Decision details

Tendring District Council officers have led Essex Online Partnership (EOLP) partners in a multi-partner, value-for-money, SIP telephony framework offering which all EOLP partners can join as and when their existing telephony contractual arrangements allow. This in turn has volume-based pricing reduction benefits for each partner.
With reference to the published accompanying report the following benefits will be accrued;
1)The decision aligns with the council’s digital ‘cloud first’ strategy and customer services strategy.
2)Minimal service disruption and technology change complexity risk.
3)Value for Money.
4)Resilience enhancements to a critical council communications channel.
5)Decision timeliness - The Council has been utilising Bt ISDN30 telephony technology for a number of years and these services will cease in 2025.
6)Enhanced telephone call volume capacity and flexibility to temporarily increase incoming telephone lines, if required. Note: In this context, the council’s adopted customer service strategy moving service users onto self-service channels is relevant.
7)Framework agreement procurement in accordance with our procurement rules of procedure.
8)A managed service supported by the UK’s telephony network market leader.

To replace outdated BT ISDN30 telephony circuits with BT SIP telephony services.

The contract renewal is funded through existing budgets. The procurement route is a direct award through the UK Government Crown Commercial Services framework (RM3808-L3-BT0193.

1)Doing nothing is not an option as UK ISDN30 services will cease nationally in 2025. Likewise on-premise equipment is now end-of-life and will become an operational liability.
2)SIP technology now has the proven prerequisite resilience and reliability to support this council key communication channel – as opposed to new-to-market emerging technologies e.g. 5G mobile connectivity.
3)This decision proposal utilises EOLP combined purchasing power through a framework to achieve best value-for-money whilst still giving Tendring the solution it requires. As opposed to a stand-alone Tendring tender process which is resource intensive and in this instance is highly likely to increase costs.