Cable & Wireless has won a contract worth £18 million over five years with Surrey County Council. Cable & Wireless will provide the local authority with a complete managed service covering all its telecoms requirements until 2013.
Surrey County Council signed its first managed services contract with Cable & Wireless in October 2001 and today's agreement (to commence in March 2008) marks the second time that the contract has been extended. This is testament to the excellent service delivered and great relationship between the two organisations.
Cable & Wireless will manage the Surrey Wide Area Network (SWAN) and associated local area networks, which connect more than 24,000 people across 1,000 sites. It will also run the Council's extensive IP telephony system which, when first rolled out, was Europe's largest IP voice installation.
This all-IP infrastructure enables Surrey County Council to adopt more innovative working practices and meet efficiency targets. For example, the Council is able to adopt a 'shared services' approach to common services and introduce online services for local citizens, while employees can work flexibly across different sites or access the Council network from home.
Cable & Wireless will also take responsibility for Surrey County Council's mobile services, including about 4,500 mobile handsets, 600 Blackberry devices and 3G data cards. It will manage the relationships with mobile suppliers and provide a private connection back into the SWAN network, which means that calls back to the office will be cheaper.
Richard Shaw, chief executive at Surrey County Council, said, "Cable & Wireless acts as our internal telecoms team - with a single supplier managing all our requirements, we can focus on delivering services to our citizens. We value the firm highly due to its excellent service history, partnership approach and transformational government roadmap."
Martin Goodman, director of public sector, Cable & Wireless, said: "Our work to date with Surrey County Council is a great example of joined-up government in action - driving both technological and cultural change. We're excited about this next phase of the managed services contract."