Itcen Entek picked as preferred bidder for 217.3bn-won K-Edufine upgrade
In short
Itcen Entek has been selected as the preferred bidder for a 217.3 billion won project to upgrade K-Edufine, the education administration and finance system run by KERIS, and to build a disaster recovery system. The company's consortium scored 99.998 overall and a full 90 points in the technical evaluation, ahead of consortia led by Samsung SDS and LG CNS. The project runs from 2026 to 2028 and covers a cloud-native migration, an integrated disaster recovery centre and a zero-trust security system.
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Itcen Entek said on 7 October that it had been selected as the preferred bidder for the K-Edufine operation environment upgrade and disaster recovery system project, commissioned by the Korea Education and Research Information Service (KERIS) and put at 217.3 billion won. Newsis also reported the award with the same figure. [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]
The company's consortium ranked first with an overall score of 99.998. In the technical evaluation, which used a differential scoring system, it took the full 90 points, ahead of Samsung SDS with 86.1556 and LG CNS with 83.1556, according to Bloter. Bloter put the overall score of the Samsung SDS consortium at 96.1556 and of the LG CNS consortium at 93.1537, and reported that price scores were close: Samsung SDS 10, LG CNS 9.9981 and Itcen Entek 9.998. [ 3 ]
Because the project involves a large cloud-native migration and the construction of a disaster recovery system, it was granted an exemption from the restriction on large companies bidding, and large IT services firms including Samsung SDS and LG CNS entered the competition, the reports said. [ 1 , 3 ]
The project runs from 2026 to 2028 and covers a microservices-architecture-based cloud migration, an integrated disaster recovery centre, the introduction of a zero-trust security system and the modernisation of application services. K-Edufine is used by 17 city and provincial education offices and 810,000 teaching and administrative staff. [ 1 , 3 ]
Itcen Entek said it will apply its own AI development support system, including the Intellisen Code tool, to analyse legacy code and business logic and convert it for microservices and cloud environments, and to systematise code conversion, testing and verification. The company said it will work with small and mid-sized public-sector software firms on the build. [ 1 , 3 ]
Chief executive Shin Jang-ho said the result showed that experience and technical capability built in the field, rather than company size or brand, determine the quality of public-sector information projects, and that the company would complete K-Edufine without defects. He said the win would be a base for targeting the next-generation provincial administrative information system and AI conversion work in the national tax area. [ 1 , 3 ]
Why it matters
K-Edufine is used by 17 city and provincial education offices and 810,000 teaching and administrative staff, so the upgrade touches a large part of the country's school administration. The award went to a mid-sized IT services firm on a state project where the usual restriction on large-company participation was waived, and the company says it will use the win as a base for further public-sector AI conversion work.
Key facts
- Itcen Entek was selected as the preferred bidder for the K-Edufine operation environment upgrade and disaster recovery system project commissioned by the Korea Education and Research Information Service (KERIS), worth 217.3 billion won. [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]
- The Itcen Entek consortium ranked first with an overall score of 99.998. [ 1 , 3 ]
- In the technical evaluation it received the full 90 points, against 86.1556 for Samsung SDS and 83.1556 for LG CNS. [ 3 ]
- The project runs from 2026 to 2028 and includes a microservices-architecture-based cloud migration, an integrated disaster recovery centre, a zero-trust security system and modernisation of application services. [ 1 , 3 ]
- K-Edufine is used by 17 city and provincial education offices and 810,000 teaching and administrative staff. [ 1 , 3 ]
- Itcen Entek plans to apply its own AI development support system, including the Intellisen Code tool, to convert legacy code and business logic for microservices and cloud environments. [ 1 , 3 ]
- Large IT services firms including Samsung SDS and LG CNS took part because the project was granted an exemption from the restriction on large-company participation. [ 1 , 3 ]
Confirmed by several sources
- Itcen Entek was selected as the preferred bidder for the K-Edufine upgrade and disaster recovery project commissioned by KERIS, with the project put at 217.3 billion won. [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]
- The project runs from 2026 to 2028 and covers a cloud-native migration, an integrated disaster recovery centre, a zero-trust security system and application modernisation. [ 1 , 3 ]
- The Itcen Entek consortium took the full 90 points in the technical evaluation and an overall score of 99.998. [ 1 , 3 ]
- K-Edufine is used by 17 city and provincial education offices and 810,000 teaching and administrative staff. [ 1 , 3 ]
- Itcen Entek will use its own AI development support system, including Intellisen Code, in the project. [ 1 , 3 ]
Still unclear
- Itcen Entek has been named preferred bidder, not final contractor; the documents report no signed contract or signing date. The reports describe a preferred-negotiating-partner selection, which is a stage before a contract is concluded.
- The exact contract value is not stated; the documents give 217.3 billion won as the scale of the project. Only the project size is reported, not a signed contract price.
- The scores of the rival consortia (Samsung SDS 96.1556, LG CNS 93.1537, and their technical and price sub-scores) are given by only one outlet. Single-source detail, not corroborated by the other documents.