Agenda item

Report of the Executive Director – Corporate Services and Commercial

The Cabinet considered the report of the Executive Director of Corporate Services and Commercial setting out the background to the Council’s Cloud Telephony Service and associated contracts. The contracts supply telephony services to the Council were used by staff to conduct their duties and included the Council’s Contact Centre for both inbound and outbound telephone calls. The report detailed the associated procurement route available to the authority to renew the current contracts which were due to expire on 18 February 2025.

Decisions Made:

That

(1)           the use of Crown Commercial Services Framework RM6116 Network Services 3 - Lot 4b Digital Communication Services to award a contract for the provision of the Council’s cloud telephony service to 8x8 UK Limited be approved, the proposed term being for an initial period of 2-years, followed by up to two optional 12-month extension periods; and

(2)           the Executive Director of Corporate Services and Commercial,in consultation with the Cabinet Member - Corporate Services, be granted delegated authority to award the Contract under this framework and any subsequent contract extensions.

Reasons for the Decisions:

On acceptance and approval of the recommendation within the report, the next steps will be to complete a direct award under Crown Commercial Services Framework RM6116 Network Services 3 - Lot 4b Digital Communication Services.

The proposed term would be for an initial period of 2-years, followed by up to two optional 12-month extension periods.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected:

To explore the market for a new telephony solution: rejected.The current solution provided by 8x8 UK Ltd had been a reliable solution since the Councils conversation away from analogue telephony at the start of this current but expiring contract. It was recognised that a contract of this nature would usually have been awarded for a much longer period, as the cost of change was significant (training, hardware and porting just some examples). However, at the time of contract initiation for cloud telephony there was an urgent need for a solution due to the COVID pandemic and for speed the contract was awarded via G-Cloud, the disadvantage of which was a shorter contract term.

8x8 had establishment themselves as a market leader in this space for local government with many neighbouring authorities also recently completing procurement exercises, with 8x8 winning on quality and price, including Liverpool and St Helens Councils.

Officers within the within the ICT Client Unit recently conducted a proof of concept looking at further developments in cloud telephony including the potential use of integrated telephony with Microsoft Teams, thereby making better use of existing investments in M365. It was concluded that these alternatives would potentially meet the Councils requirements, but further work was needed to ensure that any business case would be viable in terms of licensing costs and call charges. Consideration would also need to be given to the time needed to switch away from 8x8 for generic telephony and then how Teams would integrate with a contact centre telephony solution as a specialist solution would still be required in this space.

It was therefore recommended to complete a direct award for a period of 2 years with the option of two further 12-month extension periods to allow time for further work to be completed on the Teams proposal.