Case Study 2: Government IT Procurement

Back to Case Study

This project concerned the procurement of a national fingerprint system for a government organization. A key benefit of the new system would be to process fingerprint records collected from arrested individuals quickly enough to confirm identify. The technology included UNIX workstations and servers, purpose-built hardware and a secure networking infrastructure.

As part of the procurement process bidders supplied simulation models of their proposed design. These models were then used to help assess the ability of the bidder to meet the performance requirements of the customer as well as providing an insight into the bidders' design and design methodology. As selecting the correct contractor is key to the success of the project the ability to look beyond paper documentation into actual design models providers a powerful tool in contractor selection.

After the contract award Whitney was retained to assess the ability of the contractors design to meet the performance requirements. This involved close co-operation with the contractor to gain design information and performance data. In addition it meant advising the contractor on its approach to meeting the performance requirements and the test strategy.