Information in Communications Systems and Technology
Case reference FOI2024/01753
Received 21 October 2024
Published 12 November 2024
Request
Connectivity and Network Services:
a. Who provides your WAN and internet connectivity and the annual spend on each
b. Who provides your SIP trunks and what is the annual spend
c. Who provides your WAN services, is this MPLS, SD WAN or Internet, and what is the annual spend
d. Who provides your LAN infrastructure and what is your annual spend e. Who provides your WIFI infrastructure and what is your annual spend f. Please confirm the manufacturer(s) of your wired network core and edge switching?
g. When was your core network installed?
h. Has it been updated subsequently?
i. Who maintains your core network?
j. When is the contract renewal date?
k. Please confirm value of the initial project?
l. Please confirm the value of annual support/maintenance services (in £)? Telephony and storage:
1. Telephony and UC/ Collaboration
a. Please confirm the manufacturer of your telephony system(s) that are currently in place
b. When is your contract renewal date?
c. Who maintains your telephony system(s)?
d. Do you use Unified Communications or Collaboration tools , if so which ones?
2. Microsoft
a) What Microsoft 365 licence do you have across the business e.g. E3, E5
b) Which partner looks after your Microsoft tenant?
c) Where do you host your applications? Do you have on-premise infrastructure or do you host your applications in public or private cloud? Which?
3. Storage
a. Does your organisation use on-premise or cloud storage or both?
b. Please confirm the on-premise hardware manufacturer
c. Please confirm your cloud storage provider
d. What is your annual spend on cloud storage?
e. How do you back up your data and with who e.g. Backup as a Service Contact Centre, CRM, and AI & Automation:
1. Contact Centre – target to organisations we know have a CC
a. Do you have a customer/ citizen facing contact centre? If not please skip these questions.
b. Do you employ and manage your own agents, or do you outsource to a third party? If you outsource who to?
c. How many contact centre agents do you have?
d. Do agents work from home? Or just your offices?
e. Please confirm the manufacturer of your contact centre system(s) that are currently in place?
f. When is your contract renewal date?
g. Who maintains your contact centre system(s)?
2. CRM
a. Do you use a CRM in the contact centre? What platform is used?
b. Do you use the same CRM for the rest of the organisation? What platform is used?
c. Do you use a knowledge base / knowledge management platform? What platform is used?
3. AI & Automation
a. Does your organisation have a customer or citizen facing chatbot? If so, who provides this chatbot technology?
b. Does your organisation utilise RPA technology? If so which RPA technology provider do you use?
Response
Connectivity and Network Services:
a. Who provides your WAN and internet connectivity and the annual spend on each
Answer: MLL – Circa £230k per annum across all organisations for WAN and JaNet for internet connectivity, Circa £13,000
b. Who provides your SIP trunks and what is the annual spend
Answer: Wavenet, Circa £55k
c. Who provides your WAN services, is this MPLS, SD WAN or Internet, and what is the annual spend
Answer: MLL & JaNet – MPLS
d. Who provides your LAN infrastructure and what is your annual spend
Answer: Not applicable
e. Who provides your WIFI infrastructure and what is your annual spend
Answer: Not applicable
f. Please confirm the manufacturer(s) of your wired network core and edge switching?
Answer: Cisco
g. When was your core network installed?
Answer: September 2024
h. Has it been updated subsequently?
Answer: Not applicable
i. Who maintains your core network?
Answer: Hoople
j. When is the contract renewal date?
Answer: Not applicable – Hoople are a teckal company whose shareholders consist of Herefordshire Council, Wye Valley NHS Trust and Lincolnshire County Council.
k. Please confirm value of the initial project?
Answer: Exact figures not known but believed to be in the region of £380k
l. Please confirm the value of annual support/maintenance services (in £)?
Answer: Circa £70k per annum
Telephony and storage:
1. Telephony and UC/ Collaboration
a. Please confirm the manufacturer of your telephony system(s) that are currently in place
Answer: Cisco & MS Teams
b. When is your contract renewal date?
Answer: Cisco 12 Mar 25, MS Teams, Jun 26
c. Who maintains your telephony system(s)?
Answer: A collaborative approach across multiple suppliers which include Maintel Europe Limited, Hoople, Microsoft, Phoenix & Wavenet
d. Do you use Unified Communications or Collaboration tools , if so which ones?
2. Microsoft
a) What Microsoft 365 licence do you have across the business e.g. E3, E5
Answer: E5
b) Which partner looks after your Microsoft tenant?
Answer: Phoenix Software Limited
c) Where do you host your applications? Do you have on-premise
infrastructure or do you host your applications in public or private cloud? Which?
Answer: A mix of on-premise and software as a service
3. Storage
a. Does your organisation use on-premise or cloud storage or both?
Answer: On-Premise
b. Please confirm the on-premise hardware manufacturer
Answer: Pure
c. Please confirm your cloud storage provider
Answer: Not Applicable
d. What is your annual spend on cloud storage?
Answer: Not Applicable
e. How do you back up your data and with who e.g. Backup as a Service
Answer: There is an on-premise backup solution.
Contact Centre, CRM, and AI & Automation:
A. Contact Centre – target to organisations we know have a CC a. Do you have a customer/ citizen facing contact centre?
Answer: Yes
b. Do you employ and manage your own agents, or do you outsource to a third party? If you outsource who to?
Answer: We manage and have our own agents.
c. How many contact centre agents do you have?
Answer: 13 Customer Service Officers whose role includes covering the contact centre.
d. Do agents work from home? Or just your offices?
Answer: Both the office and from home.
e. Please confirm the manufacturer of your contact centre system(s) that are currently in place?
Answer: Cisco
f. When is your contract renewal date?
Answer: 12th March 2025
g. Who maintains your contact centre system(s)?
Answer: Hoople
2. CRM
a. Do you use a CRM in the contact centre? What platform is used?
Answer: Yes – Granicus Gov Service
b. Do you use the same CRM for the rest of the organisation? What platform is used?
Answer: Yes – Granicus Gov Service
c. Do you use a knowledge base / knowledge management platform? What platform is used?
Answer: No – Not that we are aware of.
3. AI & Automation
a. Does your organisation have a customer or citizen facing chatbot? If so, who provides this chatbot technology?
Answer: No we do not have one.
b. Does your organisation utilise RPA technology? If so which RPA
technology provider do you use?
Answer: No we do not utilize RPA technology.
Documents
This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
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