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Daisy wins multi-million pound UC deal

Essex County council awards 10-year £81m contract for next-generation networking

Daisy and joint venture partner Updata have won a 10-year £81m contract to manage and develop IT network infrastructure and associated services – including unified communications – for Essex County Council.

According to a statement on AIM, where Daisy Group is listed, Daisy expects to earn a 25 per cent share of the full £81m earned by Daisy Updata, with the aim of helping the council reduce its cost burden.

Essex County Council is one of the UK's largest local authorities, according to Daisy.

"The contracted services will form part of Essex County Council's next-generation network, which will initially connect schools and corporate sites but has the capacity to quickly encompass other public sector stakeholders – for example, the NHS and members of the Essex Online Partnership, a combination of organisations working together on ICT projects including local district, borough and unitary councils, Essex Police and Essex County Fire Services," the provider said.

Other public sector organisations in other regions and third parties can be connected to the new system, helping them access the government G-Cloud cloud services store, for example. The council is aiming to save an overall £200m a year by 2017, and the deal with Daisy Updata is meant to play a role.

Essex County Council is developing, for example, a three-year programme to help become a commissioning-led authority – specifically around children's, adult's and community services.

"This will mean the council will seek to work more in partnership with other organisations to deliver services rather than delivering them itself, allowing the services to be more flexible and to better meet the needs of the people using them," it wrote in a recent announcement.

Pictured (above) is Cllr David Finch, Essex County Council deputy leader and cabinet member for finance and the transformation programme, signing the contract.

Looking on are (LtR): Jeremy Wastie, Updata account director; Victor Baldorino, Updata executive director and co-founder; George Cowan, Updata operations director; and Andy Riley, Daisy Communications director.