Dear Philip Mansfield,

Information Access Request - Information Request DMBCIR:36257
Description : Communications Systems and Technology

I acknowledge your request for information received on 2024-10-21
13:39:00.

Your request is being considered and you will receive the information
requested within the statutory timescale of 20 working days (Freedom of
Information Act 2000/Environmental Information Regulations) or 1 month
from receipt (Data Protection access requests).

For your information, the Acts and Regulations define a number of
exemptions which may prevent release of the information you have
requested. There will be an assessment and if any of the exemption
categories apply then the information may not be released. In some
circumstances the decision to release information, or not, will be based
on a public interest test. You will be advised of any considerations,
subsequent decisions and your rights of appeal.

If the information you request contains reference to a third party then
they may be consulted prior to a decision being taken on whether or not to
release the information to you. You will be informed if this is the case,
including your rights of appeal.

Unless otherwise requested the information may be provided in electronic
format, paper copy, normal font size. If you require alternative formats,
e.g. language, audio, large print, etc. then please let me know.

There may be a fee payable for this information. This will be considered
and you will be informed if a fee is payable. In this event the fee must
be paid before the information is processed and released. The time limit
for responses is suspended until receipt of the payment.

If you have any queries or concerns then please contact the Information
Governance Officer at Dudley MBC, The Council House, Dudley, West
Midlands, DY1 1HF, telephone 0300 555 8283, e-mail
[Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council request email] .

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

Most of the information that we provide in response to Freedom of
Information/Environmental Information requests will be subject to
copyright protection. In most cases the copyright will be owned by Dudley
MBC. The copyright in other information may be owned by another person or
organisation, as indicated in the information itself. You are free to use
any information supplied for your own use, including for non-commercial
research purposes. The information may also be used for the purposes of
news reporting. However, any other type of re-use, for example, by
publishing the information or issuing copies to the public will require
the permission of the copyright owner.

For information where the copyright is owned by the Council details of the
conditions on re-use can be found on our website at www.dudley.gov.uk.

For information where the copyright is owned by another person or
organisation, you must apply to the copyright owner to obtain their
permission.

Yours sincerely,

The Information Governance Team
Council House
Priory Road
Dudley
West Midlands
DY1 1HF
[Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council request email]

Corporate Information Governance Team

Council House, 1 Priory Road, Dudley

DY1 1HF

Tel: (01384) 815607  Fax: (01384) 815660

Email:[Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council request email]

[1]www.dudley.gov.uk

 
Our ref: 36257 Direct Line: 01384 817851 Date: 06/11/2024

Dear Philip Mansfield,

 

Freedom Of Information Act 2000 - Information Request 36257

 

Your request for information received on 21/10/2024 has now been
considered and the information requested is held by the council. Please
see the following response.

 

Your Request and Our response is below:

 

Unfortunately, we will not be processing this part of your request:-

 

k. Please confirm value of the initial project?

l. Please confirm the value of annual support/maintenance services (in £)?

 

Under the Act you have the right to:

• Know whether we hold the information you have requested
• Be provided with that information (subject to any exemptions under the
Act which may apply).

I can confirm that Dudley Council holds the information you have
requested. However, we are refusing to release this information under the
FOI Act:

 

The exemption applied is Section 43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act,
Commercial Interest.

 

Under Section 43 (2) of the Freedom of Information Act, a public authority
may refuse to disclose information if it would, or would likely to,
prejudice the commercial interests of any person, including the public
authority holding it.

 

The public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public
interest in disclosing this information and therefore this constitutes a
partial Refusal Notice.

 

Under Section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the information
we are able to provide is detailed below.

 

Connectivity and Network Services:

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

WAN - Virgin Media – annual spend is confidential currently as an active
procurement is set to commence.

Internet - Jisc - £47k

b. Who provides your SIP trunks and what is the annual spend

SIP Trunks – Virgin Media annual spend is confidential currently as an
active procurement is set to commence

c. Who provides your WAN services, is this MPLS, SD WAN or Internet, and
what is the annual spend

WAN – Virgin Media – Dark Fibre, annual spend is confidential currently as
an active procurement is set to commence.

