Kent County outsources to Unisys for 32 million
Kent County Council has signed up with Unisys for a four-year managed services contract worth 32 million.
Unisys will rollout a new Cisco network to over a thousand locations, including schools and council offices, boosting their bandwidth.
Paul Carter, leader of Kent County Council, said: "We expect that the benefits the network will bring in terms of collaboration, governmental linkage and common shared infrastructure will in turn result in enhanced public services for the people of Kent."
New funding for more police handhelds
The National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) is to distribute 15,000 more handheld computers by 2010 to police officers after being provided with 25 million in additional funding from the government.
The increase will double the number of such devices being used by patrolling officers.
Richard Earland, NPIA's chief information officer, said in a statement: "When used appropriately handheld computers keep officers out in the community and make them visible to the public. With mobile devices they find it easier to access information at the point of need, leading to greater efficiency and reassurance for the public."
Government to use e-auction to buy 10,000 computers
Government procurement agency OGCbuying.solutions is to take part in a real-time online reverse auction to buy 5,000 laptops and 5,000 desktop PCs tomorrow. Suppliers will bid for the right to supply the computers, which will be supplied to a variety of smaller public sector organizations.
The eight previous such e-auctions have led to savings of 34.5 per cent, the body said.
Terry Love, senior category manager responsible for client devices OGCbuying.solutions, said: "We are able to offer high specification PCs and laptops and early indications suggest that prices will be approaching 40 per cent lower than the current benchmark, offering significant savings."
