Just few weeks after TCS won a contract from the UKs Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission CMEC, another stateowned organisation Transport for London TFL is seeking vendors for an outsourcing contract worth around USD 100 million, as the countrys transport organisation seeks to consolidate its information technology helpdesk and serve around 30,000 of its staffs better. The contract is the second in a series of deals worth around USD23 billion being pursued by offshore service providers, including TCS, Infosys and Wipro from the UKs state owned departments. The UK aims to save almost USD 10.6 billion annually by lowering costs of back office and IT operations across its stateowned departments, and outsourcing could help the country achieve these savings, according to experts.

The contract also involves managing IT systems for around 18,000 users at TFL, which hopes to save almost USD 3.5 billion by making its business processes more efficient.

At a time when protectionist lobbies in the US are asking the Obama administration to curb offshore outsourcing, the UK is seeking to bring down operational costs of its public sector systems by outsourcing noncore IT and back office projects.

A review of the UKs public sector IT spending by the countrys treasury department earlier this month identified the potential of around USD10.6 billion in annual savings. Government IT spending in the UK is estimated to be around USD36 billion every year, Bob McDowall, says research director at TowerGroup Europe.