The Post Office has tendered for a "full range" of IT services in order to support front and back-end operations at its branches and online following its separation from the Royal Mail Group.

The contract includes lots to provide end user computing, network services, applications, infrastructure and data centres. The Post Office will also appoint a service integrator to "combine and manage the technical services provided by the delivery tower contractors".

The Post Office told Information Age that the notice is not a tender for new IT systems, but rather for the consolidation of its vendor landscape, "implementing an industry standard Towers model that will support our current and future IT services."

"A single provider will act as the first line of support and management for questions, incidents and problems, as well as having the end-to-end operational accountability for the delivery of each IT Service," the Post Office said, with the service integrator function combined with the service desk.

The organisation expects to invite between four and six companies to participate on the contract. The agreement will be worth between £20 million and £100 million over the next four years, with two optional year-long extensions.

The contract is part of the Post Office’s broader £1.34 billion investment plan "to modernise the branch network". Paula Vennells, CEO of the Post Office, called the investment a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" for the organisations to revitalise its network and meet the needs of a 21st Century customer.

"Over the next three years, as part of the Post Office Transformation programme, we have a significant amount of IT business change to deliver in order to enable us to modernise and further enhance the customer experience," a Post Office spokesperson told Information Age.

The Post Office’s currenty IT services supplier is Fujitsu.

In February, the Post Office put out a tender for IT suppliers to help support its plan to become an "identity assurance" provider to UK citizens.