Bedfordshire And Essex Collaborate For PSN

Central Bedfordshire Council and Essex County Council have joined up their IT network infrastructure services for the Public Services Network (PSN).

Daisy Updata Communications Ltd (DUCL), a joint venture between Updata Infrastructure Ltd and Daisy Group plc, will develop and manage the infrastructure as part of a nine-year contract.

Updata is part of business process outsourcing (BPO) firm Capita, while Daisy Group is a unified business communications supplier.

Under the new deal, DUCL will manage a wide area network (WAN) that connects more than 183 council owned sites and schools across Central Bedfordshire.

As part of the contract, Bedfordshire will be joining Essex County Council’s Next Generation Network (NGN), which has been maintained by DUCL since 2012 when it was awarded a 10-year PSN accredited NGN deal to provide an IT network and associated telephony services.

This will allow Bedfordshire access other services available to Essex NGN members including telephony.

Bedfordshire Hopes To See Improvements And Benefits

“We are looking forward to working with DUCL to further enhance IT services for council staff so that we can provides first class services to our residents,” claimed Cllr Richard Wenham, deputy executive member for corporate resources at Bedfordshire.

“By joining up with Essex NGN, we become part of a PSN ready network and have access to a range of other IT services that will support us in providing resilient and innovative solutions that increase our performance and help to reduces costs,” he added.

Earlier this month, DUCL won a similar six-year contract for the Kent Public Service Network (KPSN).

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