Southwark seeks new services provider

Southwark Council is looking to award a £29m, five-year outsourcing deal to transform the way it works.

The contract will commence when the council’s current seven-year agreement with Serco Solutions expires at the end of July next year.

‘We have now matured in our project approach, and we want to move that maturity to the next level,’ said Jamie Riley, Southwark’s senior IT administrator.

‘The new contract will allow us to focus more on business transformation.

‘We will be building in risk-reduction, primarily in the form of an asset transfer of our IT infrastructure, which has proved quite costly to upgrade and change.’

Riley says the contract will maintain existing services and processes and act as a platform to launch new technology and promote mobile and flexible working.

The council is keen to adopt technology from vendor Citrix to help create a more flexible working environment.

Allowing council staff to work away from the office will help make them more efficient, says Riley.

‘We want to enable remote workers to return to base less often and provide more services on the move, including street wardens, safety officers, parking attendants and social workers,’ he said.