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High Speed 2 represents a major new opportunity for ICT suppliers in the public sector transportation space. GlobalData Public Sector Principal Analyst Tony Cripps takes us on a high-speed ride around HS2’s ICT spending.
When Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave the green light to High Speed 2 (HS2) on 11 February, he kicked off a chain of events that will see the new North-South high-speed rail link revolutionise rail transport in Great Britain. Significantly, it is also seeing the organisation responsible for delivering the railway to become one of the largest buyers of ICT and operational technologies among the UK’s public sector transport bodies.
Until recently, HS2 Ltd – the executive non-departmental public body set up in 2009 to deliver the railway – has offered limited opportunities to ICT suppliers. This was in no way surprising, as the project has been stuck in its conceptual and early planning stages until recently and its ICT requirements have therefore been limited. Nonetheless, while operating under the radar, GlobalData estimates that HS2 has already invested some £80.7m since 2015 in ICT-focused contracts.
ICT contracts speed up
Unsurprisingly, the scale of this procurement has grown rapidly since February. GlobalData has recorded 28 ICT contract awards made by HS2 Ltd between January and the end of June 2020, for a total estimated value of £22.8m. These include multi-million pound IT infrastructure support contracts with managed services providers Littlefish and MCSA Group, as well as contracts for Microsoft Dynamics ERP / CRM and Azure cloud computing service with Tisski and Trustmarque Solutions.
This trend is continuing, with a variety of other ICT-centric procurements are already planned by HS2 Ltd for 3Q, 20 and beyond. These look set to cover a range of communications, infrastructure, hardware and strategic opportunities although full details are not yet available.
However, while HS2 Ltd’s spending on core ICT will continue to be important it is clear that the greatest proportion of the organisation’s technology budget going forward will be spent on operational technologies. These include command, control and communications technologies that will enable the railway itself to operate |
