IT estates of 17 County Councils have ballooned to £28m, a Freedom of Information request from Maintel has revealed

15th October 2021

by Maintel

– Last year, local councils spent nearly £30m on IT

– Laptops purchased by Somerset Council alone increased 212% between 2019 and 2020

LONDON, UK, 15th October 2021, A Freedom of Information (FOI) request from Maintel, the leader in cloud and managed communication services, revealed, the IT estates of the 17 County Councils which responded are worth £28 million. They collectively own 65,033 laptops, 4,077 tablets and 37,612 mobiles.

The spend is likely to have been associated with these County Council’s purchasing equipment so that staff can work remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to do so in the new hybrid model operated by many says Maintel. 

East Sussex council provides an indication of the pressure some County Councils were under at the start of the pandemic to keep staff online. The number of laptops purchased by the council increased 212% year on year with 3,358 in 2020, up from 1,075 in 2019.

While Somerset Council purchased approximately 2100 Samsung A20e mobile devices over the last 18 months. Between May and August 2020, the council issued 159 Surface Laptop 3s and 161 Surface Pro 7 laptops.

Councils have a duty to provide the best service for their constituents. Staff, therefore, need the right setup so that they continue their jobs to the best of their ability – that means the right collaboration tools, headsets and the right phone systems in place so that staff can collaborate and easily pick-up calls, even when they’re at home.

Dan Davies, CTO at Maintel, said: “These stats reveal that many councils had to rush out and purchase mobile devices and laptops at the beginning of the pandemic. The reason for this is simple, with people forced to work from home councils, like businesses in the corporate world, had to take steps to ensure operations could continue.

“The IT estate for councils in the UK has now swelled massively. And, with hybrid working set to stay for the long-term, it could grow even further – with councils needing to provide staff with the right tools to continue their work.

“It is great to see county councils equipping their staff with the technology they need to operate in the hybrid future. However, as the councils embrace digital transformation, they must ensure that their cyber security practices keep pace.”

The figures were uncovered following a series of Freedom of Information requests from Maintel. It asked 42 County Councils in the England and Wales.

17 councils responded, to the FOI request, with the remaining councils saying that they were unable to disclose figures citing a number of reasons, such as it would exceed the appropriate limit as defined by the FOI and Data Protection Regulations 2004 or the information is held externally by a managed ICT partnership.

ENDS

About Maintel

Maintel is a cloud and managed services company with a focus on communications. Its people are experienced, trusted technology advisors, who improve their clients’ organisations through digital transformation.  

Founded in 1991, Maintel has a proven track record of delivering communications solutions and services to both the private and public sector. In that time, the company has gained the expertise to solve the challenges associated with digital initiatives, and its managed services approach ensures clients realise the full value of their technology.    

This is achieved by specialising in three key pillars of digital transformation: making organisations more effective, efficient, and collaborative with digital workplace solutions; allowing organisations to acquire, develop, and retain more business by using technology to create more meaningful customer experiences through outstanding service; ensuring organisations’ employees, customers, and partners always have seamless access to their data and applications through reliable, secure connectivity.  

Ongoing growth of Maintel’s cloud and managed services offerings continues to allow the company to keep supporting the increasing demands of the market.  

Please visit www.maintel.co.uk for more information.   

For more information please contact:  

Dominic Cox 

LEWIS Communications   

Tel: (+44) 020 7802 2626   

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