Case Study: Bolton Council

Sector:
Local Government

Business Objective:
Serve your customers better
Lean and efficient IT

Our partnership with Kcom gives us absolute assurance that our network and communication infrastructure will meet our organisations strategic needs and that it's performance will be completely reliable.

The Customer

Bolton Council is one of the highest performing local councils in the UK, operating more than 800 services for over 262,000 residents, as well as for businesses and visitors. With over 15,000 employees, maintaining efficient and citizen-centric operations is essential for the Council.

Quick facts

Next generation network infrastructure across WAN and associated LANs
Cost streamlining programme resulted in a 30% reduction in costs

The Challenge

The vision that Bolton Council holds for the future encompasses far-reaching goals in the region, such as increased life expectancy, improved skills and qualifications, and maximisation of private investment to create additional jobs, along with green objectives such as reducing carbon emissions. Additionally, the council is seeking to enhance the interface it has with citizens, particularly the accessibility of information on a 24/7 basis. In moving towards these goals, Bolton Council has developed a highly mobile workforce - 3,000 of whom have a mobile phone as part of their toolkit - for which increased availability of communication and collaboration on the move are essential.

All of these ambitions align with the notion of transformational government, whereby a radical improvement in delivery of public services can be achieved through the integration and use of ICT. In order to meet its aspirations, Bolton Council needed to create a roadmap for the future, and wanted to work with a partner that could not only shape, but also reliably implement, such plans. The Council was focused on giving its staff instant communication abilities, encouraging the sharing of knowledge and data, while ensuring a focus on service delivery to the people of Bolton. In real terms this would require an update to the network infrastructure, along with the introduction of new technologies such as unified communications. Critically however, with budgets being increasingly scrutinised and challenged, Bolton was also looking for a partner that could ensure ongoing proof of return on investment (ROI).

Kcom's Solution

At the very core of Bolton Council’s transformational government ambitions was a need to deploy a next generation network infrastructure across both WAN and associated LANs. All subsequent developments could then be built on this solid foundation. A highly collaborative approach was required to ensure that the next generation network infrastructure could be successfully implemented across a diverse estate of town halls, offices, buildings, depots and other locations. As a consequence, Bolton Council now has a network which supports IP telephony (IPT), video and multi-media applications and unified communications, immediately making its sites better positioned for efficient and productive communication and cooperation.

The day-to-day running of the infrastructure is provided by Kcom through a comprehensive managed services contract. This ensures that the network runs smoothly and delivers the performance that Bolton Council needs to operate on a daily basis. Kcom's Network Operations Centre monitors the council's communications infrastructure 24 hours a day, seven days a week - evaluating voice quality and anomalies across all devices. The contract has a mutually-agreed set of service level agreements (SLAs) which define how and when Kcom will respond to issues arising within the network, and key performance indicators (KPIs) are used to report Kcom's efficiency in delivering such service levels.

Taking Big Steps Forward

The cost streamlining programme undertaken midway through the contract period has resulted in a 30% reduction in costs across all fixed-line communications services. The optimisation of Bolton's managed services, which ensures the Council is not tied into an inflexible contract which fails to deliver value for money, has resulted in a total saving of approximately £500,000 over four years. This safeguards the management of essential services and technologies, and helps ensure that the council is able to maintain interactions and transactions with the residents and businesses of Bolton through key communication infrastructure and applications.

Far-reaching changes, which balance performance with cost optimisation, are already making a real difference to Bolton Council. For example, the initial migration of the telephony system from legacy systems to the new IPT platform supports around 80% of voice users (20% being located at non-critical venues such as storage sheds). While cost savings are a priority, it was critical for the council to ensure that accessibility and quality of service for Bolton's citizens were not compromised. Consequently, a managed migration saw old and new systems running alongside each other, and a single service experience is wrapped around both - so neither users nor the people of Bolton feel "downgraded".

What they say…

Our relationship with Kcom doesn't just see them deliver on the minimum requirement. With a thorough understanding of our needs, the Kcom team proactively provides advice around how we can enhance our use of communications applications. It also monitors infrastructure usage trends to help us avoid future challenges, says Mario Devargas. The use of tools such as a financial monitoring system to assist us in cost control and efficient internal cross-charging reflects Kcom's commitment to delivering a service which is not "one size fits all". Instead the solutions we received are specifically developed to suit the Council's needs.

Mario Devargas, IT Director, Bolton Council

The Future

"Bolton Council and Kcom are now engaged in the next stages of strategic communications development that will further progress mobile working. By leveraging technologies such as unified communications and collaboration tools, our staff will benefit from a richer communications experience, and ultimately continue to enhance provision of services to the people of Bolton".

Mario Devargas, IT Director, Bolton Council