Four consortia are bidding for a multi-million pound 10-year Unix-based office automation contract with the Ministry of Defence, which is thought to be the biggest Unix order in the UK to date. The contract is heavily focussed on Open Systems Interconnection standards as well as tight security. Each of the four consortia which have been chosen to bid for the contract have been briefed to set up a prototype system, which involves two manufacturers’ kit. The four consortia are as follows: a group led by British Telecom, including Systems Designers, Honeywell Bull and Nixdorf; a group led by GEC Telecommunications including DEC, GEC Computers and ITL Plc; a group made up of ICL, Coopers and Lybrand, Data Logic and Hewlett-Packard; and a fourth led by Software Sciences, with British Olivetti, Datasolve, Gould Electronics, IBM UK, Logica Space and Defence and Scicon. The Ministry is linking 40 of its buildings and it will narrow its list to two consortia, which will be expected to build two prototype systems each to support around 500 users with 12,000 terminals and 3,000 printers.
