Decision - Wide Area Network - Sussex Public Services Network ("The Link")

(1)               The Head of ICT be granted delegated authority to join the council to the LINK network, and transition all existing Council and Schools networked sites to it in advance of the expiry of the Virgin Media Business contract in August 2013 to ensure continuity of service;

(2)               That the delegated authority to award contracts granted to the Director Finance by Cabinet in July 2011, be used and that in addition the Director of Finance be granted delegated authority to sign the subsequent Accession Agreement with East Sussex County Council; and

(3)               That the additional one-off and recurrent resources required to implement the new data network as set out in paragraphs 5.1 to 5.5 of the report be agreed.

The Council is dependent on the provision of robust and consistent data connectivity between its sites and the outside world in order to operate.  Without this, the Council would be unable to operate its business or deliver its services.   The resilience of the service is also key to Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plans.   The LINK network is a means of meeting these needs and moving the Council on in its transformation of services at the same time, and is consistent with the councils’ ICT Strategy and Roadmaps.

1.         Do nothing: This is not considered a viable option due to expiry of the current contract as the council must maintain data services for staff and the data network also supports voice based and online customer channels.

2. Further extension of existing contract: There is no provision for further extension of the contract with VMB and it no longer offers best value for money and cannot enable the council to achieve potential future efficiencies for the reasons set out above.
   
   
3. Do not transition to LINK and procure separately: Whilst in theory not transitioning to the LINK is an option, it is not viable because the Council would still need to address the issues with the inflexibility and outdated nature of the network which, if done alone, would result in higher project and operating costs than the LINK option.  The Council would increasingly have to invest in tactical solutions in order to realise the benefits and mitigate the risks outlined in 3.4.  In addition, the Council would have to procure services itself, which would incur very substantial additional costs due to the complexity of the procurement.