Dear Mr Leonard

Please consider this an acknowledgement of receipt of your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act. You will receive a response to your request no later than 16th November 2021 unless notified in the interim of exceptional circumstances, or if clarification is required, which may require an extension.

Sincerely,

Freedom of Information Unit

Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland

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Dear Mr Leonard,

Please find below responses to the questions posed in your Freedom of
Information request of 19 October 2021.

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information Unit

Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland

Dear Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland,

Telephony and UC/ Collaboration

Please note: Inbound telephony services are provided to the Police
Ombudsman’s Office as part of an overarching contract delivered by IT
Assist for the entire Northern Ireland Civil Service (including our
sponsor Department, the Department of Justice, as well as Northern Ireland
Non-Departmental Public Bodies and Arm’s-Length Bodies). For this reason,
not all of the information requested is held by the Police Ombudsman’s
Office.

Please confirm the manufacturer of your telephony system(s) that are
currently in place

Cisco VOIP handsets, with HP infrastructure supported by BT

When was the installation date of your telephony equipment?

First installation to VOIP was 2015 and the latest contract was awarded in
2020

When is your contract renewal date?

Not known – as stated above, this is an overarching contract which is not
overseen by the Police Ombudsman’s Office.

Who maintains your telephony system(s)?

IT Assist

Please confirm the value of the initial project

We do not hold this information. Information about the broader NICS/IT
Assist project may be available from those organisations.

Please confirm the total ongoing annual spend on telephony

The average annual spend by the Police Ombudsman’s Office on this contract
over the past three years amounts to £21,329 per annum.

Please confirm the annual support cost for your telephony system

We are unable to provide a discrete figure for support costs.

Do you use Unified Communications or Collaboration tools , if so which
ones?

The Office uses the Webex video communications application, and has an
intranet which is built on the Microsoft SharePoint platform.

Contact Centre

Please confirm the manufacturer of your contact centre system(s) that are
currently in place?

The Police Ombudsman’s Office has no discrete contact centre system.

When was the installation date of your contact centre infrastructure?

Not applicable.

When is your contract renewal date?

Not applicable.

Who maintains your contact centre system(s)?

Not applicable.

Please confirm value of the initial project?

Not applicable.

Please confirm the value of annual support/maintenance services (in £)?
And overall annual spend for the contact centre How many contact centre
agents do you have?

Not applicable.

Do agents work from home? Or just your offices?

Not applicable.

CRM

Do you use a CRM platform within your organisation?

No.

What CRM platform is used (e.g. Microsoft Dynamics, salesforce, Firmstep/
Granicus)?

Not applicable.

Do you use a CRM in the contact centre?

No.

What platform is used (e.g. Microsoft Dynamics, salesforce, Firmstep/
Granicus)?

Not applicable.

Do you use a knowledge base / knowledge management platform? What platform
is used?

The Office has an intranet built on the Microsoft SharePoint platform.

Connectivity and Network Services

Who provides your WAN and internet connectivity and the annual spend on
each

IT Assist, Enterprise Shared Services, Northern Ireland Civil Service
(NICS). Combined spend of £4,100/annum (this is not subdivided into
separate elements).

Have you, or do you plan to deploy SD Wan services

Not currently

Have you got SIP trunks, if so who from and confirm annual spend

No, not applicable.

Please confirm who provides your LAN, WIFI and Security infrastructure

LAN and Security Infrastructure - IT Assist, Enterprise Shared Services,
NICS.

Wifi  - one business broadband line with an access point provided by BT.

Please confirm your annual spend on each

LAN and Security Infrastructure - The security infrastructure is provided
by IT assist. As this is a multi-layer approach covering the whole of
NICS, it would not be feasible to break the costs down to provide a
separate figure for the Police Ombudsman’s Office. 

Wifi  - annual cost circa £1,200.

Please confirm your data centre switching and security infrastructure and
have you deployed cloud based security and threat management

This information is not held by the Police Ombudsman’s Office but may be
available from the contract providers - IT Assist, Enterprise Shared
Services, NICS.

Organisation

How many employees do you have overall within your organisation?

159 including agency staff.

Can you provide contact details for your procurement lead / category
manager for these services?

Tel. 028 9082 8600, email [Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland request email]

Can you provide names and contact details for the following people within
your organisation?

• CIO / IT Director – not applicable

• Head of IT – Tel. 028 9082 8600, email [Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland request email]

• Head of Digital Transformation – not applicable

• Head of Customer services – not applicable

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