Telephone network equipment

Description

Hertsmere Borough Council currently uses a Unify (Siemens) iSDX which has been declared End of Life (EOL) in its current state. The need to carry out significant upgrades to bring it back under full support SLAs and in line with PSN requirements has prompted the Council to compare market prices and functionality through a tender process. The council would also like to take the opportunity to prepare itself for improvements in communications by taking advantage of new technologies where possible, to improve facilities for: — Shared services; — Enhanced customer services through a multi channel contact centre; — Flexible or agile working; — Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity; — Use of video; — Desk reduction for income generation; — Identifiable cash savings. It is recognised that affordability has a major impact on what can or cannot be included and at the moment, not all can be achieved due to lack of funds. However, the new system must be capable of covering this in future, through Unified Communications, enhanced contact centre, call recording and SIP trunks. The expectation is that suppliers will hold costs on the options set out in this tender for a period of 2 years, unless significant design or software changes occur that render this impossible.