Credit: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

The Home Office is seeking a supplier to help roll out unified communications technologies to its 28,000-strong workforce.

The department is looking to create and implement a new platform that offers its staff one-on-one and group options for voice and video communications, as well as webcasting, instant messaging, desktop sharing, and presence technologies. The Home Office is seeking to build a service that is available “anywhere, [on] any device, and at any time, and which leverages best-in-breed technologies and existing assets”. 

To help with the implementation of the new comms environment, the department is seeking to appoint an external supplier to a two-year contract, with an optional six-month extension.

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The first task for the chosen provider will be to “secure the current telephony service which is due to be withdrawn”. Over the coming months, the supplier will then be expected to help build and deploy the new communications set-up, and transition services into a “business-as-usual support” set-up.

Work will be centred at the department’s office in Croydon, with its location in Southport serving as “a secondary base”. Installation work will also be required “at all Home Office locations where UC is required”.

The winning bidder will join a team containing civil servants, individual contractors, and other external suppliers.

“An interim programme team is required to support the delivery of the programme requirement for integrated communications across differing device and media types,” the Home Office said. “The team will ramp up, and the exact role profile will vary throughout the contract.”

Bids are open until 23 May, with up to three suppliers set to be evaluated by the department. No estimated budget has yet been attached to the programme.