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p1 | East Midlands Public Services Network
In partnership with:
As a region, the East Midlands is part of a brand new
phenomenon in the way that the public sector manages
its communications infrastructure. Secure, high bandwidth
networks are expensive, especially those with the
geographic reach demanded by organisations responsible
for delivering public services.
It makes sense and saves money if these expensive
resources are shared by other public sector organisations
with similar requirements particularly if they share
similar locations. In addition it enables joined up working,
improving the way that public services are delivered.
Public Services Networks are built to enable sharing both
of the core network infrastructures and services, such as
telephony and internet access, that run over these networks.
The East Midlands Public Services Network (emPSN) is
founded on a network which provides broadband services for
schools which means that it has exceptional reach across the
region. This means that it is ideally placed to save money for
local authorities, health trusts, emergency service and other
public sector organisations throughout the region through
the delivery of a shared communications infrastructure and
associated services.
The emPSN is built to be compliant with Cabinet Office
standards for Public Services Networks which means that
the emPSN removes the barriers to shared working and
collaboration as well as providing improved mobility and
allowing premises to be shared. This gives public sector staff
greater flexibility in the buildings they occupy thus facilitating
estate reduction and giving them the opportunity to work
closer to their customers. This also means that emPSN is part
of the national PSN – the network of networks that forms an
‘internet’ for UK public sector.
This publication is intended to provide introductory
information to organisations interested in understanding more
about the emPSN services available from Kcom.
East Midlands Public Services Network
p2 | East Midlands Public Services Network
BackgroundThe East Midlands Public Sector Network (emPSN) was
procured by emPSN and operates as a ‘public good’
partnership across the region (a public sector owned Company
Limited by Guarantee) with a Board of Directors from the
public sector. The Board of Directors currently comprises
nominees from Tier 1 local authorities and other public sector
nominees will become Directors as the partnership develops.
The procurement process in 2011 resulted in the appointment
of Kcom as the selected supplier of the core Network and the
emPSN Service Desk. Kcom was also selected as a supplier
of access connectivity to the core network and as a supplier
of application services to schools. emPSN now act as the
Framework Authority and the resulting Framework Agreement
allows any public sector organisation to contract directly with
Kcom for the services they need.
The result is a developing regional partnership bringing
together the public sector within the East Midlands region
to create a regional infrastructure for the provision of PSN
compliant and non PSN connectivity and services that save
more and help remove the barriers to shared working.
Services offered and how it worksKcom offers, via the emPSN framework agreement, a wide
variety of connectivity solutions to enable:
• Site to site connections
• Connections to shared resources such as data centres
• Connections to the internet
Because Kcom has built the emPSN core network to PSN
standards, it can also provide connections to other public
sector bodies, either within the region or further afield through
secure gateways to other public sector providers such as the
Department for Work and Pensions or access to services such
as the Government Secure Intranet. It can also provide access
via the national PSN to services such as hosting or government
approved cloud based applications.
Kcom also supplies, via the emPSN framework, a number of
additional services that make use of the core network:
• Local Area Network (LAN) Services to extend emPSN
connections into buildings using wired or wireless
technology
• Secure Remote Access services to allow home based and
mobile workers to get the information and applications
they need in order to do their job from any location. This
includes the security mechanisms to ensure that all users
who access the network are appropriately authorised and
authenticated
• Unified Communications (UC) services which provide
ways for public sector staff to communicate and
collaborate. These services are built around a single
directory for all users connected to the network so that it
is easy to see who is available. UC then offers choice in
the method of communication (voice, email and instant
messaging) as well as collaboration tools such as audio
and video conferencing and desktop sharing
• Internet access, including important associated services
such as protection from viruses and other threats and
specialised application services for schools
• Data Centre centre services are available enabling public
sector organisations to access managed server and
storage facilities in a secure, flexible and ecologically
responsible manner
Public Services
Networks are built to enable sharing both of the
core network infrastructures and also services, such as telephony and internet
access, that run over these networks.
p3 | East Midlands Public Services Network
How the emPSN worksThe emPSN Framework Agreement means that each partner
organisation can draw down on the framework directly with
Kcom. This allows each organisation to come to a specific
agreement with Kcom to deliver against their particular
requirements but also enjoy the benefits of the standard
terms of the Framework Agreement and the collective
buying power of emPSN. In addition any organisation
buying emPSN services from Kcom will need to become a
member of emPSN because it is owned by the people who
use it - and is a mutual much like the Co-op. Membership will
not cost anything.
