Fujitsu's "biggest" UK thin-client deal vanishes

Fujitsu has reportedly been dumped from one of the UK’s biggest government desktop deals, which it won from the clutches of rival HP last year.

"The contract [with Fujitsu] was terminated on the 11th [of March]; HP is covering in the short term," a spokesperson for the UK’s Department of Works and Pensions told The Register. 

Fujitsu was set to assume responsibility for the "biggest desktop and thin client" contract in the UK on September 1 2010, according to its original announcement.

According to The Register's report, the services giant had failed to meet three start dates.

Fujitsu was supposed to achieve “high penetration of thin clients” across the department's 140,000 desktops.

The department had high hopes for its thin technology. At the time, chief information officer Joe Harley said it would mean “little or no maintenance” and “reductions in power consumption”. Earlier this year Harley also became the UK's government-wide CIO.

DWP's now former chief technology officer, James Gardner, predicted the Fujitsu-led Windows 7 refresh would be the “last version of Windows anyone every deploys widely”.  

Gardner quit in January to return to the private sector, with his former role now shared between two IT directors.