Council awards strategic IT contract

Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council (HBBC) signed a five year £2.1m IT support contract.

Under the terms of the deal service firm Steria will provide technical support services to help it meet Gershon targets and deliver new services to citizens.

As a relatively small authority, the council cannot support a large IT team of its own, says Sanjiv Kohli, HBBC's head of finance and IT.

'We only have a team of three in house, so though we want to maintain strategic control over where we are going with IT, we do not have the in-house expertise to manage the council's IT and deliver the efficiencies,' he said.

HBBC needs to deliver a number of projects to meet targets on the e-government agenda, including remote working, improvements to the web site, and the establishment of a CRM enabled customer contact centre.

Citizens should get a more efficient service from HBBC as a result of its contract with Steria, Kohli says.

'When people come into Hinckley and Bosworth asking for things like planning information, they will only have the one point of contact as opposed to being put through to a series of switchboards,' he said.

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