MUMBAI: UK pubcaster,BBC has announced a shortlist of bidders selected to the final round in the procurement process for the partial outsourcing of HR Services for the corporation. The three companies that have madeit to the third stage of the bidding process are Accenture, Capita and Xchanging. The three finalists were chosen because of their strategic and service delivery capability.

The bids received from the long listed bidders were of high quality and through a rigorous EU procurement process conducted by BBC's evaluation team.BBC People director ,Stephen Dando said, "We have been impressed by the quality of the bids and all three bidders deserve to have reached the shortlist stage. We look forward to working with them more closely over the next few months and, as our timetable to complete the process is on track, we envisage announcing the winning bidder early in the New Year."

Final negotiations are expected to take place at the end of this year and the contract with the successful supplier is due to become operational from spring 2006. The procurement process follows an internal review which proposed that a number of services should be outsourced. The review team identified this as one of the measures to help put extra resources into programmes as part of BBC's radical plans to transform the organisation into a simpler and more creative digital broadcaster.

The areas where BBC is looking for a supplier to undertake are recruitment, remuneration, development, HR administration services, relocation, occupational health services and disability access services. The preference is to award one contract for all of the services, however BBC will award more than one contract where it is deemed commercially advantageous to do so, or where this is necessary to achieve the required service standards.

Hewitt Associates declined to respond to the Request for Proposal on the grounds that our outsourcing proposal does not fit with Hewitt Associates' outsourcing approach.

BBC says that its staff and unions are being kept fully informed during the process. BBC People was formed in 2001, bringing together for the first time the vast majority of BBC's functional HR specialists. The division supports the whole employment process. It supports BBC staff, casuals and some freelances based within multiple UK locations and internationally, and deals with the significant 'churn' associated with new hires/leavers.