British Museum finds its voice with Pinacl of comms deals

The British Museum has awarded a seven-year deal for IT support and communications services.

The deal will see the museum's incumbent data supplier Pinacl providing a managed helpdesk for its communications networks as well as a VoIP network. The technology will be trialled in the museum's IT department first before potentially being rolled out to other areas of the organisation.

The introduction of VoIP will help in the management of voice services, according to the museum, and facilitate the introduction of new functionality for end users.

Jane Clift, head of IS at the museum, told silicon.com: "We're an unusual organisation, in that we're a museum and it's 250 years old. The building the technology goes into is listed - Grade 1, Grade 2 listed throughout - and it can be a quite challenging environment to work in but at the same time our networking needs can be quite sophisticated."

The British Museum decided to embark on the new deal after previously handling its telephone and data networks under separate contracts.

Prime contractor Computacenter sub-contracted the work to Pinacl, who will carry out the "day-to-day work", according to Clift.

The Pinacl-Computacenter combination "came out well on a technical perspective", Clift said, adding: "We knew Pinacl and the museum worked together very well. Computacenter were very good in terms of how they managed the tender."

The contract could also pave the way introduction of new services at the museum, including greater network access for visitors.

"There's a tremendous amount of interest in handheld technologies, either within exhibitions or for visitors coming to the museum. That implies a much more available network public side, either internet access or wireless access to our own networks, so that people can download content. But that's sort of blue sky thinking for us at the moment. It's very interesting… but it's early days."

The museum is also considering adding PCs to the museum, to allow visitors to browse the objects and extended information on exhibits from its website.