Streamlining IT procurement for emergency services

Streamlining IT procurement for our nation’s emergency services

The case for Enterprise Agreements.

Discover how Enterprise Agreements help emergency services cut costs, improve resilience, and simplify IT procurement across frontline and control room operations.Contents

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The case for Enterprise Agreements

Streamlining IT procurement for our nation’s emergency services

The case for Enterprise Agreements

The UK’s emergency services are undergoing a period of profound digital transformation, phasing out legacy platforms and connectivity in favour of highly secure, resilient platforms that support seamless communication and collaboration between frontline responders, control rooms, and national coordination centres.

However, when even the smallest instance of downtime has the potential to cost lives, the security of citizens’ data is a growing concern, and the Operators of Essential Services’ (OES’) range of compliance obligations continues to evolve, the digital transformation process becomes considerably more complex. In particular, the transactional approach to acquiring IT services of any sort, particularly with regards to SaaS platforms and software licensing, is increasing showing its limitations for OESs, adding unnecessary complexity to IT estates that inevitably results in spiralling OPEX costs, unclear pricing, and an overall lack of control and visibility.

Nonetheless, a seamless procurement process is the foundation of any successful digital initiative for emergency services, and so it is clear a different approach is required…

Enterprise Agreements (EAs) - consolidated contracts that enable the purchasing of IT services at scale, with everything delivered through a single strategic partner for a predetermined period - offer an extremely attractive alternative to traditional channels of procurement. With all existing and future licences managed through a single agreement, delivered by a single supplier, OESs can access the IT services they depend on - both in the control room and on the front line - with consistent, locked in pricing, and the ability to scale up or down, as required.

This offers a far greater level of flexibility that traditional provisioning, as surplus licences can be automatically reallocated and additional ones provisioned for the same pricing established at the outset of the agreement, and with the same end date – a ‘true forward’ that eliminates the cost and inefficiency of transactional IT procurement. Even with the increasingly fast pace of the emergency services’ digital transformation, this allows for a more predictable budget and frequently leads to significant cost savings that can be reinvested in new service improvements, ultimately resulting in more lives saved.

The Exponential-e Group - Exponential-e, Vysiion, and Xpertex - have long championed such agreements across the public sector, including in our capacity as the only privately-owned UK Key Supplier to the Home Office's Emergency Services Network User Services Programme, and its ongoing work with the Ambulance Radio Programme (ARP). In the case of the latter, an EA has significantly streamlined the implementation of key Cisco platforms, with the Group’s own teams supporting their design, delivery, and management as part of the service.

This model could easily be extended to other Trusts, and tailored to suit their unique requirements, particularly when legacy contracts are approaching their expiration. By transitioning to an EA with a trusted supplier, Trusts’ own teams will dramatically simplify the management of their IT estates, without compromising their ability to scale and pivot as their operations expand and systems evolve, particularly with the upcoming launch of the ESN.