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Unisys leads strategic IT Transformation for Wandsworth Council
Major IT overhaul of existing network infrastructure intended to optimise IT investment, improve resource utilisation and future proof for IT network expansion
Unisys Corporation has confirmed that it is working to implement a new technology infrastructure for the London Borough of Wandsworth.
The five-year initiative is designed to put the Council in a position to deliver more efficient and flexible services to 280,000 local residents, as well as other public and private sector bodies.
In a move designed to reduce complexity and increase utilisation, the Council and Unisys will work together to provide an infrastructure that improves availability and adaptability whilst lowering operational costs and, as a key environmental consideration, reducing the Council’s carbon footprint.
Unisys has carried out a comprehensive assessment of the Council’s existing IT portfolio, before consolidating its server, desktop & storage estate and undertaking a programme of rationalisation for the Council’s key ICT services. Following installation in year one, Wandsworth Council will receive completehardware servicing and maintenance support for the duration of the contract.
“Wandsworth Council, like many modern enterprises, is experiencing increasing dependency on technology to deliver service. It also is facing the combined challenges of improving service, coping with expanding IT infrastructure yet at the same time reducing costs,” said David Howard, Director of Enterprise Solutions, Unisys UK. “Wandsworth’s innovative approach of driving up utilisation while reducing the number of servers is a resounding endorsement for the role that IT can play in delivering improved citizen services and public sector efficiencies.”
A key consideration for Wandsworth was to determine how best to avoid the constant need for additional server space and the associated support and accommodation costs. Using consolidation and virtualisation techniques, the Unisys solution will minimise the need for space by helping to ensure that the utilisation levels of the new infrastructure will be significantly higher than the Council has experienced in the past, and that new hardware requirements are kept to a minimum.
“Wandsworth Council enjoys an excellent reputation for efficiency across all departments and takes pride in offering its residents the best possible value for money,” said David Walker, Wandsworth’s Head of ICT Services. “This is not just about new technology, but changing the model for how we manage and deploy our services. With this new strategy we can reduce the costs of delivering services and enable services to be provided faster to our customers. We chose the Unisys approach as it offered the best way of reducing the amount of space and power and meant we did not have to go through expensive upgrades of the data centre environment. Through the purchase of this solution we have established an infrastructure framework to sustain us for at least the next 5 years.”
