Ofcom outsources ICT to Logica

UK comms regulator says it will save £1.5m per year

Ofcom is to cut datacentre and server usage in half

Tech services company Logica UK has signed a new ICT outsourcing contract with UK communications regulator Ofcom that the regulators says will deliver cost savings of £7.5m over five years.

Ofcom said refreshing and simplifying its ICT will provide increased datacentre resilience, drive environmental sustainability and reduce operational costs.

The contract is initially for four years, with an optional extra year. Ofcom forecasts that annual savings will be £1.5m per year, or £7.5m over five years to 2016.

Ofcom’s information systems director David Wills said that the contract includes support of licensing and technical assignment of spectrum worth more than £200m and support for 300,000 plus contacts a year from citizens, consumers and stakeholders.

"Our goal is to deliver better and more cost-effective ICT across the organisation," he said.

Ofcom's drive to reduce costs follows last week's publication of the government's Structural Reform Plan (SRP) from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

Under the heading 'media reform', DCMS plans to reduce Ofcom's role and scale back its duties.

The SRP said it might even include measures to reform Ofcom in the Public Bodies Reform Bill.

The bill's purpose, as outlined on the official website of the Prime Minister's Office, is to "Ensure that there will be a greater degree of transparency and accountability for all Public Bodies (‘quangos’); and to provide ministers with the powers to abolish, merge or transfer functions".

Ofcom also hopes the contract will slash its ICT carbon footprint by 60 per cent, which will be achieved by shutting two of its four datacentres and reducing its servers by half.

The two datacentres left will be in Hounslow and Woking, connected by two 1Gbit/s network links. An Ofcom spokesman said: "There will be a new 1Gbit/s point-to-point link between the Woking datacentre and our Riverside House head office."

Service improvements to be delivered through the contract will be same-day on-site response, improved service desk management and reporting tools and delivery of best practice standards, such as ITILv3, ISO 9001:2000, and ISO 27001 security.