Six companies have won a €90 million ($106.2m) data center contract awarded by the Dutch Government.
A total of four bids have been awarded the contract for the National Government Tender for Data Centers 2021 (ROAD2021) in the Netherlands; joint bids from PQR & Telindus and SLTN & Axians, and individual bids from Centralpoint and Computacenter.
Of the winning companies, only Axians wasn’t part of the previous data center contract from the Dutch Government from 2017.
Awarded by the Implementation Center North (IUC-North) of the Ministry of Education, Culture & Science (Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschappen; OCW), the contract calls for the supply of data center resources and associated services. The contract serves the Ministry of Justice and Security (JenV), the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (IenW), and the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport.
Starting August 2021, the contract runs for three years with an option to extend for another year.
PQR is an Utrecht-bsaed IT consultant firm. Telindus, part of Belgian telco Proximus Group, also has an office in Utrecht.
“PQR attaches great importance to sustainability and we are proud that we meet the sustainability requirements of the ROAD2021 tender,” said Marijke Kasius, CEO of PQR. “We are delighted to have once again been selected to act as a supplier for ROAD2021 customers. We will do everything we can to continue to provide the quality of service as we have provided in previous ROAD contracts, and are convinced that we can do this in good cooperation with Telindus in the coming years.”
A joint bid from SLTN-Axians also won part of the contract. SLTN is another Dutch IT firm, while Axians is the ICT brand of Vinci Energies.
“SLTN's approach, where our customers are always partners in our mission to realize sustainable and secure data center resources, again proves to be an excellent basis for departure,” said Eugene Tuijnman, CEO of SLTN. “Thanks to the qualitative contribution of Axians in the field of Networking, we have been able to create a very strong combination to assist the Ministry of Security and Justice and its departments in the delivery and implementation of its IT Systems for the next four years.”
“Continuity, security and privacy are important to our central government service,” emphasizes Tom Greeve, Director at Axians. “With over 20 years of experience within the government, Axians knows how to guarantee quality for ICT infrastructures. The strength of Axians in offering scalable and sustainable Networking & Security solutions, combined with the proven experience in Server & Storage of SLTN, means that we complement each other seamlessly in our services to the Participants.”
Most companies that won the ROAD2021 contract were part of its previous iteration or have since acquired companies that were. Misco Solutions & Telindus, SLTN Inter Access, PQR, and Scholten Awater won the previous data center tender from the Dutch Government, known as ROAD2017, that was valued at around €130 million ($153.5m).
UK firm Computacenter acquired Amstelveen-based Misco Solutions in 2018.
Scholten Awater was acquired by the Infotheek Group in 2017 and then merged with Centralpoint. In June Infotheek closed the sale of Centralpoint to Swedish IT firm Dustin Group AB.