Computacenter seals IT managed service deal with North Yorkshire County Council

North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) has agreed a deal for Computacenter to provide a managed IT service.

For the next six-years, Computacenter will be responsible for managing all the council’s IT infrastructure except its communications equipment. The partnership deal, worth more than £12million, forms part of the council’s strategy for meeting the government’s 2005 target for online public services.

Computacenter will provide a range of IT services, such as systems installation and maintenance, and will be helping the council with a desktop refresh for more than 4,000 PCs and a server consolidation programme over the coming months. Computacenter will also directly manage the 35 council IT staff who currently provide these services.

John Moore, Director of Finance and e-champion at NYCC, commented: “By working with Computacenter we are able to in-source technology best practice, management expertise and roll-out new systems to help improve the efficiency of the services we provide to North Yorkshire residents.”

Computacenter will also be using its dedicated Service Support Centre to help provide the council’s 4,000 plus end users with a 24-hour IT helpdesk, as well as the first line support for the rural wireless broadband network. This has already been procured by the County Council and is being implemented by MLL Telecom.

“ NYCC is the largest authority in the UK in geographical terms and our staff and ICT systems are dispersed across more than 400 sites,” added Moore. “The partnership with Computacenter will enable us to manage our ICT more efficiently by using standardised systems and service management tools. It will also help free up valuable IT staff time enabling us to focus on new web-based initiatives and application development and support. Add in the first line support for the MLL Telecom broadband network, and you have an innovative three-way solution that combines private sector expertise with NYCC’s local knowledge and skills.”

In addition to enhancing operational efficiency, a key element of the partnership was the need to manage the impact it had on NYCC’s existing IT team. “This is an in-sourcing arrangement not an outsourcing one,” explained Moore. “We identified the specific areas where we needed help, and have in-sourced the skills, resources and technology we need to plug the gaps. As a result 35 jobs stay at County Hall in Northallerton but are now supplemented by specialist resources from Computacenter.”

NYCC’s IT team will also undergo a rapid re-training programme to help prepare them for new technologies, such as Microsoft Windows XP, which is being rolled out across the council’s desktop estate from November.

Colin Brown, Director of Computacenter’s Government Sector, commented: “Local authorities still face a number of ICT challenges in the run-up to the 2005 e-government deadline. Yet by working with trusted external service providers, councils are able to overcome these obstacles by supplementing their own internal resources and experience.” Brown added: “By combining the experience and local knowledge of NYCC’s staff with our systems integration and infrastructure skills, we have been able to create a combined team with the breadth of expertise needed to deliver effective e-government and operational efficiency for many years to come in North Yorkshire.”