The Council currently has
• Numerous contracts with BT for line rental and call costs
• A contract with Vodafone for mobiles. This contract ends later this month and can be extended on a monthly basis.
• Various line contracts with Virgin
• A Mitel for our switchboard system which has a two year remaining life span

The Council’s annual telephony spend is approx.is £270k a year and many staff have access to more than one voice device solution.

Organisations are moving to providing staff with a single voice device solution depending on their role and work requirement.
This supply market is now fairly mature and a number of Councils are already implementing this solution and achieving financial savings .

The likely new contract value over 5 years will exceed the £500k threshold so I will require CEB approval to award this contract.

The City Executive Board resolved on 10 September 2014 to give project approval and delegated authority to the Director of Organisational Development and Corporate Services to award a new telephony contract.

A new contract for a unified telephony solution for 3 years but potential to be extended for up to 5 years has been agreed.  The contract will provide the Council with fixed fee pricing per user having a single handset. The contract will also include a mobile device management solution.

The new contract follows the approved telephony strategy of 2012 and will achieve budgeted savings of £50k a year

The tender opportunity was offered to a range of capable suppliers in the market place. Only one bidder was able to develop a solution based on our requirements within budget.

The alternate option was to make no change and retain our current solution. This has about 2/3 years of useful life and has limited functionality. It also means that a large number of staff have to have access a fixed handset and mobile phone.

None