Government Managed Email Services Framework Launched

The government has launched a framework for the procurement of managed email services in the public sector.

According to the Crown Commercial Service (CCS), the agreement provides access to a wide range of secure hosted manage email services and complementary services.

It claims this has a number of benefits such as standardised provision of supplier information for easy comparison and obtaining best value and a reduction in the need for local investment in infrastructure.

The framework also allows for multi-tenanted hosted services, enabling cost savings via sharing services and the ability to purchase via direct award a range of services packages directly from the catalogue.

“We became aware of the growing need within the public sector for large scale secure email services hosted in a multi-tenanted environment,” said CCS.

“The opportunity came to the fore when we learned about the intentions of the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) to procure a managed email services to replace NHSmail,” it added.

HSCIC And MoJ “Key Stakeholders”

HSCIC is the body responsible for the safe and secure handling of healthcare IT systems and information for the NHS, while NHSmail is the in-house messaging system used by the Health Service.

The Centre was among the first organisations to procure systems via the network, along with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).

The MoJ required a replacement for its Criminal Justice Secure Mail (CJSM) service, the Department’s own secure mailing programme.

Both HSCIC and the MoJ were key stakeholders in the development of the email services framework.

Through consultations with customers and suppliers, requirements for the agreement were defined.

Different Lots For Different Sized Organisations

The new system is split into three lots, small volume email implementation (up to 9999 mailboxes), medium volume email implementation (between 10,000 and 99,999 mailboxes) and large volume email implementation (100,000+ mailboxes).

The core components for email services provider via the framework are secure email, secure email gateway, mobile device management, white pages and directory service, business partner secure email and email router.

Meanwhile, common components apply to every requirement, setting out the way in which the core components are delivered.

These include access, administration, on boarding and off boarding, information security, service management, customer service, data retention and compliance and reporting.

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