Telent lands strategic deal with the RAF
37 people will join the company as part of the operation
Telent has signed a deal with the Royal Air Force to operate and improve the Site Co-ordination, Installation and Design Authority (SCIDA) service across 244 sites, including all military air traffic control infrastructure.
The contract is set to begin this month, with a four-year delivery phase starting from April.
SCIDA aims to ensure all installations of new telecoms or IT infrastructure across military sites meet certification and security requirements.
Telent will oversee end-to-end management of change control documentation and stakeholder engagement, while exploring opportunities to replace outdated legacy processes.
It will also introduce tools to enable automation within the MoD’s military network, MODNET and integrate the RAF’s AutoCAD planning system directly into it.
These changes will reportedly enable location-independent access to systems, allowing staff to manage tasks remotely, save time, improve service coverage and focus on higher-value work.
The organisation will appoint a customer liaison lead and invest in process improvement roles as part of the operation, adding 37 people to its workforce.
“We have been entrusted with protecting the integrity of RAF infrastructure by rethinking how infrastructure changes are approved and delivered across some of the UK’s most secure defence environments,” said Barry Zielinski, defence strategy and development director at Telent.
“Over the first six months, we will focus on deeply understanding the operation before introducing smart, targeted innovations that deliver speed, consistency and security where it matters most.”
Dr Arif Mustafa, director digital information and CIO at the RAF, added: “With the ever- increasing demand for digital capability and widespread improvements to our estate, high quality configuration control and design standards are vital to ensure we continue to deliver critical operational outputs at pace.
“Telent’s track record in providing digital transformation with critical national infrastructure programmes gives us confidence that the RAF will remain well placed to meet these demands.”
The new contract comes as Telent has signed a number of agreements with public sector entities over the last year.
In July, the firm was awarded a three-year deal to deliver support and maintenance services to Northern Trains Limited (NTL).
In April, it secured an arrangement with Network Rail to deliver a telecoms renewal programme for the Wales and Western Region.
A month earlier, the business bagged a three-year contract to maintain Oxfordshire County Council’s traffic signals network, as well as an extension to operate the digital connectivity network for National Highways’ Strategic Road Network (SRN) until 2028.
The company, which ranks number ten in CRN’s Top VARs list, is the latest IT organisation to partner with a government body in recent months, following Phoenix Software, Capita, Kainos and Softcat.