Liverpool Looks To Renew ICT Services After BT Joint Venture Cancelled

Liverpool City Council is seeking new providers for telephony, contact centre and networking services worth up to nearly £40m that were previously supplied through its cancelled joint venture with BT.

Taking back responsibility

In October, the council took full ownership of Liverpool Direct Limited (LDL), formed in 2001 to provide HR and payroll, IT and web services, customer access and revenue and benefits services, and approved a plan that will see these services brought back in-house.

The move, which followed the failure of contract renegotiations with LDL, follows a broad trend for organisations to take back responsibility for services previously outsourced under long-term arrangements.

The six pre-tender notices cover hardware, software and related services, valued at £429,000; telephony and data private circuits valued at £8m to £8.5m; the provision of Liverpool Arena and Convention Centre’s network and telephony infrastructure, worth £660,000; IP telephony services worth £15m; telecommunications services, including contact centre system replacement, valued at £15m to £20m; and the provision and maintenance of a Cisco network platform, estimated at £429,000.

The council said earlier this year it expects to save £30m over the next three years by ending the joint venture.

It began contract negotiations with BT in December, and in February voted to take full ownership of LDL. Under the current transition plan, the authority will take direct control of LDL’s services in the coming months, with LDL scheduled to cease trading in September of next year.

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