~ Lincolnshire County Council first partner to join the East Midlands Public Service Network ~
London, 1 May 2012: Kcom, the leading managed service communication provider, will play a central role in saving Lincolnshire County and District Councils over Ł2.5m per year. The savings come after the Council joined the East Midlands Public Services Network (emPSN), an organisation that allows local public sector bodies in the East Midlands to bulk buy a range of IT services including Access and Application Services and connection to a core network infrastructure, supplied by Kcom. This has allowed the Council to replace IT contracts that are about to expire for less than half the previous price.
Councillor Kelly Smith, Executive Member for Finance and HR, said: “Like any modern organisation, the County Council needs certain IT services in order to operate effectively. This includes a large-scale computer network to link our different offices and a high-speed internet connection. Under this new arrangement we’ll not only see improvements to these services, but we’ve also reduced the associated costs by more than 50 per cent. The end result is a much better deal for taxpayers.”
The new contract also covers the seven district councils in Lincolnshire and broadband services for 349 county schools. The emPSN contract was awarded to Kcom as a result of its successful bid in a recent EU procurement process and its track record in establishing the current embc network, which supplies connectivity to all the schools in the East Midlands and which will be transferred over to the emPSN. The contract win also builds on Kcom’s success in implementing PSNs for Staffordshire and Dorset County Councils.
Afshin Attari, Kcom’s Director of Public Sector and PSN, added, “We are very pleased to have been given this opportunity to work with Lincolnshire County Council in delivering cost-effective IT services to their offices, schools and partners. This approach to purchasing services through a central partnership organisation, such as emPSN, provides economies of scale for all parties involved and as such is a good investment for the residents of Lincolnshire.”
