Giant network slashes costs for council

Birmingham City Council is implementing a £10m network to connect the city's council offices, libraries and schools.

The council has already saved around £350,000 per year by reducing communications and infrastructure costs since it started on the IP network two and a half years ago - with the full set-up to be ready by the end of April.

The cost of managing the network has also been reduced by 40 per cent per year since the move from three separate networks to a single IP infrastructure.

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Andrew Mackey, head of networks at Service Birmingham the department building the network, said: "It's about being able to put anybody from Birmingham City Council into any building - be that a school, library or community centre - and giving them access to any part of the network securely."

On the Cisco-based IP network each council employee will have a single contact number that will remain with them whether they work from home or move between council offices, libraries or schools.

The IP infrastructure will enable council and other community employees to log on to the network from libraries, offices or schools while out with work and access information and systems as if they are sitting behind their own desk.

These council offices, libraries and schools will also become 'community focal points' where the public can go online and access a range of services - such as council tax and benefits information and social care services.

A pilot is already up and running at Birmingham's Central Library to give the public access to online council services.

CCTV and wireless technology are two other technologies in the pipeline for the IP network, Mackey added.

More than 20,000 people will use the IP network, which will support 30,000 ports across 240 council-related offices, 60 libraries and 450 schools within the Birmingham area.