Taunton Deane Borough Council Selects hSo To Support Business Growth & Economic Development

28 February 2017, London, UK. Taunton Deane Borough Council (TDBC) has appointed network services provider hSo (HighSpeed Office Ltd) to connect a new site to its main office in Taunton, a few months after starting work on the new base for the council’s Direct Labour Organisation (DLO).

Since the publication of its Core Strategy in 2011, the authority has been heavily promoting economic development in the Borough, encouraging growth through a number of infrastructure projects, including the new home of the DLO, business park Westpark 26. Relocating the DLO is one of the many strategic changes undertaken by TDBC to improve the operational efficiency of its staff.

With the 160-strong team being moved to the new business park located in Wellington by the end of the year, TDBC needed reliable connectivity between its main office in Deane House, Taunton and the new Depot where the DLO team will be based. As a result they first issued a tender for point-to-point connectivity.

However hSo, one of the few SMEs to be appointed to the one year old Network Services Framework (RM1045), understood that sustainable economic growth was central to this vision and that a resilient MPLS network would be the perfect future-proof solution for the council to grow.

Other sites will indeed need to be connected to the main office at some point and faster speeds will be required to improve the experience of its constituents.

Fiona Kirkham, Head of IT at TDBC said:

“We were not expecting the solution to be so affordable when we received our tender offer response from hSo. We have other MPLS circuits elsewhere already but did not issue a tender specifically for an MPLS solution as we knew it could quickly turn out expensive. hSo’s response was not only the most suitable one for use in the future but was more cost-effective than all the other bidders.”

hSo illustrated the many advantages of building such a future-proof network, including Quality of Service (QoS), which means the council can expect a better utilization of bandwidth. This will allow the council to implement cloud-based services in 2017 - such as VoIP technology - and to connect to other neighbouring authorities, ultimately saving them significant sums of money. This highly affordable solution will help the authority carry on with its core strategy whilst keeping costs low.

Kirkham added:

“hSo showed that they could offer much more than what we were originally looking for. Not only did they offer a solution that initially met our requirements, they understood our needs, current and future, and explained how their solution could ease the transition to improved inter-site communication. This combination of flexibility, competitive pricing and scalability was enough for TDBC to assign that project to hSo.”

Chris Evans, MD at hSo said:

“By implementing this robust MPLS network, we’re giving TDBC the opportunity to bring their vision to life and develop the attraction of the area for businesses and residents alike. Taunton Deane has a lot to offer and a resilient MPLS network is one step closer to sustainable and equitable growth.” 

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