Service CatalogueInitially any organisation considering procuring emPSN
services from Kcom may request a priced technical proposal
without any commitment. Once a new organisation becomes
a Kcom customer all of the emPSN services available can
be selected from a carefully constructed, online service
catalogue. This describes, for each product or service, all of
the options available including the service levels. To make it
easy to order all of the elements required – for example
to provide a connection for a single school or to equip a
local authority home-worker – a number of packages are
included in the catalogue.
emPSN ProgressThe majority of the region’s schools have contracted with
Kcom for their broadband connectivity service. This has
resulted in emPSN having a wide network reach which
means connectivity is now available for other public sector
organisations through the region. Many of the County
Councils in the region are either already connected to emPSN,
or are investigating how they might migrate to emPSN when
their current contracts expire. Other organisations such as
District Councils, Health and Emergency Services are taking
advantage of Kcom’s offer to provide commitment free
quotations for their requirements so that they can carry
out pricing comparisons against their existing prices or the
broader market. The range of service that Kcom can provide
will become broader and deeper as Kcom introduce new
innovative services and more organisations become part of
the emPSN community.
Why choose emPSN?emPSN is owned and managed by local authorities in the East
Midlands for the benefit of East Midlands’ citizens and public
sector organisation that provide services to them. Those who
buy emPSN services from Kcom will not only benefit from cost
effective aggregated services but also avoid the need to carry
out a costly procurement exercise. Put simply, the greater the
number of organisations that join the emPSN the greater
the savings that can be enjoyed by each. Choosing Kcom to
supply emPSN services to fulfil infrastructure and associated
communications requirements means:
• Lower costs as any organisation joining the network
benefit from the investments already made in the network,
aggregated purchasing and supply contract rationalisation
and by avoiding network duplication
• Greater efficiency through the use of shared capability and
applications beyond the scope of individual organisations
• Improvements in public services delivery by enabling better
communications between public service bodies
p4 | East Midlands Public Services Network
emPSN Partnership – the partnersThe following organisations form the founder membership
of the emPSN Partnership. Derbyshire County Council,
Leicester City Council and Lincolnshire County Council, and
schools in each local authority area have placed orders for
emPSN services:
For more information or to discuss your requirements with Kcom please visit:
www.kcom.com/empsn
Why choose emPSN?• Access to innovative services such as remote and mobile
working and unified communications
• Use of existing connections to many public buildings,
enabling more public services to share the same premises
• Confidence that the security standards will meet
compliance requirements
• Access to skilled resources to design solutions using the
emPSN infrastructure
• Incident management, change control and service
management which together amount to a comprehensive
support capability to meet a range of service levels, all
accessed through an online portal
• Access now and in the future to a wealth of public sector
resources such as the Government Cloud Store
Additional benefits from emPSN include the following:
• Flexibility and resilience - many existing wide area networks
are based on nodes located within existing public sector
buildings. In contrast the emPSN network is mainly based
on nodes within telephone exchanges and Data Centres
giving much greater flexibility when it comes to future
building and premises consolidation
• The responsibility for the development and evolution of the
core network lies with the emPSN Board, as opposed to the
service provider. The Board is made up of senior managers
from Public Sector organisations who are responsible
for developing the network for the benefit of the region
supported by the engagement of emPSN Members
• For schools a Kcom connection to emPSN provides secure
access to the National Education Network (NEN). This makes
local, regional and national collaboration between schools
possible and provides access to a large range of centrally
funded and validated educational resources, and the JANET
video conferencing service
Cover photographs
Left: The bronze statue of Robin Hood, which stands outside the medieval walls of Nottingham Castle
Middle: Nottingham Council House
Right: Lincoln Cathedral