Government Names PSN Scheme Suppliers

The Cabinet Office has officially named 12 suppliers of telecommunications services under the Public Sector Network (PSN) scheme, which is intended as a unified ‘network of networks’ to reduce costs for public sector communications.

The suppliers named include BT, Cable & Wireless Worldwide, Virgin Media Business, and KCOM Group.

Small Businesses

These 12  vendors were successful after the Cabinet Office had originally invited 17 vendors to bid for a place on the framework for the network of networks. Sixteen actually decided to bid but only 12 made it.

“The Public Services Network is a fundamental building block of our ICT Strategy, and today’s announcement of suppliers to the framework is a huge step forward in providing the infrastructure to deliver services to citizens more efficiently and cheaply,” said the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude

“We are confident that the PSN programme will substantially reduce the cost of communication services across government,” said Maude. He also went on to stress that small and medium businesses would also be involved.

“The 12 successful suppliers named in the PSN Connectivity Framework include small and medium-sized enterprises as well as major industry names, underlining our commitment to establish a more open and competitive ICT marketplace at the heart of the UK public sector,” said Maude.

Maude is hoping that the PSN will herald the start of much more flexible government communications systems.

“The PSN will also change the way public sector organisations work and interact, making it possible for government to operate in a much more flexible way, regardless of workers’ usual department or office,” said Maude. “Work in the 21st century needs to be about what you do, not where you do it and the longer the public sector lags behind, the more this costs the taxpayer and constrains innovation.”

The framework will be worth between £500m and £3bn, according to the original tender document.

The full list of PSN suppliers are as follows:

• Virgin Media Business Limited
• Logicalis UK Limited
• British Telecommunications
• Cable & Wireless Worldwide
• Level 3 (formerly Global Crossing)
• Capita Business Services Limited
• Updata Infrastructure UK Limited
• Fujitsu
• MDNX Enterprise Services Limited
• eircom UK Limited
• KCOM Group
• Thales UK Limited

A further framework for PSN services will be named in May, which is expected to include a wider range of providers.

PSN Background

The PSN was pioneered by the previous Labour government, which in its ICT Strategy proposed setting up a network that was “secure, based on open standards, interoperable, energy efficient and competitive”. This would replace the current hotchpotch of public sector networks, which were described as “fragmented, unreliable and expensive”.

The PSN is intended for central government departments, NHS bodies, local authorities and charities, among other public sector groups. The idea is to create a competitive, standardised marketplace for these services which should lead to lower costs.

Suppliers under the framework will need to offer communication, conferencing, contact centre, mobile voice and data, CCTV and physical monitoring, LAN, gateway and unified services, as well as design, implementation, testing and integration. These can be provided either directly or through sub-contractors, and services may be either nation-wide or localised.

Contracts will have an initial term of two years, with the option to extend for two more one-year terms.

In August last year, the first stage of the joined-up digital government plan was completed with the successful testing of a PSN in the South of England.

Project Pathway was the trail-blazing initiative to kick off the formation of a secured network between local authorities around the country, paving the way for the introduction of private cloud services.