Wiltshire inks £12m IT deal with Steria

Wiltshire County Council has signed a new £12m outsourcing deal with Steria as part of an overhaul of its IT infrastructure.

Steria beat off competition from 21 other applicants for the five-year managed IT services deal and replaces incumbent supplier Sunguard Vivista on 1 October 2006.

The fully managed service will support 3,500 council staff, with 900 based at County Hall in Trowbridge and the rest scattered across more than 200 sites in Wiltshire.

The contract covers support for 3,300 PCs, 150 servers, 900 printers and 150 network routers. Steria's IT support will be expected to field around 2,000 helpdesk calls per month.

Some of the key projects planned include a new financial management system, voice over IP, libraries management, customer relationship management and back-office integration, and the rollout of an electronic document and records management system.

As well as helping the council cut administration costs and increase efficiency Steria will be responsible for enabling more home-based and mobile working for Wiltshire staff over the next three years.

Jane Scott, leader of Wiltshire County Council, said the deal will save the authority money and provide a framework for delivering improved services for citizens.