Computacenter scoops industry award for network implementation at GLA’s City Hall

Computacenter’s work with the Greater London Authority has landed it the prestigious title of Best Government Solution at this year’s Channel Network Awards.

The IT services company scooped the accolade after deploying and integrating a high-performance network at City Hall, the authority’s new headquarters, which opened last year.

The annual Channel Network Awards recognise best practice in client solutions, and are supported by industry magazines, Comms Dealer, Channel Business and IT Europa. These are the only awards that recognise real world IT solutions, as well as channel partnership and relationships.

Colin Brown, Director of Computacenter’s Government Sector, commented: “The GLA’s new network infrastructure has proved a real enabler for the authority, both in terms of delivering e-government and empowering its end-users. The opening of City Hall meant we had an immovable deadline for the completion of the network, which did lead to some challenges.”

In addition to rolling out a new network and telephone system, which were based on technology from Mitel and Foundry Networks, Computacenter also implemented the Microsoft Windows 2000/XP infrastructure now being used at City Hall.

Manny Lewis, Executive Director for Corporate Services at the GLA, commented: “We had very specific requirements for fast, integrated communication channels both nationally and internationally, which could also support mobile and remote working. Reliability of the network was crucial. For us, 99.99% availability wasn’t a ‘nice-to-have’, but paramount.”

Reliability was one of the core areas on which the Best Government Solution award was judged by a panel of experts, which included Alan Cobb, Director General of the Telecommunications Industry Association, and Nick Cottam, Editor of NASDAQ Magazine.

The judges were also looking for evidence of dedication to the customer; good business practices; and successful configuration and installation. “Computacenter was absolutely the right partner to deliver the project given its size and expertise,” added Lewis. “Trying to internally replicate the extensive range of skills and resources available from Computacenter would be impossible for an organisation of our scale.”

The Best Government Solution award was presented to Computacenter at an awards ceremony on 16 October. “This award provides just recognition to all those people from the GLA and Computacenter who made this implementation a success,” commented Brown. “The public sector is a hotbed of IT innovation and activity in the run-up to 2005, and this is just one example of how Computacenter is helping organisations align their IT infrastructures with e-government requirements.”