Northgate-is - News Item 669

Northgate announces further contract extension with Reading Council

Northgate announces further contract extension with Reading Council

Northgate Information Solutions today announces a further extension to its strategic partnership with Reading Borough Council designed to support the Council in delivering greater efficiencies and responsive services.

The two-year contract, worth £4.5m, extends to 2011 the existing Desktop Services Agreement with Reading, which began in 1999. The new contract will see a renewed focus on cost-savings in line with the council’s corporate objectives and will develop the existing partnership between Reading Borough Council and Northgate.

The benefits include:

- implementation of Northgate’s ‘Model Office’ methodology, which manages incidents, problems, changes and configuration through IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) service management model.
-  further development of the iTeam, where a team of Northgate experts based within the Civic Centre delivers jointly agreed key Transformational Service projects to the Council
 -  implementation of a 4-year technical roadmap and plan which will further enable key projects to be delivered within  required timescales;

Councillor Jo Lovelock, Lead Councillor for Corporate Resources at Reading Borough Council, said:

“Through working in partnership with Northgate, the council has already delivered extensive improvements in the services it provides to both staff and to citizens. We are pleased to be extending our agreement with Northgate to enable us to deliver on our Transforming Services and New Civil Centre programmes and focus on continuous improvement to realise our vision of effective and efficient services.”

James Turnbull, Managing Director of Infrastructure Solutions at Northgate Managed Services, added:

“Working in close partnership with the team at Reading, we have been able to deliver a raft of performance improvements since our work began in 1999. We are delighted to announce a further two-year extension, and look forward to supporting the council to further transform service delivery through the innovative use of technology.”

-Ends-

For more information:

Morrow Communications
Gareth Colhoun:  028 9039 3837 / 07733304415 / g.colhoun@morrowcommunications.com
Claire Bonner:   028 9039 3837 / 07768790238 / c.bonner@morrowcommunications.com

Notes to Editors:

1) Northgate Information Solutions is a leading provider of ICT and managed services solutions and software to the public services, utilities markets and corporate markets. Whether business process outsourcing, full IT outsourcing or managing specific needs such as application or web-hosting, desktop management or data-centre systems, Northgate advises clients on how to maximise the value of their information technology assets. Founded in 1969, the company has over 6,000 employees.
 www.northgate-is.com/managedservices

2) ‘Model Office’ is Northgate’s implementation of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) service management methodology, providing Incident, Problem, Change and Configuration Management.