City of York Council has struck a £3.8m deal with a telecommunications supplier to manage the council's telephone and computer networks and install a new telephone system serving the council's offices across the city.

The contract, with Damovo UK Limited, the UK arm of the global services provider, is for a five year period. Damovo will provide the new equipment and then manage the new service.

The deal was struck with the help of procurement consultants Improcom and legal firm Eversheds.

The managed service will guarantee high performance standards and the contract ensures that the service will be delivered irrespective of components failing or heavy traffic - benefiting frontline, customer services.

Benefits of the new system will include: Guaranteed high quality voice and data network for the Council - voice and data networks guaranteed for 99.85% of the day 24x7 availability replacement of the existing 10 year old telephone system with an integrated Voice over IP (VoIP) voice and data network which will support the delivery of electronic government and reduce the ongoing costs of support achieving modernisation of the council's telecoms without any additional cost to the council Leader of the council, Councillor Dave Merrett, said, "Thanks to this deal the council we have a state-of-the-art network that will improve the delivery of services to customers by providing flexible, high quality, reliable computer and telephone systems to staff who are delivering essential public services.

"The partnership with Damovo is an important development for the council. The managed service will enable us to improve services to customers and will protect us from the impacts of equipment failure that have a direct effect on customer services."

Councillor Merrett said the new managed service would bring significant business benefits for the council including lower ownership costs and the benefits of data and voice networks being provided through one integrated service. "The system is also very versatile and flexible with more opportunities for integration between the telephone, email, voicemail and contact centres; the possibilities for remote and home use and faster deployment in times of emergency." Paul Renucci, Damovo's UK MD, said, "The system that has been selected by York council is highly flexible and robust, allowing for integration between telephone email, voicemail and contact centres. This opens up a realm of possibilities such as remote access and heavy traffic. Benefits will include increased levels of customer service, higher levels of reliability, reduced costs and greater flexibility." Michael Leadbeater, telecoms expert at Eversheds, said: "We were appointed by City of York Council in the summer and have worked closely with its Information Technology team to achieve an effective handover of the Council's communications activities to Damovo.

"We were particularly excited to be involved in the migration of an existing system to a VoIP system, as this represents a genuine technological leap forward. "We predict many more organisations will soon realise the benefits to be gained by implementing VoIP technology." ENDS

Notes for Editors

A significant part of the arrangement includes the migration of the voice network to a 'Voice over Internet Protocol' based system.

'VoIP' is highly advanced technology that will vastly improve the functionality and flexibility of the telephony system. Significant cost savings are also achieved because calls are transmitted over a data network, which offers greater security, reliability and robustness.

Advantages of VoIP systems for employees include easier hot-desking and mobile working from remote offices or the home via broadband links.

Eversheds has over 2,000 legal and business advisers providing services to the private and public sector business and finance community.

Damovo is a global services company delivering world class corporate communications

More information on Damovo can be found at www.damovo.com