Southwark Council has announced a four year deal with Capita’s secure information solutions business for an IT managed service designed to help transform the council with benefits for both customers and the workforce. The contract offers significant, seven-figure, savings to the council and helps to protect frontline services during a period when local government funding remains very uncertain.

The contract is for the management and the upgrade of all of the IT facilities that support the delivery of council services and represents the most significant improvement in IT capability since major changes in 2000. Facilities include the provision of resilient and secure disaster recovery and business continuity, support for the council’s networks; data centre hosting including the management of IT equipment, and support for business applications. During the first 12 months of the contract, Capita will deliver nine major projects that will provide the Council with a platform to radically transform services, ranging from modernisation of the desktop and rationalisation of data storage and security to the use of mobile devices.

Councillor Richard Livingstone, cabinet member for resources at Southwark Council, said: “This contract gives us cost savings and an improved IT service at a time when resources are extremely limited, when frontline services need as much protection as possible and when staff need all the support that we can give them. We felt that Capita’s experience of local government and solution development will create a platform to completely transform our service. We expect a smooth transformation to a new, modernised IT infrastructure and, ultimately more resilient and responsive IT. Investing in technology is something I am wholly committed to, as I feel this is the key to ensuring that the authority can function effectively and respond quickly to the public to create a modern service with robust data protection.”