Short Data Circuits – BT, annual spend is confidential currently as an
active procurement is set to commence

d. Who provides your LAN infrastructure and what is your annual spend

In House via Technology Systems & Services

e. Who provides your WIFI infrastructure and what is your annual spend

In House via Technology Systems & Services

f. Please confirm the manufacturer(s) of your wired network core and edge
switching?

Cisco

g. When was your core network installed? 2014

h. Has it been updated subsequently? Yes

i. Who maintains your core network? In House

j. When is the contract renewal date? August 2025

k. Please confirm value of the initial project? Exemption applied (see
above)

l. Please confirm the value of annual support/maintenance services (in £)?
Exemption applied (see above)

 

Telephony and storage:

1. Telephony and UC/ Collaboration

a. Please confirm the manufacturer of your telephony system(s) that are
currently in place b. When is your contract renewal date? Cisco ( Aug 2025
) and Microsoft Teams ( March 2026  )

c. Who maintains your telephony system(s)? In House

d. Do you use Unified Communications or Collaboration tools , if so which
ones? Microsoft Teams

2. Microsoft

a) What Microsoft 365 licence do you have across the business e.g. E3, E5
E5

b) Which partner looks after your Microsoft tenant? ComputerCentre

c) Where do you host your applications? Do you have on-premise
infrastructure or do you host your applications in public or private
cloud? Which? Private Cloud

3. Storage

a. Does your organisation use on-premise or cloud storage or both?
On-premise

b. Please confirm the on-premise hardware manufacturer c. Please confirm
your cloud storage provider d. What is your annual spend on cloud storage?
Dell Powerstore

e. How do you back up your data and with who e.g. Backup as a Service
Networker Backup Solution

 

Contact Centre, CRM, and AI & Automation:

1. Contact Centre – target to organisations we know have a CC a. Do you
have a customer/ citizen facing contact centre? If not please skip these
questions. Yes – Voice enabled

b. Do you employ and manage your own agents, or do you outsource to a
third party? If you outsource who to? Yes – In House

c. How many contact centre agents do you have? 450

d. Do agents work from home? Or just your offices? Hybrid

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

f. When is your contract renewal date? Aug 2025

g. Who maintains your contact centre system(s)? In-House

2. CRM

a. Do you use a CRM in the contact centre? What platform is used? Granicus

b. Do you use the same CRM for the rest of the organisation? What platform
is used? No – Different Service area may use other applications like NEC

c. Do you use a knowledge base / knowledge management platform? What
platform is used? No

3. AI & Automation

a. Does your organisation have a customer or citizen facing chatbot? If
so, who provides this chatbot technology? No

b. Does your organisation utilise RPA technology? If so which RPA
technology provider do you use? Yes - BluePrism

 

If you have any queries or concerns then please contact me.

 

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your
request and wish to make a comment or complaint, or request a review of
the decision, you should write to the Freedom of Information Officer at
Dudley MBC, The Council House, Dudley, West Midlands, DY1 1HF, telephone
0300 555 2345, e-mail [2][Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council request email]. 

 

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

 

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the
ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints
procedure provided by Dudley MBC.

 

The Information Commissioner may be contacted at:

 

Information Commissioner's Office

 

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow 

Cheshire 

SK9 5AF

Telephone:   0303 123 1113

[3]www.ico.org.uk

 

Most of the information that we provide in response to Freedom of
Information Act 2000 requests will be subject to copyright protection.  In
most cases the copyright will be owned by Dudley MBC. The copyright in
other information may be owned by another person or organisation, as
indicated in the information itself. You are free to use any information
supplied for your own use, including for non-commercial research purposes.
The information may also be used for the purposes of news reporting.
However, any other type of re-use, for example, by publishing the
information or issuing copies to the public will require the permission of
the copyright owner.

 

For information where the copyright is owned by the Council details of
the conditions on re-use can be found on our website at
[4]www.dudley.gov.uk.

 

For information where the copyright is owned by another person or
organisation, you must apply to the copyright owner to obtain their
permission.

 

Yours sincerely,

Karen Bahia
Information Governance Officer

Corporate Information Governance
Finance & Legal
Dudley Council 
3-5 St James's Road, Dudley, DY1 1HZ
01384 817851
[5]www.dudley.gov.uk

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