10 May 2018
The contract to provide public services network connectivity promises looks set to cut costs by up to 40 per cent.
NHS Digital and the Yorkshire and Humber Partnership have worked closely together on what’s described as the largest Health and Social Care Network (HSCN) procurement to date.
Thirty-nine health organisations, 15 local authorities, four police forces, three universities and two combined authorities across Yorkshire, Bassetlaw, and North and North East Lincolnshire will benefit from improved network connectivity arrangements.
As well as promising to cut costs, the network will enable the organisations to work in integrated multi-disciplinary teams using shared buildings such as the Leeds Government Hub.
Harrogate-based managed services provider Redcentric will deliver the WAN connectivity to enable more efficient and integrated delivery of services.
A total of 65 organisations will be able to connect up to 3,000 of their sites through Redcentric, rationalise their existing infrastructure, and achieve savings of up to 40 per cent by doing so.
The framework agreement covers local authorities, emergency services, transport and health sectors.
It is awarded for a period of four years and has the potential to add up to £15m to £20m of incremental revenue per year.
Redcentric says its expects to deliver between £1m and £3m of revenue from the framework in the current financial year, and reckons this will increase over the life of the agreement as services are mobilised and rolled-out across the region.
The HSCN will provide both improved internet connectivity to support adoption of cloud-based services, as well as cost effective private network connectivity to support access to existing systems.
It replaces the previous N3 network services provide to the NHS by BT.
