Amor Group awarded £18.5m contract to deliver eProcurement Scotland

Leading business technology specialist Amor Group has secured its biggest ever single contract to manage and deliver the flagship eProcurement Scotland Service (ePS) for the Scottish Government. The contract win, which is worth £18.5m over four years, follows a competitive tender process and will deliver cost savings whilst significantly reducing carbon footprint levels.

The contract is not only a milestone win for Amor Group, it represents a positive boost for the wider economy. Headquartered just outside Glasgow, Amor Group’s proposal was chosen over a range of blue-chip international companies and underlines the competiveness of Scottish firms.

The system has over 50,000 registered public sector users and captures almost one third of the procurement spend across the Scottish public sector. The Scottish Government’s ePS service allows purchases to be processed electronically from requisition to payment. It supports electronic sourcing activities undertaken by public sector procurement professionals. There are now plans to build on that success under the new management of Amor Group.

John Innes, Chief Executive Officer of Amor Group said: “Efficient and effective procurement is at the heart of delivering savings through quality services, which is fundamental to supporting a successful Scotland. We will enable public service organisations to become more effective and respond to local needs by facilitating better buying decisions through ePS.

“ePS is already one of the most comprehensive and successful Public Sector eGovernment initiatives in the world. We know it can deliver significant savings for the public sector and our challenge is to increase its coverage, capability and compliance and improve it further. We intend to use the knowledge and insights of our business to support the Scottish Government as it makes Scotland a leading global business destination. I believe our success has underlined the competitiveness of Scottish industry and highlights our strength as a Scottish company with a genuine global footprint.

“I am also absolutely delighted that Amor Group has managed to win the single largest contract in our history. The success is a testament to the skill and energy of the committed people in our public sector team. However, it builds upon a period of success right across our company with a number of high profile new business wins. We are recruiting across all of our offices, experiencing international growth and cementing our position as a leading provider of business technology solutions.”

Alex Neil, the Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital Investment said “The procurement exercise was highly competitive. The award of this contract builds upon Scotland’s successes in the deployment and management of public sector eProcurement technologies. It also showcases Scotland’s supplier capability to host and manage what is regarded as one of the leading government eCommerce services.”

The service will be delivered by Amor Group from a range of locations around Scotland. The Scottish Government’s Saughton House in Edinburgh will be the main hosting centre. User support services will be provided from the Amor Assist Service Desk in Aberdeen which offers 24x7 support for all users. Finally, support for the integration and transition process will come from Amor Group’s India of Inchinnan headquarters, just outside Glasgow.

This new model and solution for delivering ePS will also provide carbon savings by encompassing a virtual hosting environment. This will reduce the infrastructure from over 73 physical servers to 19 in the new configuration. This represents a 75% reduction in the carbon foot print of the system which is equivalent to removing 200 vehicles from the road a year. This will create a system that is not just better for public sector users, but better for the environment as well.

The news comes on the back of a number of new contract wins for Amor Group in the last few weeks totalling around £15m,including the recent appointment by Business Stream to build a new IT infrastructure platform and to provide infrastructure support services, in a deal worth £2.1m over three years.