Public internet access infrastructure implementation

The project issues
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets had a contract with an external supplier for providing and maintaining its Libraries service desktops and its public internet access infrastructure. This solution was expensive and gave the Council’s ICT department little control over its maintenance or development. As the contract was due to expire, the managers of the Libraries service asked the ICT department to submit a business case to implement a refresh of 300 customer PCs, improve infrastructure security and provide maintenance support. Our consultant was already working for the Council on behalf of Socitm Consulting. The ICT department asked him to develop the business case and implement the solution.

The Socitm Consulting solution
We began by procuring 300 desktops through internal corporate procurement processes. This cut the cost of the lifecycle of each desktop by £330. This not only reduced Libraries ICT costs by £70,000 pa, it also funded additional ICT support staff. 

We worked with internal ICT technical staff to develop and implement the technical architecture to allow more secure connectivity between the corporate network and external networks including the internet. This was based upon a new active directory infrastructure and additional network security. We also worked with the Council’s ICT department to bring maintenance support for the Library service desktops and network in-house. This gave corporate ICT full control over resolving problems for the Libraries ICT service, particularly since the new build PCs and network conform much more closely with corporate systems, making it far easier to replace equipment or repair faults.

The integration of corporately built and maintained desktops and a secure public internet access infrastructure is now being implemented as best practice by other Council departments, including One-Stop-Shops, Children’s Services, Health and the Police – all of which provide internet access to customers as part of their service.

The benefits to the client
Our expertise in developing highly cost effective business cases, using smart procurement methods and developing and project managing the implementation of technical solutions enabled the Council to regain control over and improve its Libraries ICT service. As a result, the Council has made significant costs savings, its Libraries ICT service has a much more responsive internal support structure in place and it can now offer internet access to a much wider group of customers, including to those who live in areas of social deprivation.

Project identification
Client organisation: London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Client contact: Jim Roberts, Head of ICT, 020 7364 4672, jim.roberts@towerhamlets.gov.uk
Lead consultant: michael.roe@socitm.gov.uk
Project no: 5970a