Following a competitive bidding process, the solution presented by the IDS – Unilog consortium received the highest technical grade and the companies were awarded the contract in September 2010. The handover process has been launched in October as IDS and Unilog will be providing IT Support, System Administration and Development for the Regie's IT Infrastructure and Systems including their Enterprise Resource Planning Solution which lies at the core of all Regie operations with the Lebanese Tobacco Manufacturers.
Integrated Digital Systems General Manager, Jamal Anouti commented by saying "Few Lebanese IT companies have the resources and expertise required to enter large scale governmental and public bids specifically in the field of IT outsourcing. Our good experience in this arena in the Lebanese market, and with NSSF in specific, combined with our pool of IT outsourcing jobs across the MENA and our partnership with Unilog who have firsthand experience with the Regie have all helped in tipping the scale in our favor. And our teams are excited about working together and learning from each other."
Full IT Outsourcing that encompasses System Administration, Support and Development is becoming more popular among Middle Eastern governmental entities and corporations chiefly due to cost efficiency, quality and business continuity advantages. While Lebanese entities are more hesitant to adapt full IT Outsourcing for their systems IDS foresees further Lebanese governmental entities joining the trend.
