Invest Northern Ireland Contract Win and G-Cloud 3 framework
RNS Number : 6153E
@UK PLC
14 May 2013
Embargoed for 7:00am release 14 May 2013
@UK PLC
("@UK" or the "Company")
Invest Northern Ireland Contract Win and G-Cloud 3 framework
@UK PLC (AIM:ATUK.L), the cloud ecommerce marketplace, is delighted to announce that it has won a competitive tender to provide Invest Northern Ireland ("Invest NI") with its Content Management System ("CMS"), delivered via @UK's local cloud technology. The 10 year contract is worth a total of £0.5 million, with £104k in the first year, including the budget for additional services and revenue.
This competitive contract win confirms the continued calibre of SiteGenerator CMS, the content management element of @UK's cloud-based ecommerce system first launched over 14 years ago. Ecommerce systems are generally weak at content management and content management systems weak at ecommerce. This contract win confirms @UK's leading position in both areas providing the Company with a strong competitive advantage in the enterprise ecommerce market.
Late last year, Forrester Research sized the US B2B eprocurement market at $559 billion, being close to twice the size of the B2B ecommerce market, with much of that activity as yet unrealised. A separate study found that only 25 percent of B2B companies have an online presence. @UK with its leading technology, partners and global rollout plan can address both buy and sell sides of this significant global market.
There is also a significant market for local cloud technology, as evidenced by the launch last month of Pivotal Technology with a $105 million investment from General Electric to develop products that will exploit the local cloud market. A local cloud is where a large organisation with existing data centres uses cloud technology from other providers to improve the security, reliability and cost effectiveness of their local services. i.e. in the case of @UK, a technology transfer of the existing @UK technology to the organisation so that it can use the technology to run its local services.
@UK has an established cloud platform with over 1 million users and a G-Cloud framework that allows UK public sector bodies to purchase the @UK local cloud technology. The @UK Directors believe Invest NI's use of @UK local cloud technology for the Invest NI content management system and corporate intranet provides @UK with both the framework and reference site necessary for public sector and large enterprise sales.
@UK local cloud allows large organisations to benefit from the @UK cloud platform's ability to rapidly develop reliable applications running on a fully optimised established cloud platform that services millions of users in a secure manner from the lowest cost base of any major cloud platform. There are over 28 million unique visitors to the @UK platform and the cost per million visitors is an industry leading £70k per annum.
@UK is once again on the G-Cloud framework in the form of the G-Cloud 3 framework, which lasts for 1 year with services available for a further 2 years to create a 3 year agreement for customers.
Ronald Duncan Chairman of @UK commented, "This win with Invest NI confirms that our market leading enterprise ecommerce platform has a first class content management system. A contract win in the emerging local cloud space combined with our continuing inclusion in the G-Cloud framework puts us in a strong space in both markets."
Ends
Enquiries:
@UK PLC
Ronald Duncan, Chairman
Tel: 0118 963 7000
Westhouse Securities Limited
Tom Griffiths/ Richard Johnson
Tel: 020 7601 6100
Newgate Threadneedle
Caroline Evans-Jones/ Alex White
Tel: 020 7653 9850
@UK PLC
@UK is Europe's leading Cloud Platform with over 1 million users and 28 million unique visitors, which is used for Universities' and Colleges' procurement along with Local Authority, Schools and other Government and Private sector procurement.
The GeM marketplace for Universities on Colleges is the only card based national marketplace in the world and was successfully delivered for the 800 Universities and Colleges and the 680 National Suppliers, proving that Cloud Ecommerce delivers large complex projects for Government on time and budget.
Richard Benyon MP Minster for the Natural Environment, launched the @UK Green Ecommerce Marketplace back in October 2010, and it is now the largest repository of product carbon footprints in the World.
@UK was used by the National Audit Office to identify over £500 million in savings for 25% of NHS spend. The ground breaking SpendInsight system used to identify the savings resulted in the award of 2 PhD's in artificial intelligence.
@UK delivers key government commitments of Savings Sustainability, and SME Inclusion along with support for start-ups. @UK PLC has now created over 200,000 start up businesses and recently launched a new Cloud-Start-Up.com service to provide a complete suite of cloud business software to start-ups along with the essentials of Limited Company, Bank Account, Domain Name, Email, Ecommerce, Accounting system and membership of the @UK business club.
This has been followed by the announcement of the 2012StartUp.com campaign, which is supported by the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange, the Forum of Private Business, and Software Industry Association BASDA. The campaign aims for a 27% growth of 100,000 start up companies and growth for existing businesses. It is a practical campaign that will result in companies being formed and growing through @UK's technology.
@UK has 6 key competitive advantages
- SpendInsight uses unique artificial intelligence to automatically identify savings and is available on a national framework contract
- Ecommerce Marketplace realises the savings through correct pricing vs catalogue marketplaces which are unable to support carriage, or complex pricing
- GreenInsight provides unique sustainability analysis and
- Hybrid Carbon Footprints enabling universal carbon footprints at a price break through of £4 per item
- High performance cloud technology underpinning the system
- Start up service allowing start ups to immediately start trading
These services are all immediately available to public sector bodies via the G-Cloud framework where @UK is a provider of services in all 4 lots (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS and other services).
@UK is included in the Software and Computer Services Sector (9530).
For further information please visit the @UK PLC websites
Investor Site http://www.uk-plc.net/invest
Main Site http://www.uk-plc.net
SpendInsight Site http://www.spendinsight.com
GreenInsight Site http://www.green-insight.com
Hybrid Carbon Footprint Site http://www.hybridcarbonfootprint.com
Cloud-Start-Up.com http://cstartup.com
2012StartUp.com http://www.2012Startup.com
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange