PSN to connect up to 52 service providers in Yorkshire and Humberside

Virgin Media Business signed up to deliver major public services network

Virgin Media Business has today signed a contract to deliver a public services network (PSN) to councils and other public-sector bodies in Yorkshire and Humberside.

Yorkshire and Humberside PSN programme director Geoff Prowling said the network will be accessible to 5.5 million people when completely rolled out, and connect up to 52 public service providers including local authorities, healthcare providers and emergency services.

He added that joining the national PSN framework scheme has allowed councils in the region to reach out to other local authorities.

"When we set up the Yorkshire and Humberside Partnership Management Board we were in dialogue with the Cabinet Office and the Government Procurement Office in terms of what Yorkshire and Humber was trying to do," said Prowling, "and it transpired there was a national project that had [already] been started, and we joined forces with that project.

"In effect, we influenced the outcome of the national frameworks because we were a very large regional proposition that was ready to go to market, so we said ‘why don't we go to market together?'," he added.

Among the services that Virgin Media Business has signed up to deliver are telephony, LAN management, datacentre sharing and virtualisation, and data hosting.

"Virgin put forward a very robust proposition around the PSN," Prowling told Computing. "So no matter how large or small the partnership is, they all get the same level of service, credit and service level agreement. That was key for us."

Prowling is enthusiastic about the PSN service in general, and does not share the criticisms expressed to Computing in recent months.

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PSN to connect up to 52 service providers in Yorkshire and Humberside

Virgin Media Business signed up to deliver major public services network

"In our bidding process, we set out very clearly how we would like service providers in the community to respond to our requirements and to our service needs," said Prowling, "and from a contractual point of view we set out very clearly what the service levels were going to be around the network infrastructure, and how they would support service requests, and more importantly what the remedies would be in the event they failed to meet our service needs."

"It's early days yet, but we've not been disappointed with what we've seen," added Prowling.

"But why go out and make your own, when so much time and effort has been put into laying out national frameworks? We used national frameworks to save money."

The first contract - with Leeds - has been signed, and Prowling admitted it's going to "take a number of years, to be blunt" before the touted 5.5 million people see any benefits from the PSN solutions. This is largely due to the need to dispense with incumbent contracts, he said.

"Some of the partners have got two years to run on their existing incumbent contracts, [but] I'm quite sure the teams from Virgin can look creatively at how to transition partners as soon as possible while minimising penalties from terminating [contracts]," said Prowling.

"With limited funds, it's essential that public sector organisations are getting the most out of their resources," said Jeff Wollen, executive director, public sector, Virgin Media Business.

"Now organisations in Yorkshire and Humberside will be able to streamline their network infrastructure with a single access point for all PSN services. Partners in the region can benefit from PSN services no matter what size they are, meaning they can provide more effective services to their citizens."