BT Ireland wins major contract with Department of Social Protection

BT Ireland wins major contract with Department of Social Protection

A major contract to provide a nationwide IT network has been awarded to BT Ireland by the Department of Social Protection. BT was successful in a competitive tendering process because of its ability to deliver more bandwidth to multiple locations at a market-leading price. The five-year contract is worth approximately €9 million, which represents a significant saving on the current cost of running the Department's network infrastructure.

Network investment is a cornerstone of the Department's modernisation programme as it looks to improve efficiency in 208 locations across the country. The new network will also be a key enabler for the major transformation project which the Department is undertaking by integrating the Community Welfare Service from the HSE and the Employment and Community Employment Services from FAS into its organisation. With just under half of its 5,200 staff employed in local offices, and a further 2,000 staff joining the Department, wide area connectivity is business-critical for a government body responsible for the annual distribution of over €21 billion in welfare schemes to over 2.1 million citizens.

With rising demand for the Department's services, the new network will enable the Department to improve its business operations, better serving citizens while reducing overall costs. The enhanced connectivity between Department offices will speed up communications across the network and allow for the deployment of more complex applications, designed to make the operation of business processes quicker and more effective. Under the terms of the contract, BT is responsible for all aspects of project implementation, as well as 24x7 support from its Network Management Centre in Dublin. BT will also provide bespoke training to the Department's Information Services team, transferring knowledge on how the new network is designed and configured.

Niall Barry, the Department's CIO, said,

The increased capacity that BT gives the Department allows us to deploy in-house developed enhancements to core business applications, ensuring a more efficient service is provided for our customers. The new network will also facilitate further cost savings as the Department moves its telephone services onto the data network. This will ensure greatly reduced telephone line rental and call charges across the organisation.

Colm O’Neill, CEO BT Ireland, said,

BT's significant investment in a national network infrastructure helps Irish organisations to benefit from access to advanced technologies at an affordable price. The Department of Social Protection has shown great vision by looking to communications and IT services to help it transform how it operates while also generating savings. By choosing BT to help it realise its ambitions, the Department has selected a partner with a successful track record in providing best-in-class technologies for better value.

Central to the offering is BT Etherflow, a carrier-class Ethernet core that runs over fibre-optic cable and enables wide area networking across all 208 Department sites. The Etherflow product is used to access BT's dedicated Government Network platform, a high-speed LAN interconnection service that facilitates direct peering with the government's own core network. A combination of BT Fibre and BT Licensed Microwave technologies are used to access the platform at speeds ranging from 2Mbps to 300Mbps. The Department's data centers are connected by fibre at 1Gbps.

To serve the requirements of this contract, BT Ireland will be making a multi-million euro investment in its network infrastructure. Only a small number of communications and IT services companies in the Irish market can support the scale and complexity required by the Department of Social Protection, and this investment will also benefit other government departments and state agencies, should they choose to utilise BT's offering in future.

BT Ireland employs close to 3,000 people on the island of Ireland, including more than 500 IT specialists in its networked IT services team. BT Ireland has offices across the island, including Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford. The company continues to significantly invest in its network and IT infrastructure in Ireland, and provides a full range of communications and IT services to the SME, corporate, multi-national and government sectors. BT Ireland also currently operates the 999 / 112 emergency call answering service on behalf of the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.