Streamlined desktop services help local council win IT industry ‘Oscar'

A cost-effective desktop refresh programme from Computacenter has helped Northumberland County Council scoop a prestigious national award.

The council was named IT Department of the Year in the Computing Awards for Excellence 2006 after judges heard how the council had increased staff morale, improved IT performance levels and reduced its desktop procurement costs by more than 60 per cent.

One of the key success factors for achieving these savings was the council’s decision to out-task the refresh programme for its 3,500 desktops and laptops to Computacenter. Under the three-year contract, Computacenter is responsible for sourcing, configuring and installing the new workstations as well as disposing of the legacy hardware in compliance with environmental legislation.

Peter Gallon, Head of IT for Northumberland County Council, commented: “In the space of four years, the council has gone from having one of the highest costs for desktop acquisition to one of the lowest. Working with Computacenter has enabled us to decrease the total cost of ownership for our desktop estate, which means we are able to focus our IT investment and resources on more strategic activities.”

As well as deploying the council’s new workstations, which are standardised on hardware from Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Computacenter’s Services division (Computacenter Services) provides the local authority with ongoing desktop support services.

James Tromans, Computacenter Account Manager, commented: “By selectively outsourcing key areas of desktop management, organisations can not only benefit from competitive pricing but also innovation and industry best practice. We are delighted to have been able to help Northumberland County Council achieve industry recognition for IT operational excellence.”

Computing’s annual awards recognise the best in IT across the public and private sectors. To win the coveted title of IT Department of the Year, the council had to beat off competition from five other high-profile nominees, including retailer Waitrose, recruitment firm Ellis Fairbank and Voca, which handles all the UK’s Bacs payments.
“This award is testament to the hard work of our Computer Services Department and our commitment to delivering best value,” said Gallon. “Computacenter has played a key role in assisting with lT service improvements and has helped to enhance the efficiency of both our desktop and datacentre infrastructure.”
Last year, Computacenter Services helped the council complete an overhaul of its datacentre facilities and cabling, which resulted in lower IT support costs and energy bills.

These operational efficiency gains have not only caught the attention of the Computing Awards’ judges – the council has also been singled out by the Society of Information Technology Management (SOCITM). Last year, it recognised Northumberland County Council’s Computer Services Division as an Indicator of Good Practice in nine specific areas of business and services, which included IT hardware acquisition costs.

The council also procures its storage and server hardware through Computacenter and this year has purchased more than £200,000 of Fujitsu-Siemens Primergy and Primepower equipment.

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Notes for Editors

About Computacenter

Computacenter is Europe's leading independent provider of IT infrastructure services. To help our customers maximise the value of IT to their businesses, we offer services at every stage of infrastructure investment. Our corporate and government clients are served by a network of branch offices across the UK, Germany, France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands and, through our international partners, at locations across the globe.

About Computacenter Services

Computacenter Services is part of the Computacenter Group, Europe’s leading independent provider of IT infrastructure services. It oversees a range of managed and support services contracts as well as implementing transformation projects for major corporate and government organisations, with service offerings extending from users’ desktops to organisations’ network infrastructure and data centres. Computacenter Services recorded £267 million of revenue in 2005 and employs over 3,000 people across the UK and Europe, including an international helpdesk in Barcelona.

For more information, contact:
Tessa Freeman                                                         
PR Manager, Computacenter                        
01707 631514                                                
tessa_freeman@computacenter.com