ONS Telephony and contact centre systems information

You asked

Telephony and UC/ Collaboration:

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

When was the installation date of your telephony equipment?

When is your contract renewal date?

Who maintains your telephony system(s)?

Please confirm the value of the initial project

Please confirm the total ongoing annual spend on telephony

Please confirm the annual support cost for your telephony system

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

Contact Centre:

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

When was the installation date of your contact centre infrastructure?

When is your contract renewal date?

Who maintains your contact centre system(s)?

Please confirm value of the initial project?

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?

Do agents work from home? Or just your offices?

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

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

Connectivity and Network Services:

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

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

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

Please confirm who provides your LAN, WIFI and Security infrastructure

Please confirm your annual spend on each

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

Organisation:

How many employees do you have overall within your organisation?

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

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

•           CIO / IT Director

•           Head of IT

•           Head of Digital Transformation

•           Head of Customer services

We said

​Thank you for your request. Please see the following answers to your questions:

Telephony and UC/ Collaboration:

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

We use a Skype/Teams managed service (VOIP).

2.     When was the installation date of your telephony equipment?

We don't have 'telephony equipment'. Instead we use a VOIP and we use headsets/laptops.

3.     When is your contract renewal date?

31 March 2023

4.     Who maintains your telephony system(s)?

N/A

5.     Please confirm the value of the initial project

N/A

6.     Please confirm the total ongoing annual spend on telephony

£716,000 exc VAT. Please note, this does not include 'equipment' as the equipment is not used for telephony purposes only.

7.     Please confirm the annual support cost for your telephony system

£344,000 exc VAT. Please note, this does not include 'equipment' as the equipment is not used for telephony purposes only.

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

We use Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams.

Contact Centre:

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

We do not hold this information as this is hosted and managed by a third party.

2.     When was the installation date of your contact centre infrastructure?

We do not hold this information as this is hosted and managed by a third party.

3.     When is your contract renewal date?

29 November 2023

4.     Who maintains your contact centre system(s)?

CDW Ltd.

5.     Please confirm value of the initial project?

£452,122.00 exc VAT

6.     Please confirm the value of annual support/maintenance services (in £)? And overall annual spend for the contact centre.

£409,072.00 exc VAT

7.     How many contact centre agents do you have?

Our BDOD (Business Data Operations Division) have 300 agents. Our TO (Telephone Operations) have 200 and SEL (Survey Enquiry Line) have 24.

8.     Do agents work from home? Or just your offices?

Yes, our agents work from home at present owing to the COVID-19 emergency.

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

We do not use this.

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

We do not use this.

Connectivity and Network Services:

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

WAN:

BT. Our annual spend is £479,072.00 exc VAT.

Internet connectivity:

High-Speed Office (4X ISP). Our annual spend is £80,350.00 exc VAT.

2.     Have you, or do you plan to, deploy SD Wan services?

We do not.

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

We do not. We use a managed telephony service.

4.     Please confirm who provides your LAN, WIFI and Security infrastructure?

5.     Please confirm your annual spend on each.

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

We are unable to provide you with specific information relating to our security tools, infrastructure and configurations. This knowledge could provide insights into our level of protection and therefore aid anyone wishing to launch an attack on our systems and cloud service provision. The information requested is exempted under Section 31(1)(a) of the FOIA - the prevention or detection of crime.

The use of this exemption is subject to a public interest test.  

Whilst we note there are public interest arguments in favour of transparency and disclosure, these are outweighed by other public interest factors that are in favour of non-disclosure. Principally we consider that release of the information requested would prejudice our ability to maintain and run a secure and safe technical security services. This is an essential function for all government departments and is particularly important for ONS which processes personal and economic information on its systems.

Organisation:

1.     How many employees do you have overall within your organisation?

The first, labelled H/C is an overall headcount of the number of ONS employees as at February 2021, which is the most recent figure available. The second figure, labelled FTE, is the full-time equivalent number, which translates to the total hours worked by part-time employees into the number of equivalent full-time employees.

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

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

•           CIO / IT Director

•           Head of IT

•           Head of Digital Transformation

•           Head of Customer services

The information requested for Qs 2 and 3 has been withheld from disclosure in accordance with Section 40 (2) of the FOIA, as this is personal information.