British Waterways Scotland splashes out £2.3m to update its IT

British Waterways Scotland (BWS), the organisation that manages Scotland's canal network, has revealed that it has chosen technology provider Amor Group to revamp its IT system over the next three years in a £2.3m deal.

The contract opportunity arose after a decision which sees British Waterways Scotland (BWS) coming under the remit of the Scottish government from April 2012.

Under the agreement Amor Group will provide BWS with IT support services including IT infrastructure, storage, business continuity, disaster recovery and desktop servers.

Amor Group's business development manager, Newton Keenan, explained that the new technology is an update to BWS's current systems and that work has already begun under the contract.

"We implemented a storage area network using EMC's technology stack as it is best of breed. We are currently in the phase of implementing our own helpdesk facility, which will manage and resolve any issues the BWS users have.

"BWS uses Sage for its accounts and we have increased its capability, and we are looking to use Microsoft SharePoint to manage documents. First-, second- and third-line support will be done by Amor," he said.

The implementation started in November 2011 and Amor Group hopes the new infrastructure will be fully operational by 1 April 2012. BWS has an option to extend the three-year deal.

Debs Hurst, financial controller of BWS, believes that the organisation required a new IT system to succeed as a stand-alone organisation and continue to grow.

"With Scottish Ministers having decided that we shall remain in public ownership as a stand-alone public body, we needed a partner to help us develop a new ICT system and one which is flexible enough to support business growth going forward," she said.

BWS currently manages a 137-mile canal network that includes the Caledonian, Crinan, Forth & Clyde, Union and Monkland canals.