It also confirmed that an extension of Agilisys' contract beyond one year would not provide good value for money for the council, following its discussions with the Audit Commission, which suggests that Cumbria will attempt to carry out the tender process again over the next 12 months.

Computerworld UK also contacted Councillor Liz Mallinson, cabinet member and portfolio holder for ICT at the council, but was informed that the details of where the negotiations went bad could not be disclosed at this time because of the on-going procurement process.

Computacenter has said that it will not disclose specifics, but did confirm that it was not able to agree terms that were "agreeable to both parties".

Research director at analyst firm , Phil Coding, suggested that the failed negotiations may come as a blow to Computacenter's financials.

"Not great news for the client or for Computacenter, whose UK business looked like it was putting a disappointing 2011 behind it with a number of wins in recent months," said Coding.