Bromley Council pays BT £9m for desktop and data services

BT

BT has won a 9 million contract to supply desktop and datacentre services to Bromley Council as part of a London-wide procurement framework.

The deal, which lasts for five years, will see the telco deliver desktop services to more than 2,000 staff at Bromley Council, as well as looking after more than 350 servers.

BT said it would give the council "greater flexibility in running their ICT services with the ability to flex services up and down to suit demand".

The local authority expects to save 10 per cent on costs over the course of the agreement, with services planned to go live in April.

"As we move towards our vision of being a commissioning council, we needed a company that would deliver excellent service but also respond to the changing shape of our business," said councillor Stephen Carr, leader of Bromley Council.

"[The contract] provides us with clear and transparent pricing and a more efficient and streamlined buying process, helping us to speed up the delivery of projects and save money."

The contract is part of a wider "pan-London procurement framework" that was set up in 2014 by Westminster City Council, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham councils.

These existing BT agreements see it manage end user computing and datacentre services for Westminster City Council and the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, while it provides strategic consultancy services to the London Borough of Islington.

Ian Dalton, president of global government and health at BT Global Services, said that his firm understood "the various challenges local government faces and look forward to helping to deliver efficiencies as well as providing new and innovative technologies".

"Ultimately this will not only make public money go further but benefit council staff and the services that are provided to residents across Bromley."

Council leaders said the deal would help ensure the local authority would be run "as efficiently and effectively as possible".

Rene Millman

Rene Millman is a freelance writer and broadcaster who covers cybersecurity, AI, IoT, and the cloud. He also works as a contributing analyst at GigaOm and has previously worked as an analyst for Gartner covering the infrastructure market. He has made numerous television appearances to give his views and expertise on technology trends and companies that affect and shape our lives. You can follow Rene Millman on Twitter.