EDS Signs MMiT Contract With UK Ministry of Defence

• Posted: Monday, May 19, 2008
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• Author: pradhana
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• Filed under: Business Analysis

By Georgina O'Toole, senior analyst at Ovum

EDS has signed a contract with the MoD to deliver the Management of Materiel in Transit (MMiT) project. The project is intended to improve the management, planning and tracking of essential supplies and equipment.

“On top of MMiT, we also expect EDS to sign a contract to deliver the Management of Joint Deployed Inventory (MJDI) programme (contract signing was previously scheduled for the end of 2007).”

“However, the Future Logistics Information System Delivery Project (FLIS DP) - with the vision of delivering an effective tri-service end-to-end logistics information system - would be the real 'jewel in the crown' for EDS. The company is currently in an alliance with IBM, Steria and IFS Defence, and competing for the associated ten-year outsourcing contract, which will rationalise some 140 applications and will combine all the associated commercial and in-house arrangements underpinning them. We expect the ten-year outsourcing contract to be placed with the successful bidder in 2010.”

“The supply chain management system will be based on a third-party COTS application (from Supply Chain Consulting) and will be combined with a performance analysis and reporting system from SAS. The Materiel in Transit Management Information System (MiTMIS) will provide clear and accurate information regarding the delivery of supplies and the performance of the supply chain. It will also improve the speed at which provisions flow through the supply chain and reduce costs by minimising duplication of supply requests. Delivery of the web-based application to units of all front-line commands is scheduled for mid-2009.”

“The MoD has made significant progress in the transformation of Defence Logistics to date; previous change initiatives and programmes under the Defence Logistics Transformation Programme have primarily focused on improving efficiency while maintaining operational outputs. Indeed, the DLTP has been the single largest contributor to the MoD's Efficiency Programme targets, contributing around £800 million in savings to 31 March 2007. It is expected to have reached £1 billion in efficiency gains by 31 March 2008. However, the focus has now shifted to transformation and improving 'operational effectiveness, efficiency and flexibility' across all three services.”

“MMiT is one of a handful of projects, enabled by DII(F) and managed by the Logistics Applications Integrated Project Team (LA IPT), designed to modernise the delivery of logistics applications and maximise operational effectiveness within the MoD. The project is a successor to the In Transit Visibility (ITV) project, an element of the original DLO Change Programme which, with other projects such as the Defence Stores Management Solution (DSMS), Delivering the Requirement of Unit Materiel Management (DRUMM) and a procurement system Purchase to Payment (P2P), was intended to meet all the requirements of the defence supply chain. DSMS, DRUMM and ITV were suspended on the grounds of affordability before reaching Main Gate approval in 2002. Under the new MMiT project full replacement of existing MoD systems was considered but rejected as being unrealistic; MMiT will, instead, build upon current tracking systems and will extract data from VITAL (the MoD freight distribution system) and the DHL Consignment Tracking System.”

“The partnership between EDS and the MoD's LA IPT has been in operation since March 1996 and is an IT service provision contract with call-off services. EDS supports and maintains various in-service logistic support systems, provides infrastructure support and undertakes the development of new systems. On top of MMiT, we also expect EDS to sign a contract to deliver the Management of Joint Deployed Inventory (MJDI) programme (contract signing was previously scheduled for the end of 2007).”

“However, the Future Logistics Information System Delivery Project (FLIS DP) - with the vision of delivering an effective tri-service end-to-end logistics information system - would be the real 'jewel in the crown' for EDS. The company is currently in an alliance with IBM, Steria and IFS Defence, and competing for the associated ten-year outsourcing contract, which will rationalise some 140 applications and will combine all the associated commercial and in-house arrangements underpinning them. We expect the ten-year outsourcing contract to be placed with the successful bidder in 2010.” /PR

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