Lincolnshire County Council to save £2.5m a year after joining PSN

Lincolnshire County Council will save £2.5m a year after joining the East Midlands Public Services Network (emPSN).

The emPSN is an organisation that allows local authorities in the East Midlands to bulk buy a range of IT services and connect to a core network infrastructure supplied by managed service communication provider Kcom. According to the council, this will allow it to replace IT contracts that are about to expire for less than half the original price.

The contract, which also covers broadband services for 349 county schools, was awarded to Kcom after a successful bid in a recent EU procurement process. Kcom has also implemented public service networks for Staffordshire and Dorset County Councils.

"Like any modern organisation, the council needs certain IT services in order to operate effectively. This includes a large-scale computer network to link our different offices and a high-speed internet connection," said councillor Kelly Smith, executive member for finance and human resources.

"Under this new arrangement we'll not only see improvements to these services, but we've also reduced the associated costs by more than 50 per cent. The end result is a much better deal for taxpayers," she added.