Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, and Hammersmith councils agree IT shared services deal

Agilisys and BT win five-year IT services contract with three London councils

Three central London councils have agreed a shared services framework covering the delivery of IT services and resources in a bid, they say, to cut cost and improve efficiency.

Westminster City Council, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and Hammersmith & Fulham Council have selected Agilisys and BT to deliver three framework contracts for an initial five years, with the possibility of a three-year extension thereafter.

Westminster Council will award the framework contracts for distributed computing and data centre services to BT, while Agilisys will scoop-up the contract for service desk and service management. The services are expected to be in place by autumn 2014.

Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham will "call-down" services from these frameworks as their existing contracts terminate or when a business case arises.

The framework contracts allow Agilisys and BT to offer these services, in their entirety or as selected service elements, across London to local authorities and their partners.

"The vision of the tri-borough programme is combining services to tackle common problems, improve people's lives and make public money go further," said Westminster councillor Melvyn Caplan, cabinet member for finance, resources and customer services.

"Savings from the adoption of these shared services are positive and underpin the delivery of wider service savings across the 'tri-borough'. These new frameworks will enable more efficient tri-borough working and achievement of existing and future savings targets."

Councillor Joanna Gardner, cabinet member for community safety, IT and corporate services at neightbouring Kensington and Chelsea, said that the deal would help reduce costs and protect front line services.