Unisys Scores $63M UK Kent County Council  Contract

July 23, 2008

The UK subsidiary of Unisys has won an outsourcing contract worth approximately $USD 63 million (£GBP 32 million) to create and manage a public information network and security service until late 2012 for Kent County Council, the authority that governs the majority of the county of Kent in England.

One of the largest county councils in the UK, Kent County Council is looking to enable cost-effective communications and collaboration among local government agencies, while providing new information services to residents. The network will initially connect approximately 1,100 public sector establishments, including schools, council offices and libraries. The extra bandwidth the network provides will also mean that many primary schools’ capacity for internet access will double, and there will be improved capabilities to support home, flexible and remote working within the county. The network will be available to all public service bodies within the Kent boundaries wishing to join the alliance.

Under the contract, Unisys will provide Kent with managed services and all of the associated hardware and software. Unisys will design and implement a state-of-the-art wide-area network (WAN) built on a high-speed Cisco backbone. The WAN, which will operate under the name Kent Public Service Network (KPSN), will be managed by Unisys and provide added bandwidth to deliver a variety of shared information services to Kent County Council, Kent Schools, Canterbury Council and Thanet Council.

“We chose Unisys because of the company’s experience in delivering high-quality, innovative services to clients, as well as the breadth of support and management expertise the company offers,” said Paul Carter, leader of Kent County Council. “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.”

Duncan Tait, vice president and managing director UK, Middle East and Africa at Unisys, said, “This project demonstrates how innovative local authorities are increasingly recognising the advantages of sharing public sector IT resources to improve the services that they provide. We are confident that Unisys outsourcing services will help Kent County Council and other local authorities simplify and integrate the business of government throughout the county.”