DOHMS signs $5 million outsourcing contract

Dubai Department of Health and Medical Services (DOHMS) has signed one of the largest outsourcing deals by a government body in the UAE with a AED20 million ($5.4 million) contract with Intertec Systems to manage its IT operations.

"DOHMS wanted major improvements in internal customer service, and it has a huge network of around 4,000 users, which it needs to support the network across the whole emirate of Dubai in 26 locations. For this it needed a big team, and a full technical helpdesk," said Naresh Kothari, MD of Intertec.

Instead of expanding its own IT department, DOHMS opted for the managed service approach, and signed the three-year contract with Intertec in March.

"We've been doing a lot of business with Intertec for the past few years, and have had good experiences with its expertise and support. Whatever we have requested, they have committed to it - even down to taking on expatriate staff from DOHMS on the same salary and benefits they were on here. This is why we can agree with Intertec - it is more flexible than others," said Ali Mohd Ibrahim Al Ali, deputy director for IT at DOHMS.

Under the terms of the contract Intertec will take on 40 staff, and will also manage DOHMS' Emirati IT staff, although they will remain employed by the government department, according to Al Ali. "Our key requirements included improvements in the service, improvements in flexibility, long-term cost reduction - we will benefit from this contract, as we are expanding more and more, but we won't have to keep on recruiting more and more IT staff," he added.