If you want to provide networked services to the public sector, you need to understand the Public Services Network. Virgin Media Business’s Marcus Hill is on hand to help...
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“Public sector organisations will be encouraged to use approved suppliers – so you need to work out how to become one of them.”
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As cuts bite across the public sector, the Cabinet Office is aiming to cut £500m a year from a total Government IT spend of £16.5bn. A big part of that cost saving is going to be delivered by the Public Services Network – so if you do business in the public sector, you need to understand what it means for you.
What is the Public Services Network?
The Public Services Network, or PSN, is a key part of the Government’s IT strategy aiming to drive down the overall cost of public sector IT. Historically services have been provided by a small number of large incumbent suppliers, with departments and agencies awarding contracts and choosing among these suppliers more or less independently. This led to situations like departments who shared a building having separate network infrastructure, purchased from different suppliers. Not the most efficient way of organising things.
So the Government wants to make it easier for public sector organisations to share infrastructure and services. To this end, it’s set up two procurement frameworks, conveniently named PSN 1 (for networks) and PSN 2 (for services). Public sector organisations will be encouraged to use approved suppliers – so you need to work out how to become one of them.
Companies can bid to supply networking directly to the public sector (under PSN 1) or to supply services using their own or another provider’s network (under PSN 2).
If you’re planning to bid for PSN 2 approved status and the key determiner of your success is service or application delivery, you need a partner who can support the quality that your customers demand. Virgin Media Business’s low latency network fits the bill perfectly.
Virgin Media Business and the PSN
We recognise the significance of this change, so we’ve gone out of our way to be PSN-ready. We believe that if you do business in the public sector – or if you want to in the future – Virgin Media Business should be your partner of choice.
That’s a big statement, but look at why we can make it:
- We were the first supplier to be awarded PSN security accreditation, and the first Government Conveyance Network Service Provider (GCNSP) too. In other words, we’re the very first service provider able to make the theory of PSN a reality for public sector organisations.
- We’ve made strategic investments in our own network and governance systems, achieving NGN 2-2-4 compliance for our nationwide network.
- We’re already working on projects such as the London Grid for Learning, a consortium of all 33 London authorities that will transform the delivery of services to schools all over London.
- We have the UK’s largest all-fibre network – and the second largest network of any kind – reaching more than 85% of UK businesses. So not only do we have bandwidth to spare, but we can offer true carrier diversity across the UK.
If you want to pick our brains about the PSN and what it means for your business, drop your account manager a line.
