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Is it possible to build a successful public sector consultancy in just 12 months?     A year ago we reported the launch of a new specialist public sector consultancy called Avail. At the time we commented that "the public sector, it seems, is crying out for independent management consultancy advice" and "their [Avail's] timing looks impeccable". One year on, how have things developed? Is it possible to build a successful consultancy from scratch in just twelve months? The latest results indicate it is.    At the end of their first year, Avail report they have grown from the two founders - Martin Wilson and Robert Garner - to twenty five consultants. The initial target was to have grown     currently working with six central government departments, five government agencies and the NHS.    Avail are now celebrating their first anniversary with a landmark contract win at the Department of Health. They have been appointed as one of two suppliers to the Collaborative Procurement Hubs Pilot Implementation Project; part of the Department's Supply Chain Excellence Programme. Commenting on the win Avail Founder Martin Wilson said:    "This is a major achievement for Avail. Within a year of establishing Avail we have demonstrated that we are capable of competing with and beating the     established players on one of the largest and most important government procurement programmes."    The contract is for an undisclosed sum but will involve over ten consultants for a period of nine months.    Commenting on the appointment Zoe Greenwell (Department of Health Commercial Department) said: "Avail have impressed us with their capability, approach and practical grasp. Both the Commercial Directorate and the Staffordshire & Shropshire teams are looking forward to working with them."    Asides from the Department of Health contract, we understand that so far in 2005 Avail have won a number of     other significant contracts with the Metropolitan Police Service, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Health Community and GCHQ.    Commenting on developments in the last year Avail Founder Rob Garner said    "Securing the Department of Health contract has been part of a strategy to 'move to the next level'. Over the last four months, we have increased monthly revenue by 50% and doubled our average project size. We are now targeting to double turnover in the next twelve months."    Long may the success story continue        to around fifteen consultants by March 2005, so to have hit twenty five consultants this month is a testimony to how well the firm's proposition has been received in the market. The two founders were former Managing Directors at Atos KPMG Consulting, which will certainly have helped to establish initial credibility in the market. Whatever the reasons, the firm has built up an enviable client base within this short timeframe and Avail's consultants are

EDS back in the game with major UK defence contract win     The EDS-led ATLAS Consortium has been selected as the preferred bidder for the first increment of the UK Ministry of Defence's £4 billion (US$7.7 billion) IT infrastructure project.    Had EDS not won the contract, which the company is calling its biggest since 2002, its future in the UK public sector would have been in doubt in light of an year in which it failed to win     and Security Systems, General Dynamics, LogicaCMG and junior partners Hewlett-Packard and IBM, had been considered an underdog to CSC, which led a group that also included two UK subcontractors, BT Group PLC and Thales Defence Information Systems.    Analysts point out that the size of the EDS consortium's core team made it better suited to the MOD's criteria and that while CSC is a major     player in the US defence sector, it has little experience in the UK one.    Furthermore, the Defence Information Infrastructure Future (DII [F]) project, which will consolidate numerous existing information networks into a single next-generation infrastructure, is similar in scope to EDS' troublesome US Navy and Marine Corps IT contract, which the company has worked hard to put back     on track. It appears it is already practicing the lessons it has learned since signing that deal.    The Navy contract proved more complicated than expected because the Navy wanted to preserve thousands of old software applications. For the UK deal EDS said it has negotiated limits on the number of old applications it must handle.        a single part of the £6bn National Health Service IT programme, lost its £3bn Inland Revenue outsourcing deal to Capgemini and weathered criticism over its work for the Child Support Agency.    The EDS consortium, which includes Fujitsu Services, EADS Defence