Oooooh! This one will get the little DSA-hating rads out there wet about their nether regions!
According to this press release, the DSA has signed a 4-year deal with Interserve for the servicing and maintenance of their sites – a total of 439 properties across the UK. The Dft and VOSA is also included in this deal.
The deal apparently reduces costs by up to 40 per cent of their current value.
The only part which worries me is the fact that it includes switchboard and helpdesk answering services. I hope this doesn’t include bookings.
The reason I say that is that I have direct experience of one such management service provider (Capita) taking over tech support for a large technical product supplier (PC World). In the end, it was like buying a fox to guard your chickens – it seemed cute, but it got ugly very quickly.