2.68 In the business case for the procurement of the deal, the Department estimated the readily realisable benefits of the project as being £131 million over a 10.5 year contract with eight years for them to be realised.11 It now estimates the benefits to be £84 million in the new arrangements with only 3.25 years for them to be realised, although the benefits will continue to accrue beyond the life of the current contract. The Department will be reassessing these estimates over the coming year.
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11 Readily realisable benefits include savings on existing IT software and hardware support and maintenance; on IT equipment and software; on IT staff; and on the time spent and cost of entering case information and collecting statistical information.