Updata Infrastructure (Updata) today announces it has been awarded a four year framework contract by Buckinghamshire County Council (BCC) to transition services including WAN, LAN, security and school services to the soon to be created Buckinghamshire Public Services Network (Bucks PSN). The Bucks PSN will transform the ability of public sector bodies across the County to connect and collaborate, and will generate operational efficiencies and further reduce costs associated with the delivery of IT through county-wide shared service initiatives such as voice, schools services, data centres and internet security.
In 2011, BCC announced its plans to implement a Public Services Network (PSN) to enable it to share IT services with stakeholders and has worked with District Councils in Aylesbury Vale, Chiltern, South Bucks and Wycombe as well as Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service. The framework is also available to neighbouring authorities as well as voluntary and community bodies and health partners. The framework with Updata includes maintaining the current Wide Area Network (WAN), the Local Area Network (LAN) and associated ICT services. At the same time, Updata will commence the build and roll-out of the Bucks PSN and begin transitioning sites and services as soon as becomes appropriate.
Councillor Peter Cartwright, Buckinghamshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources was particularly pleased with the strategic fit of the Updata offer. He commented that “Updata’s proposal fits well into our whole council transformational journey allowing the County Council and partners to deliver services efficiently, whilst making budget savings and improving the customer experience.”
Caroline Cooper, CIO, Buckinghamshire County Council comments: “BCC has embraced the concept of PSN full heartedly. We are committed to increasing our operational efficiencies and sharing services. This is key to driving down costs and delivering better services to Buckinghamshire.”
She continues: “In Buckinghamshire we have always had a comprehensive and robust network and Bucks PSN will ensure we continue to operate at the highest of standards, enable residents to access the services they need, ensure our staff can provide customer services wherever it is required and provide the platform for teachers and students to fully embrace online learning environments via secure access to information when and where needed – at school, at home or in offices. BPSN is future proofing our infrastructure and ensuring that every public sector stakeholder can benefit from a high-speed, secure and resilient network infrastructure.
We want to be in a position to take advantage of the services that will be made available via the PSN, such as the GCloud Application Store, and Updata is the perfect partner to help us make that transition.”
“Updata is taking away the risk and complexity associated with ICT provisioning and maintenance for BCC,” says Vic Baldorino, Director at Updata Infrastructure.
“By consolidating stakeholders and converging services we will deliver more efficient frontline services to an array of public sector bodies within the County. We are naturally delighted to be chosen for this project and are pleased to see our commitment to the PSN initiative being recognised within the context of the Bucks PSN. We really can’t wait to get started.”
In August 2012, Updata obtained formal Cabinet Office accreditation as a Direct Network Service Provider (DNSP) – one of only a handful of suppliers to do so – enabling it to provide PSN and GCN connectivity for local authorities, central government and other PSN Service Providers.