North Wales Police has signed an outsourcing agreement with Unisys Corporation to upgrade, manage and maintain its email infrastructure over the next three years. The email system is a mission-critical service that the 2,500-member force relies on as one of its primary communication methods across the NWP area.

Under the first stage of the engagement, Unisys will design a new infrastructure to support a migration from the current to the new platform. The new system will be replicated in a remote location in order to prevent any data loss and to ensure business continuity during the transition.

Once the migration is complete, Unisys will host a managed email service from its facility in Reston, Virginia, which supports secure business operations for public and private sector organizations worldwide. More than 2,500 email accounts will be migrated and managed remotely. The force currently has 1,600 police officers and 900 support staff.

Investing in a managed email service from Unisys means the IT department at North Wales Police will no longer be required to perform time-consuming daily tasks such as inbox management and email infrastructure maintenance. This will free up time for the IT department to develop and test new technologies to further improve productivity and efficiency for front-line police officers.

Geoff Bradley, IM Director at North Wales Police, commented: “The force prides itself on responsiveness, effectiveness and efficiency, so the need for a reliable and robust email infrastructure was a key part of our choice of Unisys as an outsourcing partner. Our officers are increasingly using BlackBerry devices to access line-of-business applications and email in the field, so we need to know we can rely on an effective and fully operational system around the clock. We knew we could trust Unisys to manage the Exchange migration and deliver the ongoing support we need moving forward.”