Citizen's Advice chooses Logica for IT overhaul

Five-year partnership will see shared services, a single phone number and cost savings

There are 398 member bureaux and each currently sources and manages its own IT infrastructure

The Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) has embarked on a five-year partnership with Logica in a bid to transform its IT to meet demand that has increased as a result of the recession.

The contract was agreed in January and the first elements of the service will kick off on 1 April.

The deal cost about £10m for the refresh of the basic IT infrastructure at the member staff organisation. This will see Logica replace 60 servers that currently form an HP datacentre with 20 virtual servers and enable them to be run more cheaply.

The datacentre is based at the London central offices.

The company will also provide desktop and application support to the central member staff organisation, which comprises 400 staff.

The deal does not include additional work Logica is doing with the organisation to centralise its system and extend the virtual hosting service to the bureaux over a secure network currently delivered by network provider Azzurri.

There are 398 member bureaux and each currently sources and manages its own IT infrastructure.

Barry Garlick, ICT director at the CAB, said: "Extending the hosted service across our network will mean the member bureaux will have more funds to spend on helping our clients deal with their problems."

Logica has also installed a new case management system at the organisation's central offices which runs on Microsoft’s Dynamics management software. The system captures client details into the same database regardless of the channel being used to submit the details, including web, email, phone and the internet.

The system is complimented by an automated system that retrieves information about client circumstances such as whether they have lost their job or home or are suffering levels of debt. The software is called a Bureaux Evidence Retrieval database and forms the basis of reports that the organisation creates for the purposes of lobbying government.

The system will be deployed across the member bureaux in 2011.

Garlick explained that Logica’s understanding of the organisation's needs was the reason it won the tender: “Logica, in partnership with Microsoft, recognised that we have a particular set of IT needs," he said.

"Many of our staff are volunteers and many have little IT experience. Microsoft and Logica have hosted sessions for these volunteers, explaining the benefits of the system and how to use it.”

The organisation is also looking at developing a “one number” IP telephony network to be hosted over the Azzurri network.

In addition, the company is working with Logica on a new channel strategy which will see the organisation provide advice over a variety of channels using email, mobile technology and interactive web sessions.