The British Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) will invest somewhere between £250 and £750 million in an Oracle shared services ERP platform, which will reportedly be opened up to other government departments. This is a consolidation effort, to get things running on fewer platforms.

PublicTechnology.net shares a statement from prior information notice issued last week:

“The scope intends to cover existing Oracle platforms in the UK government departments and any supporting technologies, and to include upgrades and implementations of new Oracle version for these existing platforms”.

According to The Channel, Oracle partners are drooling over the FCO’s investment. Paul Kunert reports:

One Oracle partner told us government departments procure Oracle software individually and at different prices.

“There is a lot of room for negotiation and pricing is bloody messy,” he told us.

It is likely that Oracle will bid directly for the business but in line with all the noise coming out of the Cabinet Office, small biz suppliers are likely to be shoe-horned into the framework.

The framework tender is expected to be released within the next several months.